Well, for starters, John isn't a doctor, and he pretty much stopped giving injury updates after the first week or two he missed. Because he can't predict anything.
That's kind of how injuries work. They thought Stanley was coming back a year before he actually did. They thought Bateman's injury wasn't that serious either. The biggest mistake isn't thinking that Lamar wasn't hurt. The biggest mistake is the franchise continuously being too optimistic about injuries, and saying anything at all. As I've said before, if it were up to me, injury designations would work exactly like the NHL. Upper body injury, lower body injury, out indefinitely. Would be the info I'd tell everybody for every injury. Could be a week, could be 2 years. It doesn't matter.
I'd put it like this... IF Lamar could have played, and didn't, the franchise 100% knows if that's true or not, because the team doctor would have cleared him to play. And if that's the case, not only do I think the Ravens would have publicly said that, I think they would be actively looking to trade him, because he wouldn't have the kind of qualities you'd want from a franchise QB you'd commit that kind of $ to.