No one was hit harder by the injury bug in 2021 than the Baltimore Ravens.
Coach John Harbaugh lost his entire running back room before the start of the season and saw both of his cornerbacks forced out by injury during the campaign. The merciless injury bug proved it was saving its worst for last, appearing again when Lamar Jackson suffered an ankle injury in Week 14 that ended up preventing him from playing again this season.
Harbaugh is ready to do whatever is necessary to ward off the pest -- citronella candles, bug spray, mosquito nets, whatever -- in 2022.
"You can call it bad luck. You can say it's a fluke. I get that," Harbaugh said Monday, via ESPN. "I don't feel like we have the luxury to live there. We have to turn over every stone. We've got to look at every possible avenue to do the best we can to make sure this doesn't happen again. That's what we plan on doing."
Such efforts could include a change to the team's strength and conditioning program, a move that wouldn't be unprecedented in the NFL. The same could be said for the club's training staff, as well as how the Ravens go about operating during the offseason. In today's age of technological advances -- one that includes monitoring systems that can notify staff members when a player is in need of rest before even the player is aware of his fatigue -- doing more of the same just won't cut it for a team expecting to contend.
"We're looking at everything, and we're going to change a lot," Harbaugh said. "We're going to do everything we can do to make sure we come through as strong as we can be, ready to attack the season when the season starts. We're not going to take it and say it's OK. Some of it has to be fixed."
The Ravens were forced to shuffle offensive linemen, running backs, receivers, quarterbacks, defensive linemen, defensive backs -- almost everyone but kicker Justin Tucker -- due to injury in 2022. By the time they reached the season's final month, the effect of these health problems and resulting absences were too much to overcome, contributing to six straight losses to end the year.
Harbaugh told reporters the team will be keeping head strength and conditioning coach Steve Saunders. It's fair to expect he'll be spending time with Saunders attempting to devise a better approach to training and recovery, because while bad luck certainly factors into these unfortunate outcomes, whatever Baltimore has been doing isn't producing a good enough track record.
"I do believe that, as an organization, we're going to do everything we can to make sure our rehab operation is cutting-edge and it's at the highest level," Harbaugh said.
