Lamar Jackson Returns in Buffalo — Can He Outduel Josh Allen Again?
Jackson is back after a three-game ankle absence, walking straight into a 5-1 Bills buzzsaw and the NFL's No. 1 fantasy QB on Sunday.
Elite ceiling and rushing floor outweigh rust and a tough road draw.
- Jackson returns after missing 3 games with ankle injury
- Allen: our NFL QB1, 169 PPR pts in 6 games (2026)
- Jackson: 81 PPR pts in 4 games before injury (2026)
- Huntley went 1-2 as fill-in starter
- Bills -3 at home; Ravens sit 4th in AFC North
Lamar Jackson is back. The Ravens quarterback returns Sunday at Highmark Stadium after a three-game ankle absence, and he's walking into one of the hardest matchups on the board: a 5-1 Bills team and Josh Allen, who sits as our No. 1 fantasy QB with 169 PPR points through six games this season (2026). Buffalo opened as a 3-point home favorite, and it's not hard to see why — Baltimore limps in at 4-3, buried in fourth place in a division the Browns somehow lead.
Before the injury, Jackson was cooking: 3-1 as a starter with a 70.8 completion percentage, six touchdowns and one pick, worth 81 PPR points across four games (2026). That's QB18 pace in our ranks, dragged down mostly by missed time. Tyler Huntley held the fort at 1-2 with four scores and no interceptions, but the Ravens lost two straight — including a 35-13 beating in Cincinnati — and squandered double-digit halftime leads in both.
The Allen Problem
On the other sideline, Allen is doing Allen things. Nine passing touchdowns, zero interceptions, plus a monster 240 rushing yards and eight rushing scores already this season (2026). He's QB1 overall in our model and the engine of the league's highest-scoring offense. The one crack: his last five games sit 3.3 fantasy points below his season average, and Buffalo's giveaway problem is real for a team that otherwise scores at will.
The history here is a genre of its own. Jackson is 3-2 against Allen in the regular season, but Allen owns the playoff ledger at 2-0, and the all-time series is dead even at 7-7. Jackson's done damage against Buffalo before — 678 yards and eight touchdowns across five meetings — so the ceiling is there even on the road.
The Fantasy Takeaway
Start Jackson, full stop. Rust and a tough draw are real concerns, but his rushing floor and the extra motivation after sitting three weeks make him a top-12 play even in a projected shootout. Allen stays a locked-in QB1 every week — the mild recent dip is noise, not a trend. And Huntley? He slides right back to the waiver wire now that the starter's healthy; there's no streaming case left. Expect a close one, which usually means plenty of garbage-time-proof production from both passers.
