The wait is almost over.
We are officially inside 48 hours until the Ravens kick off the 2026 season in Indianapolis, and Friday gave us our final batch of news before Jesse Minter coaches his first real game in Baltimore.
We got an answer on Nnamdi Madubuike. We got the final injury report. And over in Indianapolis, the Colts are heading into week 1 pretty damn healthy.
Let’s get into it.
Nnamdi Madubuike Won’t Play
We finally have an answer on Nnamdi Madubuike.
He won’t play Sunday against the Colts. It’s a letdown, but not necessarily a surprise.
Jesse Minter confirmed Friday that the Ravens are going to give Madubuike at least one more week as he works his way back from the neck injury that ended his 2025 season after just two games.
The good news is that it sounds like he’s damn close.
“He is really, really close.”
Madubuike returned to team drills last week and has been ramping things up since. He’s taking contact, working against double teams and getting pass-rush reps. Minter said Friday that the Ravens feel “great” about where he is physically.
They just aren’t going to push it.
And honestly, why would they?
This is a guy coming back from a neck injury that cost him basically all of last season. The Ravens kept him off IR when they set the 53, so they clearly thought there was a chance he’d be back early in the season. Week 1 was just a little too soon.
So Baltimore will go into Indianapolis without its best interior defensive lineman.
Travis Jones, Calais Campbell and Broderick Washington will handle most of the work inside, with John Jenkins and rookie Aeneas Peebles also in the mix.
The biggest concern is how much the Colts want to push the ball to the edge with inside and outside zone concepts. We know what Jones and Campbell can do, but Madubuike’s lateral quickness would have been a big boost in this matchup.
This is a big spot for Washington to show he can be a run stopper, and if Peebles gets a look, he certainly has the athletic skillset to help counter what the Colts want to do on the ground.
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