Baltimore Ravens Tight End Dennis Pitta will continue his NFL career

Baltimore Ravens tight end Dennis Pitta has made it clear that he will return to football according to Mike Garafolo of FoxSports.

News on Dennis Pitta: Ravens' TE has decided to continue his NFL after consulting with docs this offseason regarding his twice-repaired hip.

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) April 12, 2016

Pitta injured his hip on two separate occasions. The first hip injury occurred during the Ravens training camp in 2013 which sidelined him for the majority of the season but would return in the winter of that year. The second hip injury occurred in 2014 in week 3 against the Cleveland Browns where he went down on the ground in the middle of a play untouched.

Pitta's return to football creates a serious log-jam for the Ravens at the tight end position. The Ravens have Crockett Gillmore, Maxx Williams and Ben Watson as the top three players on the depth chart. Nick Boyle would be the fourth player on the Ravens depth chart but he is going to serve a 10 game suspension to start the 2016 regular season due to performance enhancing drugs.

Per @MikeGarafolo, Pitta is expected for offseason workouts (starts Monday).Hoping for full contact by summer.

— Sarah Ellison (@sgellison) April 12, 2016

Pitta's 2016 cap number with the Ravens is 7.2 million along with a base salary of 5 million. It is unlikely that the Ravens will let the cap number sit that way this season. The Ravens are most likely to ask for a contract restructure, a pay cut or just outright release him.