Ray Lewis is looking likely to miss one more game before making his return from a toe injury.
Mike Preston of the Baltimore Sun reports that the Ravens’ Week 15 game against the Chargers on December 18 is the targeted return date for Lewis, who has missed the last three weeks amid reports that he could be done for the season.
Lewis is feeling good enough that he reportedly could play Sunday against the Colts and even could have played against the Browns last week, but the Ravens figured it was better to err on the side of caution to give Lewis enough time to heal. (Something tells me that if the Ravens were playing the Steelers rather than the Browns or Colts, Lewis would be on the field.)
Even though he wasn’t playing, Lewis made the trip to Cleveland with his teammates and went through pregame warmups and felt fine. Ravens coach John Harbaugh saw that as an excellent sign.
“He was bouncing around the field yesterday before the game,” Harbaugh said Monday. “We’re hopeful. . . . We’ve been trying the last couple of weeks. We have probably been somewhat cautious. We want to make sure he doesn’t re-injure it. We’ll just have to see how that goes this week.”
Lewis is itching to get back out there, but sidelining him for at least another week seems like the right call. What the Ravens really need is for Lewis to be 100 percent in January.