When Ray Lewis announced near the end of the 2012 season that he would not be returning to the Ravens in 2013, many believed that Dannell Ellerbe would be charged with establishing himself in the shadow of the legacy Lewis left in Baltimore.
Things didn’t work out that way, however. The Dolphins offered Ellerbe more money and he took his talents to South Beach as a result, leaving the Ravens to look in other directions at inside linebacker and leaving Ellerbe to take a crack at carving out his own place in Miami.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about making a name for yourself and going somewhere where you can start your own legacy,” Ellerbe told Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun. “I just feel like that’s where I was at in my career. I got the blessing from Ray. It don’t matter what anybody else thinks.”
Since the Dolphins offered more money, it’s fair to wonder just how much of a role setting his own legacy played in Ellerbe’s decision but he certainly has a chance to construct one that has nothing to do with what Lewis accomplished during his career. If Ellerbe should “help knock off” the Patriots in the AFC East in his first season, part of the reason he thinks he was brought to Miami, the linebacker’s legacy project will be off to a very good start.