The Baltimore Ravens are having one amazing season so far. They have put the best down on some of the best teams in the NFL, with their recent victims beings the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers. This team is leading the NFL in major stat categories on the offensive and defensive side of the ball and have looked absolutely unstoppable in recent weeks leading into the post season.
They have already locked up the 1 seed in the AFC and have secured everything they need for the playoff run, so with that being said, this week 18 matchup coming up is “meaningless” to a certain extent for the Ravens.
There is a question however, of whether or not the Ravens should play their starters in a game that does not mean anything for playoff seeding. You definitely do not want to risk any injuries to the top players, or any players for that matter. At the same time if you sit the starters then that means they will not play for almost 21 days straight, and that could be an issue for the playoffs.
Baltimore Ravens Deciding To Start Or Sit Starters
As of today, it is still up in the air on whether or not the starters will play or be rested for the post season. The key here is that they also have the bye that comes with the 1 seed, so if they rest this week and next week the starters will not play for almost three weeks.
Head coach John Harbaugh met with the media and was quite candid about what the team is going to do even though he has no answers yet. He was quoted in his press conference saying:
“We have to work through the injury part of it first. That’ll take us probably 24-48 hours to get a real handle on that, and then we’ll make those decisions on that,” Harbaugh said to reporters Monday, via a team transcript. “We’re not going to keep it a secret. We’ll let you know what we’re going to do once we start practicing.”
Harbaugh is not trying to keep anything secret it seems, but rather he is weighing the options and seeing what will be the best option for post season success. We should get the answer within the upcoming days leading up to the final regular season week of football on the season.
While you never want to risk injury in a game that doesn’t count, you also don’t want your players to be rusty and go into the playoffs having not played for three weeks. So this is the decision they are mulling over, and it would make sense to see the starters for a few series on both sides of the ball before resting everyone for playoffs.
This is a team that has not proved themselves in the playoffs yet, and as a team you want to do everything with the intention of post season success.
