Just as Baltimore Ravens rookie Robert Longerbeam was battling for a roster spot, his season came to an abrupt end.
The former Rutgers standout cornerback, drafted in the sixth round of this year’s NFL Draft, suffered a torn patella tendon and will miss the entire season, according to NFL insider Jordan Schultz.
Longerbeam came into camp as a longshot to make the Ravens’ 53-man roster, but he had been turning heads with his work ethic and steady progress in a crowded secondary. Now, that momentum comes to a halt, and the Ravens will have to look elsewhere for depth.
Baltimore’s bad injury luck didn’t stop there.
Fellow sixth-round pick Bilhal Kone, a cornerback from Western Michigan, also suffered a season-ending injury, tearing both his ACL and MCL. The two injuries hit before Baltimore even played a preseason snap, thinning out the team’s rookie depth in the secondary.
Last year, Longerbeam played in all 13 games for Rutgers and wrapped up the season with 45 tackles, a couple tackles for loss, and two interceptions. Over his five years there, he slowly took on a bigger role and made more plays.
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Longerbeam graduated from T.C. Williams in Alexandria, Virginia, back in 2020. Coming out of high school, 247Sports gave him a three-star rating and ranked him No 41 overall for athletes and No. 19 in the state..
Two promising rookies, both sidelined before their NFL debuts — and just like that, Baltimore’s secondary looks very different heading into the season.