The Baltimore Ravens had one of the more injury-plagued seasons in recent memory. The team was without many players for stretches of games including Lamar Jackson, Marcus Peters, Marlon Humphrey and Tyus Bowser among others.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh refused to use injuries as an excuse for the team’s disappointing season that end with them not making the playoffs. But he acknowledged their existence.
“You can say it’s bad luck,” Harbaugh said. “You can say it’s a fluke. I get that, but I don’t feel like we have the luxury to live there. That’s not something that we can say that that’s it. We have to turn over every stone. We have to look at every possible avenue to do the best we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
A part of turning over every stone includes taking a look at their offseason program along with training camp. The Ravens will examine how they handle conditioning for players and look at things from a load management perspective during practice.
“I mean, man, we’re going to look at everything, and we’re going to change a lot. I’ve talked to a lot of our players about that, because in some ways, you don’t change for change’s sake, but sometimes, you have to make changes in the way you do things,” Harbaugh explained.
Jackson’s injury towards the end of the season was a backbreaker for Baltimore. The Ravens were 7-5 when Jackson injured his ankle causing him to miss the next five games. The team finished with an 8-9 record.
Initially, the Ravens hoped for the best with Jackson’s injury, which was said to have been a bone bruise. However, Harbaugh admitted it was an unpredictable injury.
“Lamar felt like he was going to be back. The first week, he thought he had a chance. The second week, he assured me, he said, ‘I’ll be back. I’ll be back.’ He worked really hard at getting back, but it just didn’t really heal,” Harbaugh said on Monday, January 30, 2022. “It was in a spot where I’ve come to understand from the medical people that there’s not a great deal of blood flow down there in the low-ankle/foot area where the bruise was. It just didn’t heal very quickly, and it was painful. You could see it. He stayed in the boot longer than we thought. He was still limping, even at the end of the season— even in his boot.”
The offseason is only three weeks old for the Ravens. The rest has done Jackson well. Jackson told Harbaugh that he is getting better and feels confident that he’ll be able to get started on his training for next season.
The plan is to get back to work the day after the Super Bowl. That’s great news for the Ravens.
