However, the Ravens must go on and deal with the on the field ramifications of Elam’s injury and his progress so far.
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“I’ve been working hard and eating right“, Elam said to the Baltimore Sun this past Friday before he got injured. The injury only leaves more question marks for Elam and the Ravens as Elam will most likely enter the 2016 season in a make or break year. Over the past 10 seasons, the Ravens have played an NFL-high 12 Monday night road games, while playing just three Monday night home games during that span. Their last Monday night game was in 2012 against the Bengals.
Elam, 23, was in competition with Will Hill for a starting job, although Hill was considered to be the frontrunner for the spot.
Elam was trying to bounce back from a 2014 season that saw him knocked out of the lineup in favor of Will Hill and the former first-round pick had drawn some good reviews from coaches after the team made it plain that it was rapidly approaching now-or-never in terms of Elam contributing to the team.
“I’m sure it’s very disappointing for him, and he told me that”, Harbaugh said.
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“Here’s a guy that came back with a renewed attitude”, coach John Harbaugh said Sunday. He’s very serious and he was in tremendous shape, and then he gets a fluke injury. Pro Football Focus graded him as one of the seven worst safeties against the pass in football. That’s going to be a big blow to us going forward, but in this business it’s the next man up, but me, Will (Hill), all of our safeties have to step it up another notch because we lost a brother. As a rookie playing primarily as a free safety, Elam collected 77 tackles and recorded an interception and two fumble recoveries. He got thrown into it last year if you really think about it. I mean, he hasn’t had a lot of experience with us, so he keeps getting better, too.
