Not many people expected the Baltimore Ravens to have the same number of wins on the season as the Cleveland Browns heading into Week 7, but Baltimore’s 2025 campaign has been an unmitigated disaster so far.
A blown Week 1 game against the Buffalo Bills set the tone, and thanks to a variety of problems, including devastating injuries to some of their most important players, the Ravens are just 1-5 through six games.
However, there is a blueprint that they can follow to save their season. Let’s build a three-step plan for the Ravens to make the playoffs for a fourth year in a row.
Step 1: Get Lamar Jackson back
Jackson is far from the Ravens’ only injury concern, as they have been one of the more injury-riddled teams in all of football this season. However, if there’s one player who absolutely needs to be available for the team to have a chance at a turnaround, it’s Jackson.
The good news is that he is expected to make his return to the field soon after he sat out Baltimore’s last two games. Ravens head coach John Harbaugh has gone on record as saying that the expectation is for Jackson to suit up in their next game, which will be against the Chicago Bears on Oct. 26. Baltimore has a bye this weekend.
Jackson has a career 71-27 regular-season record as the Ravens’ starting signal-caller, and with them having scored just 13 points over their last two games combined without him, a healthy version of Jackson is what their offense needs to get back to respectability.
It’s well established that the 28-year-old is a game-changer on the offensive end with his ability to gain yardage both on the ground and through the air. An MVP when at his best, Jackson is the all-time NFL leader in passer rating, and on the ground, he frequently approaches or exceeds 1,000 rushing yards per season.
Step 2: Hope for ineptitude in the AFC North, including a Pittsburgh Steelers regression
The Ravens’ best hope of making the playoffs may be to win a weak AFC North division as opposed to nabbing a wild card spot. The Steelers appear to be the biggest and perhaps only real threats to Baltimore in the division.
Cleveland is once again a bottom-feeder team with a 1-5 record, and the 3-4 Cincinnati Bengals are expected to be without quarterback Joe Burrow for a while, though they may have some new life with veteran Joe Flacco.
The Steelers are the only AFC North team with a record above .500, but a loss on Thursday helped cut into their lead for the best record in the division.
How the teams in the division fare for the remainder of the season will be largely out of the Ravens’ hands, but they can certainly do their part to make life tough on their divisional rivals.
Baltimore still has five more games against AFC North teams on its schedule, including two against the Steelers this season. One matchup is scheduled for Week 14, the other for Week 18. Those two games late in the season could have massive implications on how the standings shake out in the division.
The Ravens need to take advantage and hand rival AFC North squads as many losses as possible the rest of the way while also hoping that some other teams around the NFL do their part to help the cause.
Step 3: Go 8-3 over the remaining 11 games while earning key tiebreakers
In terms of difficultly, the final 11 games of the Ravens’ schedule are a mixed bag. On one hand, they have one game left to play against the Browns, one against the 1-5 Miami Dolphins and another against the winless New York Jets. But on the other hand, several of their remaining opponents currently own records above the .500 mark.
In order for the Ravens to go 8-3 over the remainder of the campaign, it will require a combination of taking care of business against inferior teams and beating some formidable opponents. It won’t be easy, but with a healthy Jackson leading the offense, it’s certainly doable.
If the Ravens were to win eight of their last 11 games — and grab the divisional tiebreaker over Pittsburgh in the process — they would simply need the Steelers to go 5-6 the rest of the way. This would put Baltimore at the top of the division by the season’s end with both teams at 9-8.
Of course, this assumes that neither the Browns nor Bengals will win enough games to complicate the race, something that will have to be monitored.
As slim as some people think the Ravens’ playoff chances are at this juncture, they could very well secure a berth (and divisional title) if some stars align.
