OWINGS MILLS, Md. — A day after Derek Wolfe announced he’d undergone a second offseason hip surgery, the Ravens parted ways with the 32-year-old defensive lineman who missed the entire 2021 season.
Head coach John Harbaugh had little to say about the abrupt end to a partnership that started strong in 2020 before fizzling last year when Wolfe and the organization didn’t appear to be on the same page in regards to the severity and diagnosis of back and hip ailments that surfaced in training camp.
“We have come to an agreement on an injury settlement with Derek,” Harbaugh said following Wednesday’s minicamp practice. “So, that will be it with that.”
In a video posted to his Instagram account on Monday, Wolfe said he was hoping to “try to live a normal life” after undergoing his second hip surgery — one on each leg — since January. Wolfe posted on Twitter in March that he intended to play this season after acknowledging retirement was a possibility while speaking on a hunting podcast. The 6-foot-5, 285-pound defensive lineman was scheduled to make a reported $2 million guaranteed in base salary and carry a $3.8 million salary cap number in 2022, but it’s unclear what the injury settlement will mean from a cap standpoint or whether the Ravens were aware of Wolfe undergoing another surgery.
Signing a three-year, $12 million contract extension including $8.5 million in total guarantees last offseason, Wolfe began dealing with back and hip ailments last August and returned to practice only briefly in late October before shutting it down and remaining on injured reserve.
“Derek is going to be out for the rest of the year, in all honesty. It looks that way, so I don’t really have any details on it,” Harbaugh said last November. “I can’t say that I understand it completely. It would be a good question for our medical people or for Eric if they want to put a statement out or if Derek wants to say something because I won’t get it right exactly. But he’s not in a place where he’s going to be able to play.”
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Wolfe played his first eight seasons in Denver and was one of the unsung heroes of the 2020 Ravens, playing in 14 games and tying a career high with 51 tackles. The 6-foot-5, 285-pound lineman anchored a group that missed fellow veteran defensive linemen Calais Campbell and Brandon Williams for multiple games over the second half of the season.
The 2012 second-round pick out of Cincinnati turned in arguably his finest performance of the 2020 season in the playoff win over Tennessee, which prompted Harbaugh to label him “one of the best leaders I’ve ever seen” and the Ravens to sign him to a multiyear deal despite an extensive history of injuries with the Broncos.
“It sucks to see him go through tough times and different injuries and stuff, but it happens [and] it’s part of the game,” defensive end Calais Campbell said. “It’s just the way football is. It’s always going to be different, always going to be some change. But we had a lot of fun together, and I always will enjoy being his teammate.”
