Ravens promote RB Le'Veon Bell to active roster

After using his two practice squad elevation over the last three weeks, the Baltimore Ravens saw enough from veteran running back Le’Veon Bell to make his promotion to the active roster a permanent one on Tuesday.

The former Pittsburgh Steeler, New York Jet, and Kansas City Chief was initially signed to the Ravens practice squad on Sept. 7 as a part of the reconstruction of their running back depth chart after the position group was decimated by season-ending injuries prior to Week 1. While Bell is far from a spring chicken and certainly doesn’t bring the same juice as either J.K. Dobbins or Gus Edwards in the running game, he has proven that he can be an effective rotational piece in the backfield.

He scored his first touchdown since Week 15 of last season when he was a member of the Chiefs and first as a Raven in the team’s 34-6 rout of the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 6. He has only carried the ball 12 times for 29 yards with an unimpressive 2.4 yards per carry and has yet to record a catch. However, Bell looks to be getting into better football shape with each game he plays and has still shown an ability to make defenders miss as well as slip through tackles.

The former two-time All-Pro joins second-year player Ty’Son Williams and fellow veterans Latavius Murray and Devonta Freeman as official members of the active 53-man roster. Murray exited Sunday’s game with an ankle injury and while Head Coach John Harbaugh didn’t give any updates on his status Monday, if he misses any amount of time, it will mean more snaps to divide between the three remaining backs.

In other roster related news, the Ravens also announced a trio of practice squad transactions involving veteran players. They officially signed guard James Carpenter, released edge defender Chris Smith and signed linebacker Joe Thomas.