Ravens fans get ready to hold your breath when it comes to punt return duties against Cleveland on Sunday. It appears veteran cornerback Lardarius Webb takes over for the injured Michael Campanaro.
“Lardarius has had a long, rich history of returning balls for us and had some success both in kickoffs and in punts,” said special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg following practice on Thursday. “He’s a busy man every Sunday, but we value his skills, and he’s one of the guys that we’re going to be using.”
In a move that shouldn’t really shock anyone, the organization has never shared the opinion of someone being “too valuable” to use on special teams, especially for the return job, outside of the obvious few.
John Harbaugh and Ozzie Newsome have long clamored that positional players need to have additional roles and to a degree that’s true, yet using an injury prone corner whom the team needs in the secondary may not be the wisest decision for the return job from the Ravens’ brain trust.
Maybe they don’t value Webb very highly, and they are willing to risk his injury in the return game because of the addition of Will Davis.
Or maybe returners Chris Givens and Jeremy Ross are just waiting in the wings.
“Yes, there’s another guy,” responded Rosburg when asked about the possibility of Givens returning punts and kicks. “One of the first conversations I had with Chris [Givens] was about that. He knew what my job was, and I knew what his job was, so we had a conversation about that the first time we met.
“The thing I like about Chris is he’s eager. He wants to do it. And he told me not only [about his skills] in the return game, but he told me all his other skills he has for special teams. I like guys like that. He understands what it’s like to be a Raven even before he was here, so that was a real positive factor in my view.”
While it remains to be seen whether Rosburg was being coy about Webb’s involvement in the punt/kick return game – he’s never been one to tip his hand prior to kickoff – it remains something to keep an eye on at M&T Bank Stadium Stadium on Sunday.
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