When my buddy sent me a text message this morning informing me of the brutal news that Domonique Foxworth has a torn ACL and is done for the season, I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it. I thought it had to have been a cruel joke. If one was to pick five players on the Ravens that they could absolutely not afford to lose, Foxworth would be one of those five players.
In an already banged up secondary, Foxworth was supposed to be the rock all season while players like Fabian Washington, Lardarius Webb and Ed Reed rehabbed from injuries. Foxworth was supposed to be the player that would provide the Ravens with stability at corner while numerous players shuffled through the other positions in the secondary. That’s obviously no longer the case.
On a personal level, one can’t help but feel horrible for Foxworth, as this is a player that you always hear is genuinely a great person — and I have first-hand information to back that up. I co-host a sports talk show at the University of Maryland with two other students. We try to get as many guests as possible, but getting guests isn’t really the easiest thing in the world to do for college students for a variety of reasons, but mostly because, well, you’re just college students.
But one of my co-hosts hooked up with the Ravens’ public relations folks, and who else called into a future show but Foxworth, a Maryland alumnus. Foxworth gave us over 20 minutes of his time, as we discussed a variety of subjects, which included the upcoming labor dispute (he’s a major member of the NFL Players’ Association), his charity work, and, of course, football. He gave a fantastic interview.
This is the type of player that I want to root for, and exactly the kind of player I don’t want suffering a brutal season-ending injury before full-squad practices even begin.
On a football level, though, it’s equally as hurtful. If the season were to start today, the Ravens’ starting corners would be Chris Carr and Travis Fisher, with the nickel probably being K.J. Gerard. Yikes.
The Ravens, of course, have cornerbacks Washington and Webb both rehabbing from torn ACL’s of their own. Once those two players get back to full strength, they’ll slide in as the starting corners. Washington was just taken off the Physically Unable to Perform list and is now in pads practicing, but Webb’s return is still unclear. I’d be really surprised if Webb was ready to go by Week 1.
The usual fan reaction to a big injury like Foxworth’s is panic; one of the best traits that Ozzie Newsome and his staff have shown over their tenure in Baltimore is that they don’t panic after anything. They’ll evaluate the situation thoroughly before making any moves to try to improve said situation (sorry for the amount of times I just used the word “situation” – I watched the Jersey Shore Season 2 premiere and now I’m probably using that word too much, but still, desperate times like these calls for its constant usage.)
Right now, the Ravens are looking at a Week 1 starting secondary of Washington and Carr at the corners (with whomever as the third and fourth corners), along with Tom Zbikowski and Dawan Landry at safety. My guess is that Newsome will make a trade by the end of next week to improve the depth at cornerback (on Twitter, Peter King of Sports Illustrated floated the idea of the Ravens checking in with the Buffalo Bills about Ashton Youboty.) With Foxworth’s injury happening so early in training camp, it gives the Ravens some time to find some bodies for the secondary.
In the short-term, though, I’m almost positive that the the Ravens will have a familiar name in camp by early next week: Frank Walker.
Photos from my sister’s visit to training camp on Friday morning (the first full-squad workout) will be posted soon. Look out for that.
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You’ve got to appreciate the analogy Foxworth makes via Twitter: “Thanks for the support but I’m a bottom-line guy and my team was expecting a lot from me and I am not going to deliver for whatever reason … Analogy:if a friend is gona pic (sic) u up from work and he gets a flat on the way & is late you forgive him but youre still left out in the cold.”
Washington watched practice with Webb on Friday.