In late January, at the last practice of their 2023 season, the Ravens looked like a healthy team. Only a handful of regular contributors were on injured reserve. Just one player on their 53-man roster was considered doubtful for their AFC championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Three were questionable. Everyone was practicing.

But not all available players are healthy players. After 18 games over five months, the Ravens were hurting. “Just because it’s not on the injury report,” cornerback Brandon Stephens said recently, “doesn’t mean you’re not dealing with something.”

Quarterback Lamar Jackson later said his legs were not “good,” limiting his movement in the loss to Kansas City. Right tackle Morgan Moses and safety Marcus Williams were playing through torn pectoral muscles. Right guard Kevin Zeitler’s knee and quadriceps were ailing. Tight end Mark Andrews hadn’t fully recovered from the ankle injury that nearly ended his season. Cornerback Marlon Humphrey’s nagging lower-body injuries would linger into June.

A year later, as the streaking Ravens steel themselves for another postseason run, they are no longer Super Bowl favorites. But their injury reports might be even more flattering, and just as important. These Ravens are, by one measure, perhaps the NFL’s healthiest team heading into Saturday’s regular-season finale against the Cleveland Browns.

Just don’t say it too loudly around Owings Mills.

“Don’t jinx it,” Jackson said last week, cutting off a reporter as he began to ask about the Ravens’ health. “Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Don’t say it. You don’t want to jinx it, don’t say it.”

Finally, he relented, breathing a sigh of relief. “It’s like it’s finally — I don’t want to jinx it, either, you know? — like it’s finally happening. Things are starting to connect at the right time for us. Like you said, guys just being injury-free at the end of the season. That’s great for us. ... We just got to stay healthy and keep doing what we doing.”

As injuries have reshaped the top of the NFC and the AFC North, the Ravens have kept good health. According to Sports Info Solutions, they entered this past weekend having lost just 33 “Total Points” because of injury, the fewest in the NFL. (The figure is calculated by accounting for the number of games lost to injury as well as players’ value over their previous 17 games.) The beleaguered Detroit Lions, meanwhile, had lost a league-worst 158 Total Points.

The Ravens haven’t avoided the injury bug entirely; 12 players have been placed on injured reserve, equaling last year’s total. But the team’s biggest pieces haven’t really been bitten. The Ravens’ most notable IR casualties have been their top returner (Deonte Harty), a reserve tight end (Charlie Kolar, who returned to practice Monday), a reserve defensive lineman (Michael Pierce, who has since returned) and two reserve cornerbacks (Arthur Maulet and Jalyn Armour-Davis).

Even after a three-games-in-11-days stretch, the Ravens’ so-called injury risks have proven durable. Jackson, a front-runner for his third NFL Most Valuable Player award, hasn’t missed a snap because of injury this season. Left tackle Ronnie Stanley has played every game. So have Andrews and Humphrey. Left guard Patrick Mekari has set a career high in snaps. Wide receiver Rashod Bateman has missed just one half, an absence he followed by scoring a career-high two touchdowns in his next game.

“I’m not sure what each guy individually does, but from my own eyes and from my own perspective, I think that guys really come in and take care of their bodies,” Bateman said. “I think the training staff has done a good job of preparing us for the season. … I think most guys are just, overall, taking care of themselves, eating right, lifting. I think God is on our side as well.”

The Ravens haven’t always been so fortunate. Their 2021 team lost running backs J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards and Justice Hill to season-ending injuries in an 11-day span in the preseason. In the regular season, injuries and a COVID-19 outbreak reduced the defense at one point to a “Squid Game” punch line from coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale. According to the now-defunct analytics website Football Outsiders, no team had ever suffered more “adjusted games lost” to injuries and illness in a single season.

This year, the Ravens have benefited from the vagaries of player health more often than not — especially lately. Since returning from their bye in Week 15, they’ve faced the New York Giants’ third- and fourth-string quarterbacks and depleted secondary; a Pittsburgh Steelers team missing top wide receiver George Pickens and several defensive starters; and a Houston Texans offense reeling from the loss of receiver Tank Dell, who’d gone up for a touchdown the week before and come down with a dislocated knee and torn ACL.

“That’s part of the game, unfortunately,” rookie right tackle Roger Rosengarten said. “You can take the best amount of recovery for yourself and get the most amount of sleep, drink a lot of water and maximize everything that you can to be as healthy as you can be going into games, and then, unfortunately, some stuff will happen.”

“We had a year where a whole bunch of weird stuff happened, but you can’t think about that,” said linebacker Malik Harrison, who was a second-year player on that 2021 Ravens team. “You think about that, and you’ll be a little timid and you’re not going to play how you want to play.”

Injury prevention and rehabilitation, players said, are collective efforts. The Ravens’ strength and conditioning program, led by coordinator Scott Elliott, has earned high marks, along with their athletic training staff, headed by Adrian Dixon, and attention to nutrition, which Sarah Snyder oversees. Coach John Harbaugh is also flexible with practice and game workloads.

But much of the Ravens’ most important work is done away from the facility. Many players get regular massages during the week; inside linebacker Roquan Smith even manages to squeeze in a few hours of film study with his sessions. Defensive lineman Brent Urban, a 10-year veteran, has his own tried-and-true recovery methods involving stretching, saunas and cold tubs. Rosengarten said that after he got drafted, he invested “a bunch of money” into various therapeutic devices he keeps at home, including air compression boots.

“I think everybody in here understands that it’s a long season,” Harrison said. “So I think we just put more attention to detail to prevent those injuries later in the year.”

The results were obvious as the Ravens returned to practice this week. Of their five players missing Monday, only two — rookie running back Rasheen Ali (hip) and Armour-Davis (hamstring) — were sidelined by injuries. Stanley, Mekari and Hill were all ill, according to Harbaugh.

In Cleveland, meanwhile, the spiraling Browns are preparing for the worst at the end of a bruising season. Their Week 1 starting quarterback, Deshaun Watson, is on season-ending IR. His backup, Jameis Winston, is dealing with a shoulder injury. Winston’s replacement, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, has struggled mightily in his two starts. Which means journeyman Bailey Zappe could lead one of the NFL’s most depleted teams into battle Saturday against one of the NFL’s deepest teams.

“I do think a lot of work has gone into it,” Harbaugh said Monday of the Ravens’ good health. “You have to give the players a lot of credit, too, for the work they’ve put in, and then all of the people involved in that have done a great job, but it’s definitely fueled our success, for sure. It’s something that’s a big deal in the National Football League. So we’re happy with it, but hopefully, we can keep it going here.”

Baltimore Banner reporter Giana Han contributed to this article.