Ravens sign a punter and wide receiver to help out in practice
The Baltimore Ravens made a pair of signings on Tuesday to fill two spots on their 80-man roster. They signed punter Johnny Townsend and wide receiver DeAndrew White. Neither is expected to make the final cut for the 53-man roster barring injury but after losing three players in the last week, two to season-ending injuries and the third because of a terminated contract, they needed a couple of extra bodies at spots they needed a bit more depth.
“We have to have numbers for practice,” Head Coach John Harbaugh said Monday in a virtual presser. “Right now, we’re a little lighter than we want to be for practice. We have to adjust practice accordingly, which we did today, and we’ll continue to do. We’ve got plenty of reps for the guys that we have out there. The guys are working really hard.”
White came into the league as an undrafted free agent out of Alabama in 2015 and has appeared in just 16 career regular-season games. Baltimore is his sixth stop after playing for five different teams in his first five years. His other stops have included stints with the San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots, Houston Texans, Denver Broncos, and most recently the Carolina Panthers.
He got his most extensive action with the Panthers in 2019, appearing in 10 games and recording four receptions for 51 yards. The Ravens are particularly light at the receiver position out in practice right after Antoine Wesley was placed on injured reserve over the weekend due to a shoulder injury and with veteran Chris Moore out of commission for the time being with a broken finger.
White has mostly been a special teams contributor in his career thus far with 204 snaps in that phase of the game compared to 178 on offense where he has just recorded seven catches on 18 targets. Moore is one of the Ravens’ best special teams players and White will likely be taking over some of the kick and punt coverage duties in his absence.
As for Townsend, he was likely brought in to strictly alleviate the workload of Pro Bowl punter Sam Koch in practice. At 38-years-old Koch is the oldest and longest-tenured player on the roster and has been handling all of the punting duties in practice since the team waived undrafted rookie Dom Maggio earlier this month.
Townsend was originally drafted in the fifth round of the 2018 draft out of Florida by the recently renamed and relocated La Vegas Raiders. He was waived after his rookie season in which he averaged 43.2 yards per punt with a net of 38.3 yards and recorded one rushing attempt for 42 yards.
