Yanda, McClain on PUP list, J. Jones on non-football injury list to start camp

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Having kicked off their 2013 training camp with rookies, quarterbacks, and injured veterans reporting to Owings Mills on Sunday, the Ravens announced they’ve placed Pro Bowl guard Marshal Yanda and inside linebacker Jameel McClain on the physically unable to perform list.
The use of the active PUP list is a common occurrence for any player with a preexisting injury from the offseason, and both Yanda and McClain were considered likely candidates for the designation at the beginning of the summer. Yanda is recovering from offseason shoulder surgery while McClain continues to work his way back to full strength from the season-ending spinal cord contusion he suffered last December.
Yanda missed mandatory minicamp back in the spring as coach John Harbaugh said the offensive lineman could be limited at the start of training camp. However, there is little concern that the seventh-year guard won’t be ready to go long before the start of the regular season.
McClain continues to make strong progress but is at the mercy of doctors for medical clearance. Both the Ravens and McClain have expressed countless times that they expect him to be cleared to play again, and the veteran linebacker did individual work during spring practices.
A more surprising move came in the form of the Ravens placing wide receiver Jacoby Jones on the non-football injury list. That designation can be used for any player suffering an injury away from the team’s training facility or for those who fail the conditioning test upon reporting to camp. Those individuals remain on the non-football injury list until they can pass, which then clears them to begin practicing.
According to The Sun, Jones did indeed fail the team’s conditioning test, but no official word has come from the Ravens about it.
Jones missed the early portion of the offseason training program due to his participation on “Dancing With the Stars” but returned to take part in spring workouts and mandatory minicamp without any health concerns.
The Ravens did not make any formal announcements regarding the status of a number of other notable veterans including cornerback Lardarius Webb (ACL surgery), defensive tackles Haloti Ngata (sprained MCL) and Terrence Cody (hip surgery), and linebackers Arthur Brown (sports hernia surgery) and Albert McClellan (shoulder surgery).
Center Antoine McClain missed organized team activites and minicamp after undergoing foot surgery and is another candidate for the designation.
Baltimore also announced that rookie defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore (ACL surgery) was placed on the non-football injury list, but that wasn’t a surprise as his status remains up in the air for the 2013 season after he suffered a serious knee injury in the BCS title game as a member of the Notre Dame defensive line in January.
The Ravens also waived rookie wide receiver Omarius Hines on Monday.
Players placed on either the active PUP list or the non-football injury list still count against the 90-man roster limit but may be removed at any time to begin practicing. These lists are often confused with the reserve versions on which a player can be placed before the start of the regular season that removes him from the 53-man roster but sidelines him for at least the first six weeks of the season.
Here is the more technical descriptions of the designation:
Once they are designated as physically unable to perform, they are prohibited from practicing with the team. They can, however, rehabilitate individually and participate in team meetings. If a player begins training camp on the PUP list, they can be moved to the active roster at any time, even after one practice. A player is not allowed to be placed on the PUP list if they start training camp on the active roster.
If a player beginning the season on active PUP would then come off to participate in a practice and suffer a new injury or re-injure a preexisting condition, he would no longer be eligible for the PUP list in either capacity.
Any player who begins training camp without any designation but injures himself in even the first practice of the summer is ineligible for the PUP list.
To put it simply, the active PUP list is the necessary procedure for potentially placing any player on the reserve PUP list in which he’d miss the start of the regular season. With most players, this doesn’t even come close to happening and they’re able to return to the practice field at some point during the early portion of training camp.