Ravens' Ronnie Stanley Opens Up About Injury Struggles

To say that Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley has dealt with his share of injuries would be a massive understatement.

Stanley, the No. 6 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, dealt with a few smaller injuries early in his career, but the first major one came in 2020, when he was carted off the field with an ankle injury during a Week 8 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. While he returned for the season opener against the Las Vegas Raiders in 2021, that would be the only game he played that season, as suffered another severe ankle injury.

That second injury came just after Stanley signed a five-year extension, which left many to wonder if he would ever be the same player. In a new Players' Tribune article, appropriately titled "Powering Through," Stanley revealed what was going through his mind during that trying time.

"I’ll never forget that feeling of everybody looking at me like: 'Damn, Ronnie, you got the bag and now you’re getting surgery, huh? Do you really need it? Can’t you just play through this?'" Stanley wrote. "The narrative was basically: This dude can’t fight through the pain. He doesn’t love the game like that. He just wants to get the money and run." 

"But I got the surgery, and when it was over the doctors let me know … my deltoid was indeed completely torn. I wouldn’t have been able to play with that injury no matter what I tried to do. There was no amount of toughness that was going to change that and allow me to play effectively, no matter how tough I was. It had nothing to do with not being able to 'fight through the pain.'” 

Stanley also revealed that his deltoid was the one part of his ankle that he didn't tear in 2020. While he tried to rehab the injury naturally for about six weeks, but eventually made the difficult decision to have his second surgery in as many years.

Even after returning from that surgery, Stanley still dealt with the aftermath. Not only physically, but mentally as well.

"I was playing the game with the anxiety of getting the right results, and without any joy in the process of getting those results. I was playing out of fear of not messing up, not with the love that comes from attempting to be great. 

"Back before those injuries, I was coming off a season where I felt I was one of the top players at my position, and yet every time I laced up my cleats after that, all I was thinking about was the mistakes I might make. I was tight, hesitant, second-guessing myself. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 20-plus years of playing football, it’s that you can’t play in fear. You’ll play at half the speed and with twice the amount of thoughts."

Thankfully, Stanley's story is now in a new, much brighter chapter. He played all 17 games for the first time in his career last season and returned to a Pro Bowl level, which the Ravens rewarded with a three-year, $60 million extension in March. Now, the longest-tenured Raven will continue to be Lamar Jackson's blindside blocker for a while longer.