Ravens RB Injured on Opening Kickoff vs. Browns

Ali, 24, took a big hit on the opening kickoff of Sunday's home opener against the Cleveland Browns while tackling returner DeAndre Carter. He was able to stop Carter at the 22-yard line after just a 13-yard return, but potentially at the cost of his health.

A 2024 fifth-round pick out of Marshall, Ali has established himself as a key special teams player for John Harbaugh and co. Not only is he part of the coverage team, but he's the team's primary kick returner as well. He even had a nice 69-yard return in the preseason opener against the Indianapolis Colts on Aug. 7, longer than any return the Ravens had in 2024.

Unfortunately, Ali dealt with injuries throughout his rookie season, limiting him to just six games and only 69 total snaps (29 on offense, 40 on special teams). Granted, he would've struggled to get snaps in a backfield with Derrick Henry and Justice Hill, but the injuries certainly didn't help.

This year, though, Ali has shown significant improvement and earned a consistent spot in the lineup. He even managed to push Keaton Mitchell out of the lineup for the first two games, which head coach John Harbaugh had a controversial explanation for earlier this week.

"You've got to make a decision about who's going to be up and who's going to be down, and the number of snaps you can get Keaton in on offense are pretty limited," Harbaugh told reporters Monday. "You're going to take Derrick off the field, and you [would have to] take Justice off the field to do it, and those are all going to be designer plays. That's what Keaton does right now – he runs kind of the designer plays. So, the defense is going to be like, 'What's he out here for?' on the four or five plays that he's out there. It's going to be a specific play that they kind of have their antennas up for.

"You've got to balance it out. And, in special teams, he does OK in special teams, but he'll tell you he needs to get better in that area to justify the spot. Otherwise, you're going light in a couple other areas."

The Ravens lead the Browns 3-0 late in the first quarter thanks to a Tyler Loop field goal.