The 2014 season was supposed to be different for Ravens defensive lineman Kapron Lewis-Moore.
Fully recovered from a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) that he suffered in the final game of his college career that forced the Notre Dame standout to miss all of his 2013 rookie season, the former Fighting Irishmen was finally healthy and excited to be a part of his first training camp.
Prior to the start of offseason activities, the Ravens built a promising defensive front that featured a mixture of youth and experienced veterans, by far their deepest unit on the roster.
The second year defensive end was part of a quality rotation of linemen that turned heads for their performances throughout the first few weeks of training camp, despite the loss of rookie Brent Urban for the season with a torn ACL.
Losing Urban made the return of 6-4, 310 pound Lewis-Moore even more important for Dean Pees’ defense.
Things never go according to plan for any NFL team, particularly during training camp and on August 10 during an 11 on 11 drill with the San Francisco 49ers, tragedy again struck Lewis-Moore.
“It felt like somebody kicked me,” Lewis-Moore recalled about the incident when speaking to him on Friday. “I remember it was a blitz play and I thought somebody kicked me and I heard it snap. I thought I broke my ankle at first and I fell down and realized ‘I think I tore my Achilles.'”
Play on both practice fields came to a halt as Kapron laid there writhing in pain. John Harbaugh’s brother Jim who was the coach on the particular field where the injury occurred immediately ran to Kapron and laid on the turf  alongside Lewis-Moore while the trainers attended to him.
“As soon as the trainer felt down my leg he knew it was torn,” he said. “I lost it man. I lost it because a year later something else happens. One of those things were you can’t catch a break.”
Several players from both the Ravens and 49ers huddled around him and as he was carted off the field, they extended well-wishes to Lewis-Moore, something that he will “never, ever forget.”
After being lost for the season again in 2014, the former sixth round draft pick is on pace of achieving his goal to return to the practice field around the time the Ravens gather for OTA’s in 2015.
“The rehab is going good,” stated Lewis-Moore during our phone interview. “It’s slowly going good. With an Achilles, kind of like an ACL you’ve got to do a lot of movement quicker. That first couple of months with an Achilles injury you have to lay low, off of it, but it’s doing really well.
“The goal is getting better by OTA’s but I don’t want to rush it too much but that’s the goal.”
The Ravens defensive front played outstanding football this season, allowing the NFL’s fourth-fewest ground yards per game (88.3), their 3.6 yards allowed per carry ranked third in the NFL in 2014 and they didn’t allow a 100-yard rusher all season.
Looking to continue that success next season, the return of both Lewis-Moore and Urban should certainly help matters.
“That’s a goal.” remarked Lewis-Moore. “We have a great group of guys there and hopefully we can keep everyone there.”
“You know me and Brent see each other almost everyday during rehab and we always say our biggest thing is getting back healthy. We just want to be a part of something great.”
The Ravens have a few questions to answer during the offseason about the defensive front and the health of Lewis-Moore along with Urban could be key factors in their decisions.
Faced with an increasingly high salary cap number ($16 million) for Haloti Ngata and whether or not the team brings Chris Canty back or he opts to retire, strong camps from both Lewis-Moore and Urban are crucial and would allow the team some flexibility in their roster decisions.
For Lewis-Moore personally though, losing Canty would create a big gap along the defensive front.
“It would be a huge loss.
“Chris Canty is one of those guys you count on everyday. Someone that shows up and is a hard worker, he’s a perfect role model. He’s a classy guy off the field and that’s a great player that I’ve looked up to and have been a fan of for many years.”
Time will tell if Kapron Lewis-Moore can be the impact player that he seemed to be developing into prior to his injury this past summer, the hard working defensive end won’t let up in the meantime.
“I actually have to play even better this coming training camp to show the coaches I can comeback from another big injury just like I did during last camp.”
Kapron’s determination to come back stronger epitomizes what it means to be a Raven.
And he’s damn proud to be one…
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