OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens will certainly miss J.K. Dobbins, who was placed on season-ending injured reserve with a serious knee injury on Monday.
You can’t just shrug your shoulders over losing the 2020 second-round pick, who averaged 6.0 yards per carry to lead all NFL running backs last season. His outside rushing ability brought a new wrinkle and a higher ceiling for what’s been a record-setting rushing attack for the better part of three years. Dobbins was critical to Baltimore winning its final five games to qualify for the playoffs last season, and a Pro Bowl campaign didn’t seem to be out of the question in his first full year as the starter.
“He was so prepared, and he was so ready to go this year,” said head coach John Harbaugh, who expressed no doubt about Dobbins returning to full strength for 2022. “He was so excited to go, and he was such a big part of our plans. Like any injury, which happened and will happen, throughout the course of the NFL and different teams, you just have to approach it and overcome it.
“It’s adversity. We’ll have to deal with it, and we will. We have the players to do it.”
As disappointed as the Ravens are about losing the talented 22-year-old, there’s no reason for panic. Dobbins would be the first to tell you that a significant reason for his success as a rookie was star quarterback Lamar Jackson, whose mere presence and threat to run puts great stress on the opposing defense on every play. It’s why the Ravens went from having one of the league’s worst rushing attacks to the best the moment Jackson became the starting quarterback midway through the 2018 season. Losing Dobbins may require offensive coordinator Greg Roman to adjust the plays he calls after pivoting to so many edge runs when the former Ohio State standout played a more prominent role down the stretch last season. But it’s not as though expectations for the running game are markedly lower now.
Harbaugh expressed confidence that the remaining running backs on the roster are ready to “pick up the load,” and that begins with Gus Edwards, who has rushed for at least 700 yards and averaged more than 5.0 yards per carry over his first three seasons. There aren’t too many teams with a second option of that quality in the backfield, so it will be interesting to see what the 6-foot-1, 238-pound Edwards can do with a bigger workload after carrying no more than 144 times in each of his first three seasons. Of course, that doesn’t mean Edwards will suddenly become a 250-plus-carry back.
“I’m excited. Gus has handled big parts of the workload ever since he’s been here,” said Harbaugh, who anticipates the Ravens activating three running backs for games and carrying one or two others on the practice squad. “The way we run our offense, we want to roll backs. We want to play multiple backs. We have a lot of carries; those guys do a lot in the offense. It’s not like there’s going to be one running back that takes all the reps for us.”
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Harbaugh didn’t dismiss the possibility of an outside addition at the position with so many players becoming available around the league over the next few days, but he made clear that second-year running back Ty’Son Williams will very much be in the game-day mix after spending his rookie season on the practice squad. The BYU product took full advantage of Justice Hill’s ankle injury this summer to put himself in strong position for the No. 3 job even before Dobbins went down, rushing for 130 yard and a touchdown on 24 carries in the preseason.
Williams going from being a perceived long shot to a roster lock and potential No. 2 back before final cuts is quite a story.
“You do the math — he’s there. He’ll be out there playing, and he’ll be doing it,” Harbaugh said. “Obviously, he’s ready to go. He’s practiced every day, and he’s excited about his opportunity. He’s practiced every day, and he’s excited about his opportunity.”
For now, the expectation is that Hill will make the 53-man roster as the third running back, but that is dependent on both his health and what other backs might become available before the start of the season. Rookie Nate McCrary is also on the preseason roster and ran for 163 yards and a touchdown on 42 carries this summer.
