Ravens on the roster bubble: Anthony Averett edition
With training camp set to open later this month, there will be a handful of Baltimore Ravens’ players that will be facing an uphill climb and tough competition in order to make the final roster for the 2020 season. It’s hard to rest easy knowing you’re on the roster bubble and in jeopardy of having the dream you’ve worked towards all your life snatched away in the very near future if you don’t make a good enough impression in a little over a months’ time.
The players featured in this six-part series face an even more daunting task than most would in their shoes in any given year because this offseason has been like nothing any of us has experienced in our or even our parent’s lifetimes with the physical restrictions and limitations placed on us all, professional athlete and common folk alike, due to the global pandemic caused by COVID-19.
According to multiple reports in recent weeks, the league and the NFLPA are considering shortening or canceling the entire preseason to give players more time to get into football shape after only being able to attend virtual workouts all offseason and decrease the chances of potentially exposing players, coaches, and other team officials to the virus to play exhibition games. These unfortunate developments have made not only life but making the roster much more difficult for fringe players that need every opportunity they can get to leave enough of a lasting impression on their organizations.
Here is the third Raven on the list of features that needs to have a strong training camp and preseason—if there is one—to keep his hopes and dreams alive, at least with this team:
CB Anthony Averett:
The fourth-round pick out of Alabama has been a good rotational player, spot starter, and provided great depth to the Ravens’ top shelf secondary for the past two years but he has yet to break through and climb the depth chart to earn more playing time. In his defense, he’s had great talent ahead of him firmly entrenched in the starting lineup from the NFL’s defensive ironman in Brandon Carr to former first-rounders Jimmy Smith, Marlon Humphrey, and Marcus Peters who acquired via trade midway through last season.
Even with the team not picking up Carr’s contract option this offseason, it will still be hard for Averett to crack the starting lineup since the Ravens have a pair of 2019 All-Pros and arguably the best cornerback tandem in the league in Humphrey and Peters. Also, there’s taking into account the return of stud slot/nickel corner Tavon Young who missed all of last season with a neck injury but is fully recovered now and the fact that the team brought back Smith on a one-year deal.
There is also the presence of last year’s fourth-round pick Iman Marshall who spent the majority of his rookie season on injured reserve before being activated late in the season. He was active for just three games and predominately played special teams where he recorded 42 snaps to just four on defense. Despite Marshall’s lack of playing time in 2019, he’s viewed as the biggest threat to Averett’s chance at securing a roster spot since the team rarely gives up on fourth-round picks after just one year where they hardly got enough tape on them to make a long term determination.
On the other hand, Averett has had opportunities for extended playing time and even started three games last season but he failed to seize a starting job opposite of Humphrey resulting in the team trading for reinforcements—Peters—at the midseason deadline. Two of his first career starts came after Smith went down early in the year with a knee sprain and the third came in the regular-season finale when the team rested several starters. He churned out a solid performance in the final week of the regular season against the division rival Pittsburgh Steelers and finished the year with 15 total tackles, a pair of pass breakups and a tackle for loss.
His role as a good special teams player that also bolsters the depth of the team’s already loaded secondary bodes well in his favor so does the fact that the Ravens coaching staff and front office firmly believe that a team can never have enough good corners, a lesson that they’ve had to learn the hard way in the past prior to constructing their current star-studded group. It also helps his case that the Ravens didn’t take a corner in the draft for the first time since 2014.
