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Will injuries destroy the Ravens season again?

By: on Monday, August 14, 2017 · Leave a Comment 

In 2015 the Ravens had placed 22 players on injured reserve by the season’s end. The team went only 5-11 and finished with their highest draft pick they’ve had in over a decade. The lack of success wasn’t necessarily because of a lack of team chemistry or a lack of talent; it was because of bad luck causing the team to fall apart.

Already, it appears 2017 might be another year just like that. It is only mid-August, and the Ravens have already lost nine players, seven to injuries, one to a suspension and another to an unexpected retirement. Another guy is still weeks away from returning from an injury, and that happens to be their starting quarterback Joe Flacco.

Here is a time line of the Ravens’ misfortunes this summer:

June 1 – CB Tavon Young suffers a torn ACL in OTAs.

June 2 – TE Dennis Pitta suffers another hip injury and announced his retirement from football.

June 30 – TE Darren Waller is suspended for the entire 2017 season for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy.

July 26 – RB Kenneth Dixon tears his ACL and is ruled out for the entire 2017 season. QB Joe Flacco announced to have disc injury in his back, expected to miss at least the preseason.

July 27 – OL John Urschel retires from the NFL following the newly released CTE studies.

July 28 – TE Crockett Gilmore injuries his knee and is waived after being ruled out for the season.

August 1 – OG Nico Siragusa tears his ACL, MCL, and PCL and is ruled out for the 2017 season.

August 11 – OG Alex Lewis (shoulder) and WR Tim White (thumb) both undergo season-ending surgeries.

With the way these injuries have come, the question might not be “what are the Ravens going to do next?” it might be “who’s next?”

The Ravens have brought in Austin Howard to help out on the offensive line, which is a good start, but nobody on the Ravens can be confident if they have to start Ryan Mallet. The team may say Flacco should be ready to start the regular season, but Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome and head coach John Harbaugh have to be distressed about their 32-year-old quarterback who has already had one reconstructive knee surgery before, especially considering how terrible Mallett looked against Washington in the team’s first preseason game.

Even with all of these players having gone down with injuries, the Ravens still have most of their big pieces, especially on the defensive side. That side of the ball looks like it can be great with all the talent they have, and because of that, they can still compete for a division title in a division without any clear favorites. But they can only do that if they stop the bleeding.

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Cory Hughes

Growing up in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, Cory grew up with a love of football. But believe it or not, it did not start because of Tom Brady or Bill Belichick. It started with guys like Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and Terrell Suggs. He's probably the only person in the New England area that doesn't have a Tom Brady jersey in his closet. As an adolescent Cory played every sport that was available to him. He was the starting Defensive End on his Pop Warner A Team and had with sacks. Cory was also the starting center for his middle school basketball team that won a league championship with an undefeated season. However, after not growing more than two inches in high school, he decided to drop basketball and pick up wrestling. His sophomore year while wrestling, MMA started to grow and the big fight everybody was talking about was Quentin 'Rampage' Jackson vs. Chuck Liddell. Watching Jackson's slams, he was hooked to MMA and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Not long after he started training in that as well. In just over two years he got his blue belt in martial arts. So it's a great mix of sports that he loves and that eventually sparked his interest in sports journalism.

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