Ouch! The last thing the Ravens need is to lose their best slot cornerback to an injury suffered in a non-contact drill in early June.
Second-year Ravens cornerback Tavon Young
suffered a torn ACL during Thursday’s Organized Team Activities (OTAs), the team confirmed. Ravens media writer Ryan Mink was there and described the incident:
“Young leaped into the air to make an interception without any contact. When he got up to run, his knee buckled and he went down to the turf.
“Young stayed down for a while and had to be helped off the field by trainers. It didn’t look good at the outset, and the worst was later confirmed.”
“He bumped into a player. There wasn’t much contact at all,” Head Coach John Harbaugh said immediately after practice. “We’ll see how his knee is.”
Tavon Young is probably out for the season.
A smallish (5-8, 175) fourth-round rookie out of Temple in 2016, he started 11 games last season and made 53 tackles, eight pass defenses and two interceptions. He was slated to move inside to his more natural nickel position this year after the Ravens signedBrandon Carr and draftedMarlon Humphrey in the first round. The Ravens felt Young could blossom as their nickel corner this season.
“As [General Manager] Ozzie [Newsome] says all the time, you need to build as much depth into your roster as you can, because injuries are going to happen,” Harbaugh said. Maurice Canady stepped in for Young after he went down, and made three interceptions in practice drills. He also had a diving pick last week.
Humphrey told reporters Thursday that he has played some nickel corner in practice at Alabama, but never in a game. The Ravens could also turn to veteran Lardarius Webb, who had a lot of experience at nickel and shined there once early in his career. Baltimore also has young options in Robertson Daniel and undrafted rookies Jaylen Hill and Carlos Davis (injured). The Ravens also still have veteran Kyle Arrington on the roster, but he hasn’t been at OTAs after being placed on injured reserve before last season began.
Meanwhile the Ravens got more bad news—WR/KR Michael Campanaro is hurt again. This time it’s a sprained toe, which hopefully is not the precursor to the dreaded “turf toe” injury, which could keep Campanaro on the DL for a very long time.
Moving on to more optimistic news:
- Wide receiver Breshad Perriman
continued his streak of strong practices. He made a long catch early on in practice, then blew by Humphrey in the final 11-on-11 drills of the day for what would have been a quick, long touchdown. - Running back Danny Woodhead had a strong day and was frequently targeted by Flacco. Woodhead hauled in a one-handed catch early, and showed his quickness and elusiveness throughout practice. He’ll be used in a variety of ways.
- Kamalei Correa had a nice read on one play and burst into the backfield for what would’ve been a big tackle for loss on an outside run with Kenneth Dixon. Second-year linebackerMatthew Judon is also all over the field, and made a nice read on a dump-off pass to Woodhead.
- Second-year running back Kenneth Dixon continues to impress with his quickness.
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