Paid Advertisement

Elliott goes down with latest season-ending injury in Ravens secondary

Paid Advertisement

Podcast Audio Vault

Paid Advertisement

OWINGS MILLS, Md. โ€” The injury hits to the Ravens secondary keep on coming.
A week after starting safety Tony Jefferson suffered a torn ACL, reserve safety DeShon Elliott sustained a knee injury against Cincinnati thatโ€™s expected to sideline him for the rest of the season. The second-year defensive back hurt his left knee in a collision with teammate Justin Bethel on a deep pass intended for Bengals wide receiver Alex Erickson late in the fourth quarter.
โ€œItโ€™s just way worse than we thought it was going to be โ€” that the doctors thought after the game,โ€ head coach John Harbaugh said. โ€œThatโ€™s preliminary, but it sounded like they were pretty confident that it wasnโ€™t good. Weโ€™ll go with that until further notice, and thatโ€™s where weโ€™re at. Weโ€™ll have to find a replacement there and move forward.โ€
A 2018 sixth-round pick out of Texas, Elliott had just stepped into a larger role as the top backup behind starters Earl Thomas and Chuck Clark, playing a career-high 27 defensive snaps and finishing with one tackle and a pass breakup in the 23-17 win. The 22-year-old missed his entire rookie season with a fractured forearm and turned heads with his play during spring and summer practices.
With the Ravens revamping the inside linebacker position over the last two weeks and playing without starter Patrick Onwuasor against Cincinnati, defensive coordinator Wink Martindale frequently used sub packages that didnโ€™t include any traditional inside linebackers as Elliott entered at safety and Clark played in the box. Elliottโ€™s injury leaves Baltimore with only one healthy reserve safety โ€” dime back Anthony Levine โ€” behind Thomas and Clark, making an outside addition likely. Safety A.J. Howard was signed to the practice squad last week, but the Appalachian State product hasnโ€™t appeared in an NFL game after going undrafted last year.
The Ravens began the regular season with six safeties on the 53-man roster before losing veteran reserve Brynden Trawick (elbow), Jefferson, and now Elliott. Cornerback Maurice Canady also left Sundayโ€™s game with a hamstring issue, which forced Bethel โ€” almost exclusively a special-teams player โ€” into fourth-quarter action against the Bengals.
โ€œI donโ€™t know to what degree,โ€ said Harbaugh about Canadyโ€™s hamstring injury. โ€œIโ€™d say heโ€™s probably day-to-day. Weโ€™ll see how he does Wednesday, Thursday.โ€
It remains unclear when cornerback Jimmy Smith will return to practice after missing his fifth straight game with a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his right knee. The Ravens lost slot cornerback Tavon Young to a season-ending neck injury and rookie corner Iman Marshall to a toe injury in August, but the latter remains eligible to return later this season.
Harbaugh was noncommittal about the Week 7 availability of Onwuasor and top wide receiver Marquise Brown, who both missed Sundayโ€™s game with right ankle injuries suffered against Pittsburgh. The two remain โ€œday-to-dayโ€ after missing practices all last week.
โ€œIf we see them practicing as the week goes on, weโ€™ll be confident that they can play,โ€ Harbaugh said. โ€œIf we donโ€™t, then we wonโ€™t. They both have ankles that theyโ€™re dealing with, and those things just kind of heal when they heal.
โ€œThey had a chance [to play Sunday]; I was told that they had a chance for the game. After Friday, it didnโ€™t look as good. They just didnโ€™t feel that they were there, and they werenโ€™t.โ€
After this Sundayโ€™s game at Seattle, the Ravens will welcome their Week 8 bye to try to get healthy for a challenging second-half schedule.

Share the Post:

Paid Advertisement

Right Now in Baltimore

Raising standard on the path to sobriety and wellness for those battling addiction at Hygea

Robby Stempler, local founder of Hygea Healthcare, shared his journey from addiction to recovery and his mission to combat substance abuse in Baltimore. Struggling with Vicodin addiction a decade ago, he saw the need for better comprehensive addiction treatment andโ€ฆ

My good walk of deep admiration and sportswriting on the brink with John Feinstein

John Feinstein and I had an awkwardly weird and beautiful friendship that had been strengthened by deep conversation and mutual respect over the last two decades since we somehow found ourselves in Brian Billickโ€™s coaching office after games in stadiaโ€ฆ

Swinging for the fence after they moved the wall in

With baseball season ready to pitch into the fun, John Martin of RThe Maryland Lottery gets Nestor ready for Home Run Riches and 162 games where local folks will be swinging for the fences and hoping for more grand slams.

Paid Advertisement

Verified by MonsterInsights