The Baltimore Ravens practice on Thursday, September 9th, 2021, only three days before their first regular season game of the 2021 – 2022 NFL season ended in extremely terrible news for this AFC North powerhouse club, as the team suffered a season-ending injury. The Baltimore Ravens were without two of their most important starting players for the entire season, both of whom suffered ACL tears. Gus Edwards, the Baltimore Ravens’ starting running back, and veteran Pro Bowl cornerback Marcus Peters both suffered ACL tears during the same practice session, and miraculously, they suffered identical season-ending injuries just a few plays apart last Thursday, adding to the team’s already depleted 53-man roster.
Over the space of roughly 12 days, the Baltimore Ravens have tragically lost three of its top running backs to season-ending lower body injuries, thus terminating their season. On Thursday, September 2nd, 2021, Justice Hill suffered an Achilles tendon rupture. On August 28th, 2021 running back J. K. Dobbins suffered an ACL tear while playing for the Baltimore Ravens in their third and final preseason game.
After losing their three most productive running backs to injury for the season, you may be wondering who will be carrying the ball for the Baltimore Ravens on Sundays this season. At this point, the answer is Ty’Son Williams, a practice squad player from the previous year’s team. Besides Trenton Cannon, the Baltimore Ravens also have Le’Veon Bell on their practice squad, who is also a part of the Ravens’ regular season roster.
For the time being, those three running backs in Williams, Bell, and Cannon will have to step up their game in order to keep the Baltimore Ravens’ run game going until the organization’s front office makes moves to add more running backs to help fill the void left by the injuries to Hill, Dobbins, and Edwards. At the very least, Le’Veon has extensive NFL experience and has had considerable success with other NFL teams, like the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the New York Jets, among others.
Coach John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens seems to be excited about the potential of Ty’Son, who was initially an undrafted rookie out of Brigham Young University last season before being selected. Devonta Freeman, a free agency running back, is also expected to join with the Baltimore Ravens, according to reports. In order to determine which of these players has the greatest success rushing the ball against Baltimore Ravens’ opponents early in the NFL season of 2021–2022, I believe that the Baltimore Ravens will distribute carries among all of these options at first in order to determine which of those players has the greatest success rushing the ball against the Baltimore Ravens’ opponents early in the NFL season of 2021–2022.
THE OFFENSIVE APPROACH TAKEN BY THE BALTIMORE RAVENS
It has been two years since the Baltimore Ravens have been able to completely dominate their opponents via their running game. The Baltimore Ravens have led the National Football League in rushing the past two seasons, and the team has been the only one in the league to call designed run plays more than half of the time during that period. A large part of this can be attributed to Lamar Jackson, the Baltimore Ravens’ dynamic young quarterback who is known for taking off on foot and moving the ball downfield with his legs, whether on pre-planned run plays called for him or on impromptu scrambles, which he has been known to employ quite frequently for the Baltimore Ravens’ offensive attack.
Running backs are a dime a dozen in the National Football League these days, which is why the vast majority of NFL franchises are wary of signing any running backs to large or long-term contracts, particularly those that include guaranteed money, because the running back position on most NFL teams is a highly interchangeable position that is frequently treated as a revolving door.
DAMAGE DONE TO MARCUS PETERS AND THE REPLACEMENT OF THAT PERSON
The loss of Marcus Peters, a 28-year-old great cornerback for the Baltimore Ravens, is, in my view, the most significant blow to the team’s season this season. Peters has led the NFL in interceptions with 31 picks since he first joined the league in 2015 with the Kansas City Chiefs, a team with whom he spent three seasons from 2015 to 2017. Peters spent three seasons in Kansas City with the Chiefs from 2015 to 2017. Afterwards, he went on to dominate the secondary for the Los Angeles Rams between 2018 and 2019. In exchange for him, the Rams acquired linebacker Kenny Young and a fifth-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft from the Baltimore Ravens in October of that year.
It is very difficult to replace a cornerback who is able to shut down his opponent’s top wide receiver for the duration of a football game, such as Peters, who typically does not have any difficulty doing so. In the absence of a suitable replacement for Marcus, the Baltimore Ravens have been forced to look elsewhere for a cornerback to pair with their other veteran CB, Marlon Humphrey, who will now be the Baltimore Ravens’ number one cornerback, assigned to cover their opponent’s most dangerous wide receiver threat. At the moment, the most obvious successor for Peters will be Anthony Averett, who was selected in the fourth round of the 2018 NFL Draft to fill the position.
After all, the Baltimore Ravens will play their opening game of the 2021 – 2022 NFL season on the road, against the Las Vegas Raiders, in Prime Time on Monday Night Football this coming Monday, September 17th.