Two Ravens draft picks – fourth-round wide receiver Tandon Doss and fifth-round cornerback Chykie Brown – are on the mend.
But that could have given Baltimore a discount on the talented prospects, and even proven some toughness.
Doss had two sports hernias that tore off the bone, according to Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh. Yet he played his junior season through the injury – missing just the season opener – and still caught 63 passes for 706 yards and seven touchdowns.
Groin surgery prevented Doss from working out at the combine. However, it’s an injury that wide receiver Derrick Mason and linebacker Tavares Gooden have fully recovered from in years past.
“I think it’s a plus,” Harbaugh said. “The guy played with two sports hernias all year. I think that’s a good thing. It’s not something you can’t fix. That’s something you can clean up.”
Doss went to the Ravens with the 123rd-overall pick, near the end of the fourth round. ESPN’s Mel Kiper had Doss projected as a late second to early third-round pick and tweeted that he was one of his eight “steals” of 2011.
Brown broke his forearm on Nov. 6, forcing him to miss Texas’ final three games and spelling the end of an injury-riddled college career. A lingering ankle injury held him to four games as a sophomore and he sat out two games in 2009 and five in 2010.
Had Brown stayed healthy throughout his career, he likely would have been drafted much higher. His 5-foot-11 size, 4.37 speed and long arms made him a starter in 29 of the 34 games he played in from 2008 to 2010.
“It’s not 100 percent, but I’m not limited too much,” Browns said of his forearm on Saturday. “I’ve still been working and all that. They said it needs a little more time to heal.”
