In the 2021 season, the Baltimore Ravens had horrible injury luck the likes of which no other NFL team has seen in this millennium. Literally. The good folks at Football Outsiders, who keep track of such things with their Adjusted Games Lost metric, have reported that the 2021 Ravens had an AGL of 191.2, far outpacing the 2006 Chicago Bears, who held the previous mark of 171.6. That’s about 191 total games lost for starters and impact players to injury in one season. Not great, and it’s the primary reason Baltimore finished last season with an 8-9 record, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
The good for the 2022 Ravens was supposed to be that AGL tends to regress to the mean in the following year. In other words, the Ravens were not supposed to have historically horrible injury luck two years in a row.
Now, we can throw that right out. In Baltimore’s preseason finale against the Washington Commanders on Saturday, August 27, Ravens mascot Poe suffered a major injury during a halftime football exhibition in which various mascots played against an AAU team from Baltimore.
#Ravens mascot Poe fears a torn ACL after tackle in half time exhibition against AAU youth team from Baltimore. Sounds like a joke, unfortunately it’s not. Poe carted off, wishing a speedy recovery pic.twitter.com/AUTyBo4EFP
— Pete Gilbert (@WBALPete) August 28, 2022
As Ravens head coach John Harbaugh revealed today, it’s a drumstick injury, and Poe is indeed out for the season.
Head Coach John Harbaugh with a very important personnel announcement… pic.twitter.com/4VuBib5tyK
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) September 1, 2022
“Poe is gonna be put on injured reserve for the rest of the season,” Harbaugh said. “He’s gonna be done. Unfortunately, he sustained a serious injury to his drumstick, and he will not be able to perform for the rest of the season. We will find a replacement, we’re gonna go to work on that right away, we’re going to turn over every stone, scour everywhere and find his replacement. We’re gonna get into evaluating our options, and see where we go next. See if we can find somebody to replace Poe.”
In the NFL, it’s always “Next Man Up.” Especially if that man is in a raven costume. The team thought they had this injury thing beat, but clearly, the Fates have said, “Nevermore.”
