(Updated 8:15 p.m.)
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens suffered their biggest scare of training camp to date Tuesday with starting cornerback Nate Wiggins being carted off the field with an apparent left leg injury.
Less than an hour into the late-morning practice, Wiggins went to the ground at the end of a one-on-one rep in which he was covering rookie wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane, who was running a deep sideline route. The two appeared to get their feet tangled up, and Wiggins immediately grabbed his left leg and was in obvious pain upon going to the ground. He stayed down for a few minutes before being helped to a cart that took him inside the team’s training facility.
Though head coach Jesse Minter didn’t provide many details after practice as Wiggins was still being examined, an NFL Network report later indicated the talented defensive back avoided structural damage, which was good news with the season opener at Indianapolis still a month away.
“I think there’s optimism, but we’ll look at it and see where it’s at,” said Minter, who added that he was unsure whether it was a knee injury. “It’s one of those plays [where] it was really not much between the two guys in the play. Whether it was hitting the ground or whatever it was, we’ll see what it looks like.”
Unlike Saturday’s scare to two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Zay Flowers that proved to be just a thigh contusion, the lack of initial details reflected greater concern and uncertainty with Wiggins, a former first-round pick entering his third season. With four-time Pro Bowl selection Marlon Humphrey coming off the worst season of his career and entering the final year of his contract, Baltimore is counting on Wiggins — who’s a couple weeks shy of his 23rd birthday — to cement himself as the No. 1 cornerback moving forward.
Though a long-term injury to Wiggins would have been a major blow to the secondary, Minter expressed confidence in a cornerback room that includes veterans Humphrey and Chidobe Awuzie as well as less-proven young options such as T.J. Tampa, Keyon Martin, Chandler Rivers, Bilhal Kone, and Robert Longerbeam.
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“Those guys have played a ton of football [and] have played at a really high level,” said Minter about Humphrey and Awuzie specifically. “We’ve got some young guys battling for trust and spots. I feel really good about the secondary overall.”
Wiggins started all 17 games last season, intercepting three passes and registering 76 tackles and 14 passes defensed. The 6-foot-1, 182-pound defensive back also made six starts and appeared in 15 games as a rookie, registering an interception returned for a touchdown, a forced fumble, and 13 passes defensed.
Flowers returned to practice on a limited basis Tuesday after sitting out just one practice with the aforementioned thigh issue. Starting defensive tackle Travis Jones (pectoral) also practiced for the first time in training camp after being activated from the physically unable to perform list.
Players missing from Tuesday’s workout included wide receivers Rashod Bateman and Dayton Wade, running back Rasheen Ali, quarterback Skylar Thompson, linebacker Carl Jones, and safety Jahquez Robinson. With Jones doing limited practice work on Tuesday, inside linebacker Teddye Buchanan (knee) is now the lone player remaining on the PUP list.
“The next week or two, I think he’ll be making some real progress,” said Minter about Buchanan, who is recovering from a torn ACL suffered last December. “We’ll start to look out there at times and have all the guys that may be available on Sept. 13. This dude has been incredible in how he’s attacked coming off the injury that he’s come off of. And it’s our job to make sure that when we put him into the football environment, he’s ready and he doesn’t have any setbacks off of that.”
