Ravens QB Lamar Jackson's status for Week 18 not yet decided - ESPN

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Monday that he hasn't made a decision on whether NFL MVP favorite Lamar Jackson will start Saturday against the Pittsburgh Steelers, which has no ramifications for Baltimore.

The Ravens clinched the AFC North title as well as the AFC's No. 1 seed in Sunday's 56-19 win over the Miami Dolphins.

«We've got to kind of work through the injury part of it first,» Harbaugh said. «That'll take us probably 24 to 48 hours to get a real handle on that and then we'll make those decisions. We're not going to keep it a secret. We'll let you know what we're going to do once we start practicing [on Wednesday].»

If Jackson doesn't play, he would have at least a 19-day break in between games. Baltimore would play host to a divisional round game on Jan. 20 or 21.

The last time the Ravens faced this scenario of resting starters was 2019, when Baltimore was the AFC's top seed. Harbaugh chose to sit Jackson and six other starters in the regular season finale that year.

After that long layoff in 2019, Baltimore looked rusty in a 28-12 upset loss to the Tennessee Titans in the divisional round. The Ravens were held to a season-low in points, and Jackson was 31-of-59 (52.5%) for 365 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions.

«It's a different team, different circumstances, different everything except for the record was about the same and the bye,» Harbaugh said. «I remember the experience and the choices we made [in 2019], but the decisions we made, we made for certain reasons. We thought they were the right decisions.

»What impacted how in terms of us not playing our best football that day, it's really hard to say what the cause and effect was. We didn't go out there and we didn't do it. And that's