While every season has its ups and downs, 2015 produced far more “downs” than Elvis Dumervil is used to.
The eight-year veteran offered no excuses for the porous play of last year’s defense. He believes the unit lives and dies as one. There was no finger-pointing, no blame tossed around, and certainly no hint of woe-is-us attitude.
“The way I see I see it, in my eyes is there is nothing that we go through that nobody else goes through in this league,” remarked the 32-year-old Dumervil during the Ravens mandatory mini camp. “Are there some things we wish we could take back? Sure. That’s why we have an opportunity this upcoming season to kind of redeem ourselves.
“That’s the challenge. I think each person and each coach – we have the ability to come out and be better than what we were last year, because picking top [draft] picks is not cute. Hopefully, we can get back to postseason ball and put ourselves in that situation.”
Even with Terrell Suggs sidelined for the season on top of nursing his own foot injury while taking extended snaps (over 100 is a lot for a rotational player), there was no excuse from “Doom” regarding his level of play.
With 2015 in the rear view, the aging linebacker has his full attention on training camp, the upcoming 2016 season, and getting back into his familiar role for Dean Pees’ defense.
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“It starts with getting healthy, and I was able to do that,” said Dumervil. “I think [general manager/executive vice president] Ozzie [Newsome] did a great job of bringing in additional help.
“We have ‘K.C.’ [Kamalei Correa], we have Za’Darius [Smith], we have Terrell [Suggs] coming back. Our secondary became more tight with Eric [Weddle] back there.
“We’re excited. We feel good about our plan. We feel good about the players we have. It is just a matter of getting everybody healthy and finishing strong in the offseason so when the real bullets start coming, we are all ready.”
John Harbaugh and company are expected to remain cautious with Dumervil throughout camp and the NFL preseason. Limiting his reps to keep his legs fresh is of the utmost importance. While it remains to be seen just how effective Suggs will be coming off his injury, Dumervil has confidence in rookies Kamalei Correa and Matthew Judon in the linebacker rotation.
“I think both have great talent,” bellowed Doom. “But if it’s talent without the work ethic and the consistency, it’s just talent. But, those guys are very hungry, they ask a lot of questions, they’re always taking notes, so I’m excited for their future.
“Anything I can do to try to help them learn anything, it’ll be great, because as long as those guys come in and help us, it’s going to be big for us. The rotation is important; I think we need to have as many fresh guys on defense as we can possibly have and keep guys throughout the season healthy. It’s important to have that rotation.”
Most important for Dumervil is getting himself healthy for the grueling season that lies ahead. That’s a process that Doom, who has 32.5 sacks since joining the Ravens in 2013 – the league’s fourth most – is on schedule for.
“I feel great now,” exclaimed the pass rush specialist. “I feel good. I’ve still got a ways to go, but I feel like I’m headed in the right direction.
“My body is definitely recovering, so I’m excited. I’m excited for this season coming up. This should be a great one.”
Ravens Nation is hoping for the same too, Doom…..
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