ExtremeRavens Posted 22 hours ago Posted 22 hours ago In late July or early August during training camp, when the days are still long and temperatures still exhausting, Tyler Huntley was at home in Florida, wondering if another chance would come, and he texted John Harbaugh. The well-traveled quarterback began the summer working out on his own and thought that a reunion in Baltimore, where Huntley got his start and established himself as a serviceable backup, was possible. “I know you’re in camp, give me a call when you get a chance,” Huntley said the message read. “He called right back. I didn’t expect him to call right back. And we just went on.” Huntley later signed with Cleveland but was released — the second time in 12 months he’d been cut by the AFC North bottom feeder — in late August. Four days later, Harbaugh brought him back to Baltimore. “Relationships last forever,” Huntley said Harbaugh told him. The quarterback has been intertwined with Lamar Jackson over the past five years, almost always on call to come off the bench when the two-time Most Valuable Player can’t play. Even stints with the Browns and Miami Dolphins didn’t sever that tie. Jackson was out again Sunday, the third consecutive game the starting quarterback missed with a hamstring injury that’s been the source of so much mystery and speculation. So to cap a week mired by misplaced updates, the Ravens again called on Huntley, who gave his team stability at quarterback they haven’t had since Jackson got hurt nearly a month ago to the day in a game they needed to keep dwindling playoff hopes alive. “If it does come to fruition, you could win a football game for us, right?” Harbaugh said he told Huntley then. “It’s one of those things you could never really predict, but it’s the way things work sometimes.” Huntley completed 17 of his 22 passes for 186 yards, a touchdown and no turnovers in the win. After going three-and-out on his opening possession, Huntley led two scoring drives in the second quarter to put the Ravens ahead, 10-6, entering halftime — their first lead at the break since Week 2. Another pair of field goal drives, the second highlighted by a 29-yard scramble by Huntley, put Baltimore ahead by two scores entering the fourth quarter. He threw his first touchdown pass of the day two plays after Nate Wiggins picked off Bears quarterback Caleb Williams deep in Ravens territory. And after a field goal by Chicago cut Baltimore’s lead to seven with five minutes to play, Huntley and the offense secured five first downs before Derrick Henry scored his second score of the game to hold on. “The way Tyler prepares, nobody’s surprised,” said DeAndre Hopkins, the recipient of a 14-yard completion on a third down during that final drive. “He’s played a lot of ball. He’s been here a while. Being in the room with someone like Lamar, you watch film with someone like Lamar, you learn certain tendencies. He can make plays with his legs. Not a lot of QBs in this league can go out and make those kinds of plays that Tyler and Lamar can make.” Huntley has bounced around the NFL since his last stint in Baltimore. After starting nine games for the Ravens from 2020 to 2023, he was signed and released two separate times by the Browns but never played a regular-season game for them. Huntley started five games for Miami last season filling in for an injured Tua Tagovailoa. Then he rekindled his on-again, off-again relationship with Baltimore and slowly climbed the depth chart. “It’s hard to move around the league and have to win some games,” said Zay Flowers, Huntley’s top target who finished with seven catches for 63 yards. “I’m super impressed. He knows I got his back. Whatever he’s with, I’m with — me, him, [Jackson], we all got a good relationship.” Huntley said that he found out he’d start against Chicago on Saturday, a day of confusion surrounding Jackson. He was initially listed as a full participant in Friday’s practice, then retroactively downgraded to limited Saturday afternoon after NFL Network reported that the quarterback worked exclusively with the Ravens’ scout team Friday. By league rules, a player of Jackson’s prominence working with the scout team and not the starting offense warrants a limited designation. “Nobody’s trying to hide anything,” said Harbaugh, who added that he didn’t know the rule and that the team’s medical staff and public relations department files injury designations, not coaches. In a statement to The Baltimore Sun, an NFL spokesperson said that the league will investigate the team’s handling of the situation. After the Ravens’ loss to the Los Angeles Rams, Harbaugh said, “our quarterback is going to be back” after the bye week. Asked to clarify his supposed certainty, the coach said, “I mean, for sure? I’m saying so, but I don’t know.” Like it has so often over Jackson’s career in Baltimore, that prognostication proved wrong. Harbaugh confirmed Friday that Huntley would start against the Bears if Jackson couldn’t go, and said Sunday that the decision was actually made before the bye week. Cooper Rush, who started the previous two games in Jackson’s absence and is making $3.1 million this year, threw for a combined 303 yards with four interceptions in those contests and was replaced by Huntley in the second half against the Rams. The Ravens’ Lamar Jackson, right, congratulates teammate Tyler Huntley during Sunday's win over the Bears at M&T Bank Stadium. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff) “I felt like it was the best thing for our team and gave us the best chance to win,” Harbaugh said. “Just felt like the right thing to do. Nothing against Cooper. Great guy, played good football for us. But Tyler was the answer for today’s game.” “To be honest, we didn’t play well enough for Coop the last two weeks,” said Charlie Kolar, who caught Huntley’s lone touchdown pass. “I thought Snoop did a great job, I thought he took care of the football. He brings great energy.” Teammates say that Huntley’s personality is not far off from Jackson’s. That, along with his winding road to, from and back to Baltimore, garners respect in the locker room and aids in the transition whenever he’s called upon — better than Rush can replicate. The phone conversation that brought Huntley back was months ago now. Sunday, when Huntley backed the Ravens’ trust perhaps better than the backup ever has, was the day Harbaugh knew would eventually come. Have a news tip? Contact Taylor Lyons at tlyons@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/TaylorJLyons. View the full article Quote
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