Are the Ravens bracing for the loss of Jamal Lewis?
Not really. After first requesting a June date for his federal drug trial, and then preparing as if August was the likely target, attorneys involved in the case believe it could be as late as February before Lewis gets his day in court. The best guess is that while the federal judicial system won’t be sympathetic to Lewis’s football schedule, the court’s heavy docket means he probably won’t have his 2004 regular season interrupted by legal proceedings. The Ravens aren’t blindly counting on that scenario, but with no court date set, they are growing more optimistic that he’ll be available to them through the playoffs if need be.If Lewis does stand trialbetween now and the Super Bowl, Baltimore head coach Brian Billick has said the Ravens are far better off in terms of running back depth today than they were in 2001, when Lewis went down for the year with a training camp knee injury. “If we had Musa Smith and Chester Taylor in 2001, we might have gone back to the Super Bowl,” Billick sa
