Baltimore Ravens Crockett Gillmore should be ready for training camp

The Baltimore Ravens signing of veteran tight end Ben Watson this offseason elicited much speculation to the status of third year tight end Crockett Gillmore, coming off a stellar sophomore season, where he at time battled injuries. The clear priority status given to the pursuit of Watson did nothing to quell the concerns about the injuries of Gillmore, who was rumored to need surgery on both shoulders. General manager Ozzie Newsome did nothing to allay those fears when last month he discussed the possibility of Gillmore not being ready for training camp.

But alas, the worry looks to have been for naught. Head coach John Harbaugh reported the good news, saying that Gillmore will be ready for the start of training camp in July, and he only needed one of the surgeries. Per Baltimoreravens.com:

"So a timetable was built that was going to take him into training camp because you can't do both at the same time," Harbaugh said. "Of course, I was pushing, 'you can do both at the same time, you can hire a nurse.' It was my idea. I stand by that idea. I got some funny looks from the doctors."

In the past two weeks, though, the Ravens learned Gillmore's situation has changed. The first surgery has occurred and now doctors "say the other one doesn't need to be done, so he's going to be fine probably for OTAs, certainly for training camp," Harbaugh said.

The Ravens look to be loaded at the tight end position, with free agent addition Ben Watson coming off a career year with the Saints, Gillmore looking to continue building on an impressive start to his career, and 2015 second rounder Maxx Williams looking to build on a solid rookie year. All three tight ends are above average blockers, so with offensive coordinator Marc Trestman's penchant for heavy utilization of his tight ends in the offense, the Ravens look to be set for 2016.