Terrell Suggs Injury: Impact on Baltimore Ravens

The 2011 season was a special one for the Baltimore Ravens as they swept the Pittsburgh Steelers during the regular season and even reached the AFC Championship thanks to a stellar defense led by Defensive Player of the Year Terrell Suggs–who finished the regular season with 14 sacks and nine forced fumbles. While the Ravens will once again enter the 2012 season as one of the favorites, they’ll have to figure out a way to do without Suggs.

Baltimore received the terrible news on Thursday that their star linebacker tore his Achilles’ tendon–putting his entire 2011 season in jeopardy. Even though Suggs claims he hopes to return by the middle of the regular season, this type of injury has been known to take up to 11 months to recover–so returning that early may be pushing it.

What makes this even more frustrating for Suggs and the Ravens is this injury may have happened during a pickup game of basketball, but it’s still unclear whether or not that’s actually true. Suggs claims the injury occurred while training over the weekend, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if he was just trying to cover up his end for an injury occurring during a sport other than football.

Either way, this is devastating news for a Ravens’ team that has always stood proud when it comes to their defense and has high expectations once again for the upcoming season. On the bright side, at least Suggs’ injury provides Courtney Upshaw to prove himself early as a rookie.