Raiders' Week 2 Opponent Has Key Player Missing Practice

After the Las Vegas Raiders ' season-opening 22-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, the team now shifts its focus to the second week of the season. This coming week, the Raiders will hit the road once again to take on the Baltimore Ravens .

The Ravens are one of the better teams in the AFC, and they ended up finishing the 2023 season as the runner-up in the conference. Naturally, they'll be an extremely tough Week 2 opponent for Las Vegas.

However, in an interesting development, the Ravens' star quarterback, Lamar Jackson, wasn't at practice on Monday:

As ESPN's Jamison Hensley notes in his report, Jackson had a very physical game on Thursday. The Ravens took part in the first game of the new season for the league, losing to the defending-champion Kansas City Chiefs by a score of 27-20 in an excruciatingly close game .

Jackson ran the ball 16 times, and although he was successful on the ground, he did take a couple of hits. With Baltimore having little depth at the receiver position, their running game took over on Thursday, and Jackson was a major part of it.

16 carries is a lot for a quarterback, and if this was a normal week, Jackson missing practice could possibly be chalked up to simply giving him some more rest.

However, since the Ravens played on Thursday, they have an extra couple of days to prepare for their game against Las Vegas. With that in mind, it does seem a little strange that he missed practice on Monday, four days after their game.

Behind Jackson, Josh Johnson is next in line for Baltimore at quarterback.

Ultimately, there could be a reasonable explanation for this, and there isn't much reason to doubt Jackson's availability on Sunday. Still, it could develop into an interesting storyline, and is something to keep an eye on.

Related: Everything the Raiders Said After Their Loss to the Chargers