Ravens wide receiver Steve Smith offered strong support for teammate Breshad Perriman in the wake of news that Perriman’s latest knee injury may knock him out for all of the 2016 season.
That would make two seasons without any games played since the Ravens took Perriman in the first round of the 2015 draft, which is both an unfortunate turn of events for Perriman and not the only injury on Smith’s mind at this time of the year. His own torn Achilles from 2015 is also still an issue as Smith remains unsure of when he’ll be given the green light to step up his on-field activities.
Smith said a couple of months ago that he’s confident he’ll be ready to go for the start of the regular season, but that he needs to get some work in this summer if that’s going to happen.
“I don’t know when I’m coming back,” Smith said, via ESPN.com. “I just know I have to be able to do something in training camp to be able to play for the season. That’s just the way I operate. I can’t go from doing absolutely nothing [and] sitting on my butt for all of training camp and then go out there and play.”
Smith’s return to health was big for the Ravens even when they were expecting Perriman to be part of the offense. It may be even bigger now as the Ravens aim to improve on last year’s offensive output.