The Baltimore Ravens are in desperate need of some good news right now, and although small, they did get a morsel on Monday afternoon.
Running back Keaton Mitchell, who’s still recovering from a torn ACL late last season, posted a positive update in his recovery process on social media. The second-year back says he’s now up to 20 miles per hour, a great sign that he’s getting closer to playing form.
Mitchell will miss at least the first four games of the season after starting out on the PUP list, with Week 5’s road game against the Cincinnati Bengals being the earliest possible return date. That said, this is a good sign that he could return sooner rather than later.
An undrafted free agent out of East Carolina, Mitchell played just eight games as a rookie, but he made an outstanding first impression. The 22-year-old ran for 396 yards and two touchdowns, but most impressively, averaged 8.4 yards per carry. For a player with 47 carries, that’s an amazing accomplishment.
Unfortunately, Mitchell’s great rookie season came to a premature end when he tore his ACL in a win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 15. He’s been hard at work recovering ever since, and he’s progressing about as well as expected.
“Keaton is – it’s not a comeback during training camp or a first game type-of-thing,” head coach John Harbaugh told reporters on May 22. “I think we all know that. It’s [going to be at] sometime during the season. So, it’s not right around the corner. We shouldn’t be biting our fingernails, ‘Is he going to get back?’ But, I will say, he’s on schedule, maybe ahead of schedule. He’s doing really well. He’s always got a smile on his face. He’s going to start jogging on the ‘Ultra G’ next week. So, that’s a positive thing and we’ll see where it goes.”
When Mitchell comes back, he’ll bring an explosiveness to the run game that has been somewhat lacking through the first two weeks.
