Rich Weighs In on the Ravens Having to Start 3rd-String QB Joe Fagnano vs the Jaguars in WK9

Rich did not plan to lead the show with the Ravens. He also wanted to be clear that the quarter zip he was wearing was not purple, and was not an attempt to give Baltimore the hug it needs. The studio confirmed: blue.

But the news demanded it. Lamar Jackson had thumb surgery on his throwing hand and is out what Adam Schefter is calling indefinitely. And Tyler "Snoop" Huntley, the backup, appears to be done for the season with a turf toe injury. That leaves the Ravens with their third-string quarterback, Joe Fagnano out of UConn.

Rich traced how quickly the season turned. Going in, the AFC talk was Bills, Ravens, Chiefs, maybe the Broncos, and the Patriots defending their AFC title. Baltimore's season "started so brilliantly in Indianapolis," then took hits in the fourth quarter of Week 2 at home against the Saints and in the second half of Week 7 at home against Cincinnati. Now, Rich said, "to be straight up with you," the Super Bowl hopes have headed into the dustbin, unless Fagnano becomes another "American underdog."

Rich's advice for the new starter: protect your thumb and your toes. "You got to look at the head and the shoulders and the knees as well," he cracked. But, he added, "one never knows, does one?" It doesn't help confidence, though, when Zay Flowers, arguably the best offensive player on the team, didn't get a single catch in Buffalo.

Fagnano called the opportunity "special." "You work a lot to get into this position," he said. "It's unfortunate to see what happened to Lamar and Snoop," two players he said he has looked up to since joining the Ravens and who have helped him a ton. "It's truly next man up mentality, and my job now is just to play to the best of my ability."

Head coach Jesse Minter now has to find the silver lining in going to a third-string quarterback who has never made a career start, on a short week, on a Thursday night, for a team at .500 while everybody else in the division is above .500. Minter praised Fagnano as a guy who waited around, stayed on top of his work and took advantage of his opportunity. "He's like a cool, calm, collected, doesn't really get rattled, has a really good demeanor, played in a bunch of games in college," Minter said. He liked how the operation ran with Fagnano in the preseason, from the play clock to penalties to substitutions.

The studio dug into the résumé. Fagnano is from Williamsport, home of the Little League. He played at Maine before UConn. And he went 1-1 in the Fenway Bowl, which led one voice to note that he has "more postseason wins in Fenway than the Red Sox past few years." The room called that unnecessary. "I'm just spitting facts over here," came the reply.

Rich also floated an idea Chris raised: maybe Baltimore should call the Cardinals about Jacoby Brissett, who appears to be sitting at third string, possibly inactive. "He could be had," came the agreement.

The schedule doesn't offer much relief. After Jacksonville comes a Monday nighter against the Chargers, which Rich dubbed "the Fagnano v. Herbert matchup that nobody saw coming." Then trips to Carolina and Houston, a bye, and four division games to finish. Rich still doesn't know when there will be more definitive news on Lamar.

What stings most is the timing. The Ravens lost two in a row with Lamar out, waited three weeks for him to come back, and "the minute he gets back he breaks his thumb." Someone in the studio compared it to Scatman Crothers in "The Shining," traveling all that way just to get an axe in the chest. "It just feels like a horror movie for the Ravens right now," Rich said.

He hopes he's wrong. He hopes Fagnano balls out against Jacksonville. But Rich warned that the Jaguars are a team that "eviscerates a squad that makes mistakes." If the Ravens win, the studio agreed, "it would be something."