To everyone’s surprise the Baltimore Ravens activated linebacker Terrell Suggs from the physically unable to perform list. Many thought he wouldn’t return until next month. Read more after the jump.
Suggs, who is returning from a torn Achilles suffered in April, will be a game-time decision for Sunday’s contest against the Houston Texans, according to ESPN Senior NFL Analyst Chris Mortensen.
Sources said that even Suggs’ family and friends have plans to travel to Houston in anticipation of watching him stage one of the quickest returns from this type of significant injury by any athlete.
A five-time Pro Bowler, Suggs did acknowledge earlier this week that a quick return could push back his recovery.
“That’s always a concern,” Suggs said. “That’s why I’ve got the people around me that I trust. We’re going to make the decision as a group, whether it would be better for me to sit out or suit up.”
Ravens coach John Harbaugh continually has declined to put a timetable on Suggs’ return, and many had believed it would be mid-November.
Before this season, Suggs had played in all 16 regular-season games in eight of his nine NFL seasons, missing three games in 2009 with a knee injury. If he is able to return Sunday, it would be a big boost to a Ravens defense that lost its inspirational leader, linebacker Ray Lewis, to a torn triceps and top cornerback Lardarius Webb to a knee injury last weekend.
Harbaugh, however, cautioned Wednesday that the team wasn’t expecting too much too soon from Suggs, the 2011 NFL Defensive Player of the Year after a 14-sack season.
“To what extent, to what he’s able to do, I think we should temper our expectations a little bit,” Harbaugh said. “He’s coming off a very serious injury. I think he’s worked really hard. He’s done a great job with the rehab, he’s followed protocol. He had no setbacks throughout the course of the whole deal.”
How much do the Ravens miss Suggs?
Last season through Week 6, the Ravens held opposing quarterbacks to a Total QBR of 37.5 and a completion rate of 51.4 percent when sending four or fewer pass-rushers. This season, opposing quarterbacks have a Total QBR of 86.2 and are completing 69.3 percent of their passes when the Ravens send four or fewer rushers.
In the 2010 and 2011 seasons, Suggs led the Ravens with 25 sacks, the fifth-most in the NFL during that span.
Written by Chris Mortensen for ESPN
