Teddye Buchanan ACL Tear Threatens His 2026 Status

By Matt Schauf | Updated on Mon, Dec 15 2025 8:30 PM UTC

Ravens rookie LB Teddye Buchanan tore the ACL in his left knee in the first quarter of Sunday's win over the Bengals. That ends a debut season in which Buchanan quickly climbed from fourth-round behind to No. 2 LB behind Roquan Smith.

2025 Fantasy Football Impact

Third-year LB Trenton Simpson filled in for Buchanan and figures to continue doing so the rest of the way.

Simpson opened the season starting next to Smith but quickly gave way to the rookie, continuing the trend of his second season. That year also found Simpson opening as a starter but finishing with barely any snaps over the final four games (and none in the playoffs).

Simpson's not much of an IDP target the rest of the way.

Dynasty Impact

This is particularly worrisome timing for Buchanan's longer-term outlook. Although he put up a nice rookie season, it's probably too early to call him "established" within the Ravens defense.

Baltimore now hits the offseason unsure of whether he'll be ready for Week 1 of 2026, which figures to force the team to address the position further.

Exactly how the Ravens address non-edge LB should tell us more about what they think of Buchanan long term. And we'll, of course, watch his recovery timeline.

Matt Schauf, Editor

Matt has earned two Fantasy Pros accuracy awards for IDP rankings and won thousands of dollars as a player across best ball, dynasty, and high-stakes fantasy formats. He has been creating fantasy football content for more than 20 years, with work featured by Sporting News, Rotoworld, Athlon, Sirius XM, and others. He's been with Draft Sharks since 2011.