Baltimore Ravens: Bronson Kaufusi Breaks Ankle, Out for Season

Baltimore Ravens defensive end Bronson Kaufusi broke his left ankle during practice Thursday and the third-round pick will be out for the season.

It did not take long for the injury bug to resurface in Baltimore.

Defensive end Bronson Kaufusi broke his ankle about 90 minutes into practice when a teammate fell on him during a 11-on-11 drill. He could not put any weight on his left ankle and had to be carted off the field.

After practice, Head Coach John Harbaugh gave the grim news on the extent of his injury.

“I’m sure he’ll be out for the year,” Harbaugh said.

The former BYU product was expected to get some playing time at defensive end with the Ravens cutting ties with veteran Chris Canty. Lawrence Guy is the likely starter and Brent Urban is a strong candidate to back him up.

The injury to Kaufusi does create an opportunity for Kapron Lewis-Moore to make one final impression on the team. They also have undrafted free agent Mario Ojemudia in the mix.

Harbaugh certainly did not hope that Kaufusi would get injured, but he also sees the injury as a chance to be better prepared in his second season.

“It will be an opportunity for him to take the next year and go to work on his body, go to work, become a mature NFL football player physically,” Harbaugh said. “He’s young. He needs a lot of work on his lower body, strength-wise and flexibility-wise. He was playing well, but he’s only going to be better next year. We’ll get him in the weight room, we’ll get him with our conditioning coaches and he’ll be a much better player a year form now than he would have been this year.”

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Call this a redshirt season if you will for Kaufusi. The Ravens obviously had high hopes in him to take him with the 70th overall pick. We will have to wait one more year to see if he was worthy of the selection.