Kyle Juszczyk had an extremely promising preseason. He had chemistry with Joe Flacco as a tight end and as a safety valve. He looked like he might've actually caught 40-50 passes this season. We began to speculate on the usefulness of keeping an injured Owen Daniels on the roster.
Two games into the season and Juszczyk has zeroes all over the stat sheet and Daniels is looking not as expendable as everyone thought.
Naturally, Juszczyk's disappearance is a surprise to many people given the amount of promise he showed and the fact that he's drawn comparisons in talent to another piece in Gary Kubiaks' offense: James Casey.
And that's why it shouldn't be a surprise.
Casey has been in the NFL six years. During that time span he's caught 69 passes for 783 yards and four touchdowns, most of which came in 2012 with the Texans.
As a rookie, Casey had six receptions for 64 yards and no scores. I expect Juszczyk to get similar numbers unless one of the tight ends gets injured and the Ravens don't feel that Crockett Gillmore is ready.
In the span of Casey's career he has carried the ball twice for 17 yards and zero touchdowns.
Looking at Casey's career numbers helps explain Juszczyk's lack of stats at this point and gives us a better idea of what to expect from him going forward.