The Baltimore Ravens officially managed to clinch the top seed in the AFC in Week 17 when they demolished the Miami Dolphins 56-19, setting up a contest against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 18 that is meaningless for them. Despite that, head coach John Harbaugh could opt to play starting quarterback Lamar Jackson in this one in an effort to prevent him from getting too rusty.

The dilemma with locking up the one seed early comes with some added question marks, because you have a bye week during the wild card round, and immediately move on to the divisional round of play. The initial move that makes sense for most folks is to not risk any sort of injury and rest your starters, but with the game quickly creeping up since it will be played on Saturday, Harbaugh admitted he still doesn't know what the team will do with Jackson.

“We've got to kind of work through the injury part of it first. 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].” – John Harbaugh, ESPN

Should the Ravens start Lamar Jackson in Week 18?

Lamar Jackson

The arguments for both sides make sense, as the Ravens don't want to risk any sort of injury with Jackson, but they also don't want him to have too much time off from live-game action. The comforts of being the one seed can doom teams sometimes, and if Baltimore gets too complacent with Jackson, it could haunt them when they actually have to go out and win games again in order to advance.

Typically, teams err towards the side of caution with these decisions, and if starters do play, it's typically for a half at most before they take a seat on the sidelines and let the bench players get some reps. Given the upcoming bye week the Ravens have, that strategy may make the most sense, but until Harbaugh makes his decision, everyone will anxiously be waiting to hear what his plan is.