The Ravens have been clearing plenty of roster space over the past few days in the lead up to their first game in this year’s playoffs.
In the most recent roster shift, Baltimore made the decision to waive veteran running back Melvin Gordon from the 53-man roster.
Gordon signed with the Ravens in the offseason, adding running back depth for a team that had seen two starters in J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards go down with season-ending injuries in recent years.
He failed to make the 53-man roster but ended up signing to the practice squad as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option. That glass broke fairly early in the season when Dobbins suffered his second-career season-ending injury in Week 1 of the regular season.
As a result, the Ravens called Gordon up from the practice squad as a standard gameday elevation twice early in the year. The eventual emergence of undrafted rookie sensation Keaton Mitchell, pairing with Edwards, made Gordon mostly superfluous, but a season-ending ACL tear to Mitchell would continue Baltimore’s rotten luck with running back health.
With Mitchell joining Dobbins on injured reserve, Gordon was officially signed to the active roster for the last two weeks of the season, earning snaps in a blowout win over the Dolphins and a meaningless rest game in Week 18 against the Steelers.
His performance against Pittsburgh came shortly after the team’s free agent addition of Dalvin Cook. In a rainy regular season finale, Gordon unfortunately demonstrated one of his biggest issues throughout his career, fumbling the ball in what was likely an audition for the postseason roster.
Whether or not a direct a result of that fumble, Gordon will not be on the 53-man roster this weekend. Along with the waiving of wide receiver Laquon Treadwell and the placement of cornerback Damarion Williams on IR two days ago, the Ravens now have three open spots on the active roster.
Many are speculating that star tight end Mark Andrews will soon be making a return from IR, joining with Isaiah Likely to form one of the league’s deadlier tight end duos. Former All-Pro return man Devin Duvernay has also returned to practice and is eligible to make a return from IR.
Lastly, with cornerback Marlon Humphrey not practicing over the last three weeks, the team could opt to activate defensive back Ar’Darius Washington from IR. Originally an undrafted safety out of TCU, Washington opened the season as the team’s starting nickel corner before finding his way to IR.
Another popular thought, especially with Edwards and Justice Hill remaining as the only running backs on the active roster, is that one of the three open roster spots will be used to bring Cook up from the practice squad to the active roster.
Despite having made the Pro Bowl in four consecutive years as the Vikings’ starting rusher, Cook took a disappointing backseat to Breece Hall for the Jets this year. Cook claimed to be really close to signing with Baltimore in the offseason, per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic, and he will now get that chance after New York decided to move on from him.
Whether Andrews or Cook or Duvernay or Washington, the Ravens are set to return some key reinforcements in time for the divisional round matchup against the Texans. Baltimore will have until 4 p.m. EST on Friday to make the decision on who will be activated for Saturday’s game.
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