The Baltimore Ravens dealt with a plethora of injuries during the 2020 season. The team saw Tavon Young, Ronnie Stanley, Nick Boyle and others go down with ailments, and hope to not have that kind of injury luck in 2021. However, through two days of voluntary organized team activities, Baltimore has already seen a few players have to leave practice.
The biggest name that was pulled from practice on Wednesday was wide receiver Rashod Bateman. While head coach John Harbaugh made it clear that there was no actual injury, he said that the team wanted to be cautious with their first round selection, especially after he participated in rookie minicamp a few weeks ago.
Coach Harbaugh provides injury updates: pic.twitter.com/TIgc7UKiAV
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) May 26, 2021
Harbaugh also mentioned Patrick Ricard, who was off to the side and not practicing, but says he expects him back soon. The worst injury of the day was suffered by undrafted rookie free agent Xavier Kelly. The defensive tackle was carted off of the field with an injury which Daniel Oyefusi of The Baltimore Sun described as one where he couldn’t put any weight on his left leg.
Undrafted rookie DL Xavier Kelly was also carted off early in practice. Couldn’t put any weight on his left leg. https://t.co/rVTUr7tJo9
— Daniel Oyefusi (@DanielOyefusi) May 26, 2021
It seems like the Ravens have gotten out of the first two days of OTAs relatively unscathed, but the injury to Kelly and the scare with Bateman won’t do much in easing worries about whether injuries will run rampant in Baltimore during the 2021 season. The important thing to remember is that Bateman doesn’t have an actual injury. The team is just taking precautionary measures, which is extremely smart to do, especially with a rookie who hasn’t had a lot of time off to recover his body.
Injuries are a part of football. Each team has to go through losing talented players every single year. Hopefully the 2021 season will be nicer to the Ravens from an injury perspective, but it’s good to see the team taking precautionary measures with one of their top picks from the 2021 draft in hopes of avoiding a more serious issue.
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