OTA injuries reflect poorly on strength staff

Dennis Pitta’s career very well may be done if it proves that he dislocated and fractured his hip for a third time in four years.

Maybe at this point, the Ravens need to take a deep, hard look at their strength and conditioning staff and process. While Dennis Pitta has dealt with an injury to his hip for quite some time and has missed about two full seasons because of it, the number of injuries the Ravens have been suffering over the past few seasons is cause for concern. Even more worrisome is the number of severe injuries happening in non-contact drills during OTAs.

In back-to-back days in the second week of the team’s OTAs the Ravens lost cornerback Tavon Young for the season with a torn ACL and now fear the worst with another injury to Pitta’s same hip that has been devastatingly injured before. If is believed that Pitta’s career is probably over after suffering a third injury to the same hip.

Michael Campanaro was also injured. Again, these are all in non-contact drills. In 2015, first round draft pick Breshad Perriman suffered what proved to be a season-ending injury in OTAs.

When factoring in the terrible injury history of players like Campanaro, Jimmy Smith, Lorenzo Taliaferro, Max Williams, Crockett Gillmore, Benjamin Watson, it might be time to look at what is really going on.

And it’s not just a worry about a handful of injury-prone players. Each of the past four seasons the Ravens have had to deal with a litany of injuries. In 2015, the secondary was so beat up they had to start guys they signed off the street. The offensive line never seems to be able to hold three of the same starters throughout the entire season anymore. Last year third round draft pick Bronson Kaufusi was on injured reserve from the first day of training camp, second round draft pick Kamalei Correa joined him on injured not too long later. Willie Henry also dealt the injuries. Carl Davis and Brent Urban have dealt with serious injuries that have prevented them from getting on the field much either. Former project defensive lineman DeAngelo Tyson showed promise but had his run with the team ended because of injuries.

It seems just a bit too coincidental that so many defensive linemen and tight ends and defensive backs and receivers just keep getting hurt.

Football is a violent game, and the hard crashing of 200 and 250-plus pound men running into each other at full speed is going to weaken player’s bodies. Maybe guys have to keep their bodies in better shape in the offseason to be able to better endure simple running and falling on the grass early this year.

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Corey Johns

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You could say Corey was born to become a sports journalist. His father won a national championship coaching college soccer. His mother is a baseball fanatic who hasn't missed seeing an Orioles game since 1983 (literally, sometimes it's annoying). His great uncle was a big-time boxing promoter and his maternal grandfather was once a department head at the Baltimore Sun. Basically, sports and journalism run through his blood. He played just about every little league sports there was when he was a kid and was a multi-sport athlete in high school; even playing in the first-ever high school sanction Rugby game in the country. Eventually he retired from sports as an undefeated Maryland state Rugby champion as a high school senior. Perhaps lack of athletic talent has more to do with the retirement, but he will tell you that it more had to do with a great desire to jump right into media. Upon his graduation from University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a triple communications major, Corey started the So Much Sports network and has continued to grow his websites and continues to work to make them premier sports media outlets.

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