Early look at the Detroit Lions 2017 opponents: Baltimore Ravens

It has been an eventful offseason for the Ravens and not in a good way. The number of shocking twists that have occurred has been incredible.

In January, Zachary Orr retired because he had a birth defect in his spine. He was the team’s best linebacker in 2016, and a no brainer to receive an extension. Jason La Canfora reported that Orr and the team had made considerable progress on a contract extension. The next day, Ian Rapoport was reporting that Orr was retiring. The team had tried to talk him out of it. After a diagnosis that told Orr he could die if he continued playing football, what could the team say? The football world lamented that this unlikely superstar had to quit just as he was about to get paid.

Orr had played his collegiate football at North Texas, and he had put up unimpressive numbers at his pre-draft workouts. He went undrafted and steadily worked his way into more snaps. In 2016 he had a breakout season that ended on injured reserve with a herniated disk. After rehabbing that injury he underwent a physical, the condition was discovered, and he walked away.

Then he walked back in. But he didn’t walk back into Baltimore, he is going on a tour of all the teams that are willing to talk to him. Anyone asking the question about why players don’t pull this kind of thing to buck the restricted free agency system need only look a the fact that only four teams have reportedly brought Orr in for a visit. In January the Ravens were telling him that he would be fine, and should keep playing, but now nobody will touch him with a ten-foot pole. Is it purely the injury, or are the individual teams in the league preemptively acting in their own best interest and not letting this work out well for Zachary Orr?

Fast forward to the week before training camp, and the Ravens lost their 32-year-old quarterback to a back injury. They also lost an up and coming offensive lineman. John Urschel is an MIT Ph.D. candidate in Mathematics and has written for the Players’ Tribune that he should retire as early as 2015. It was only his love for the game that kept him playing, but apparently, that has faded.

The Ravens are in an interesting spot headed into the 2017 season. There are rumors abound that they are considering making it even more interesting.