Ravens make 3 roster moves ahead of Week 5 game vs. Steelers

While the Baltimore Ravens appear to be the healthiest they’ve been since the start of the season, the team still made a trio of roster moves on Saturday ahead of their Week 5 AFC North road showdown with Pittsburgh Steelers. One was to open up an active roster spot and the other two were practice quad elevations to add more depth at a couple of positions on offense.

After missing practice all week and being ruled out for this game with a shoulder injury he suffered early in the team’s Week 4 win over the Cleveland Browns, veteran safety Daryl Worley was placed on injured reserve. In addition to being a core special teams contributor through the first four games of the season, he was also playing a key rotational role on defense the past two weeks.

Against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 3, he played a whopping team-high 102 snaps between the two phases with 76 coming on defense, and finished with seven total tackles including four solos. Before he left the game against the Browns, he played nine defensive snaps and recorded a pass deflection.

Thankfully, the Ravens are poised to have both of their starting safeties back this week for the first time since Week 1 as veteran free safety Marcus Williams is set to make his return to action after missing the past three games with a pectoral injury. His presence in the backend along with the emergence of fourth-year pro Geno Stone who started in his absence and the breaking out of second-year pro Kyle Hamilton will allow Ravens Defensive Coordinator Mike Macdonald to deploy arguably the best three-safety sets in the league starting Sunday and moving forward.

Worley will miss a minimum of at least four games which means he wouldn’t be eligible to return until Week 9 against the Seattle Seahawks at home at the earliest. The fact that the Ravens didn’t sign a player from their practice squad to the active roster in a corresponding move suggests that they’re saving that open spot for one of their three players eligible to return off of injured reserve or the Non-Football Injury list in the coming days following the game.

Undrafted rookie running back Keaton Mitchell opened the season on IR and returned to practice this past week to begin his 21-day window to be activated. Veteran outside linebacker Tyus Bowser recently told Glenn Clark Radio that he is “hopefully” going to return to action. Undrafted rookie outside linebacker Malik Hamm is also on injured reserve and eligible to return as soon as he’s healthy.

The two practice squad moves the Ravens made were elevating veteran running back Kenyan Drake and former first-round wide receiver Laquon Treadwell for Sunday’s game against the Steelers.

This will be Drake’s second time getting called up in the past three weeks with the first being Week 3 against the Colts where he recorded 31 yards from scrimmage on three total touches and lost a momentum-swinging fumble in the first half.

Treadwell is getting called up for the second week in a row to primarily play special teams now that Rashod Batman and Odell Beckham Jr. are slated to return. Against the Browns last week, he played 18 snaps on special teams to 17 on offense and finished with a solo tackle on Jordan Stout’s first punt of the fourth quarter.