After injury-riddled season, Baltimore Ravens to try ‘shorter,’ ‘more execution-oriented’ offseason practices
The Ravens are changing the practice structure for the offseason spring workouts and training camp after a season in which Baltimore placed 25 players on injured reserve. On Monday, Ravens coach John Harbaugh called limiting injuries “priority one, for sure.”
“We think we have some really good ideas, and I’m excited about it,” Harbaugh told reporters at the NFL league meetings. “We’re going to approach OTAs [offseason training activities] differently. We’re going to approach training camp, some big-picture schedule differently in terms of the way we ramp and in terms of the way we time practices, how long we’re on the field and what we’re doing on the field and how we pace the rhythm of the practices.”
Harbaugh mentioned that every third practice at training camp will be different than a typical one.
“It’ll be a little bit shorter, a little more execution oriented, less competitive type of practice,” Harbaugh said. “Even our practices will go less ones against ones [starters against starters] than we have done in the past. Things like that, I think, will help us.”
Last summer, the Ravens endured a stretch when five players, including three running backs, suffered season-ending injuries over 19 days. Other notable players — wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown (hamstring), cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey (groin) and Jimmy Smith (ankle) and guard Kevin Zeitler (foot) — were sidelined for a combined 93 days during training camp before returning.
According to Football Outsiders, the Ravens had an NFL-worst 191.2 adjusted games lost because of injuries last season.
Harbaugh said the Ravens’ extensive research into the injuries didn’t provide any definitive answers.
“I don’t know if we’ve reached any conclusions about why the injuries happened,” Harbaugh said. “Nobody has those conclusions. We’ve listened. We’ve seen all the studies. We talked to all the NFL people. All the studies they’re doing. There are really no answers that you can definitively, ‘This is the cause and the effect.’ But we’ve looked at everything we’ve done.”