When the Baltimore Ravens suit up on Monday night to take on the Kansas City Chiefs, it’s going to take every player being at their best in order to win. Luckily, left tackle Ronnie Stanley says that he’s good to go after dealing with ankle and hip injuries over the last two weeks.
“I feel good, I’m in high spirits,” Stanley said on Wednesday. “I’m definitely looking forward to this week and, yeah, just like you said, it’s going to take a lot to keep me out of this one.”
Stanley initially suffered an ankle injury in Baltimore’s Week 1 win over the Cleveland Browns. He ended up playing just 35 snaps (59%) of the game, seeing D.J. Fluker replace him at left tackle the rest of the game. At the time, coach John Harbaugh said the injury wasn’t very serious, saying the injury wasn’t going to hold him out of practice the following week. However, Stanley appeared on last week’s injury report with a hip issue, practicing fully only on Friday. Stanley appeared to reaggrivate the injury last week against the Houston Texans, needing to be looked at by the training staff but not missing any of the offensive snaps.
Stanley has been among the best offensive tackles in the NFL over the last few years. The Ravens will need him to play at the level this week, going up against a fearsome Chiefs pass rush that has the seventh-highest sack rate in the league. As we saw in Week 2, Jackson is still more than capable of escaping would-be tacklers but a consistent pass rush will have an impact on his game. And with Kansas City’s offense being explosive, Baltimore will need Jackson and its offense to be just as capable in order to pull out a win.
[vertical-gallery id=47631]