One day before the Baltimore Ravens’ NFL preseason opener against the Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday, the Jesse Minter-led team lost an experienced offensive tackle. This development comes as a coincidental domino in the aftermath of the Ravens initially losing OT Hakeem Adeniji earlier this month.
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Adeniji retired from the NFL on August 2, just eight days after signing with the team on July 25. He cited ‘personal reasons’ for his retirement. Credit where it is due, the Ravens management were quick to fill the void left by the 28-year-old. Head coach Jesse Minter promised a ‘quick’ effort, and they signed Kendall Lamm within two days of the unexpected happening, only to have history repeat itself in the same fortnight.
11 days after joining the Ravens, Lamm too announced his retirement. On Friday, NFL insider Ari Meirov broke the news of his retirement in a post on X, but couldn’t provide a reason behind the 34-year-old’s decision. However, considering his injury concerns since 2024, Lamm’s retirement decision isn’t entirely a shock.
While playing for the Miami Dolphins in 2024, he injured his back towards the end of the season, which required surgery in the offseason. In January 2025, he was placed on injury reserve and, in an Instagram post, revealed his plight.
“I have a disc in my left side and my back that’s bulging into one of my nerves that’s causing my entire left side to go numb,” Lamm said (as quoted by NJ.com). “It has been one of the more trying things to try to sleep at night. It’s been one of the more trying things trying to walk even that Sunday morning before the game, like I could barely feel certain things in my left side.”
This situation led to Lamm considering retirement in the offseason before the Philadelphia Eagles gave him a lease of life with a one-year deal. Unfortunately, the team released him in August as part of roster cuts. But the Dolphins welcomed him back, where he played 13 of 17 games, missing the rest due to injury concerns.
With the Ravens this year, the 34-year-old backup OT was supposed to provide valuable experience behind starters Ronnie Stanley and Roger Rosengarten, but he leaves without playing a preseason game.
Jesse Minter and the Ravens had already envisioned a spot for Lamm as the third-team LT behind Ronnie Stanley and Carson Vinson ahead of the preseason opener against the Philadelphia Eagles. But that decision will now require rethinking.
Ravens’ expected lineup versus the Eagles ft. exclusions
Earlier this week, the Baltimore Ravens released an unofficial depth chart for Saturday’s Eagles matchup, which will kick off at 7:00 p.m. at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Among the experienced players like QB Lamar Jackson, RB Derrick Henry, WR Zay Flowers, TE Mark Andrews, MLB Roquan Smith, and DB Kyle Hamilton, not all are expected to take the field.
First-year coach Jesse Minter elaborated on this in an interaction with the media on Tuesday.
“I would say some established players [will] not [be] playing in this first game,” Minter said (via the Baltimore Sun). “[It’s a] good opportunity for a lot of the guys. It’s an individual basis, I would say, based on maybe some of the experience and how many snaps they’ve played. Lamar is not going to play.”
Jackson, who hasn’t played a preseason game since August 2021, is the only healthy player that Minter has explicitly ruled out, and Tyler Huntley should take his place as the offensive lead. Meanwhile, Henry and Andrews, with a combined two decades of experience, also won’t need time on the pitch.
On the injury prevention side, Flowers is expected to be protected after suffering a minor quad contusion in practice. If his fellow WR Rashod Bateman is also rested, young guns Ja’Kobi Lane and Devontez Walker will step up. QB Skylar Thompson has been placed on IR, and Teddye Buchanan is already on the Physically Unable to Perform list.
On the defensive side, experienced players like Roquan Smith and Marlon Humphrey could sit out, potentially making way for Jay Higgins IV and T.J. Tampa JR.
Kendall Lamm played as an experienced defensive depth piece for the Dolphins and would have done the same for the Ravens. But the chances for him to play would have been slimmer, considering starters Ronnie Stanley and Roger Rosengarten are healthy. Moreover, the Ravens also have younger talent in the pipeline, including Carson Vinson, Diego Pounds, and Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan.
It is difficult to see where Lamm would have fit in the squad in the long-term. Age catching up, in addition to the aftermath of the injury, doesn’t seem like a recipe the Ravens would have been interested in beyond a full season. Retirement might just have been a matter of time.