The Ravens still aren’t giving up much in public, but the tea leaves are getting easier to read. Based on how Jesse Minter and Eric DeCosta have handled three key injury situations, it sounds like Nnamdi Madubuike, Teddy Buchanan and Ethan Pocic are all headed for delayed returns rather than immediate Week 1 roles.
Madubuike, who had major neck surgery in April, looks like the most obvious case. Buchanan is coming back from late-season ACL surgery, and Pocic is working back from a late-season Achilles tear. The Ravens have left the door open for Pocic longer than the others, but even there, they still have not fully committed to him as the Week 1 starter.
DeCosta and Minter spoke to reporters late Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, before the team left for the holiday weekend. Baltimore won’t be back on the practice field until Tuesday, and with only a handful of real practices before a shorter session next Friday and then the trip to Indianapolis on Saturday, the clock is ticking.
For Madubuike, the main point has never really been opening night. The bigger goal was getting him back at all this season after an injury that put his career in doubt early last year. The Ravens need him to help push the defense back to an elite level, and they need him available when the games matter most.
“I’m going to let you in on a secret - this has never been really about Week 1. It was more about sometime in the first month of the season, and the fact they avoided an Injured Reserve - Designated to Return stint (which would keep him out until Week 5) was the sole focus and they checked that box.”
Minter kept it vague when asked about Madubuike, saying, “He’s been in few team reps and done some things,” and then adding, “What that looks like for Week 1, I think that’s still a day-to-day thing, I would say, to his credit. We’ve wanted this to be a really smart and proactive approach to get him ready to pay football … with the surgery he went through. We feel good about it today.”
DeCosta also noted that Baltimore kept more interior defensive linemen than usual, saying, “We had a few guys with some injuries,” and then, “Did that factor into us keeping six linemen? Probably did in some respects.”
That extra caution makes sense given how little Madubuike has been challenged in practice so far. Two more strong weeks would make a Week 2 return feel a lot more realistic.
Pocic’s situation is a little different, but the uncertainty is just as loud. The Ravens signed him to be their center as soon as he was ready, and they clearly knew they did not have another option on the roster they wanted snapping to Lamar Jackson in Week 1. Still, his late-summer work has not produced enough confidence for anyone to announce him as the starter.
That hesitation has kept open the possibility of Jovaughn Gwyn, a special-teams player with 11 career offensive snaps, handling the job. The Ravens also lost the backup they preferred, Danny Pinter, who is on IR.
Minter tried to keep the language broad, saying, “I think when we come back after this break we’ll probably be pretty close to that,” and later, “We’ll look at things over this break and talk it through … I feel confident that we’ll go into game week with that pecking order - for Week 1.”
He also said of Pocic, “He’s been in some reps as well,” before adding, “We’ll kind of get a feel for it over the next week, whether that’s Week 1, Week 2, whatever that might be.”
The preseason offered another clue. Pocic didn’t do anything in those games, which pointed toward a longer ramp-up once the season starts. Baltimore has also made changes to its training and medical setup, and the team appears ready to be extra careful with players who came off the Physically Unable to Perform list later in the summer.
That same caution seems to apply to Buchanan. Minter said, “He’s been in few team reps and done some things,” and then, “What that looks like for Week 1, I think that’s still a day-to-day thing.”
For now, the best read is that Baltimore is aiming for patience, not urgency. Minter does not love discussing injuries, and he tends to stay guarded when the subject comes up. But when the wording stays this soft this close to the opener, it usually means the earliest date is not the one the team is truly targeting.
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