If Baltimore Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely had to choose a day to suffer an injury, Tuesday would not have been his worst choice.
During the Ravens’ practice on July 29, Likely was carted off the field after sustaining an injury during a one-on-one rep with safety Sanoussi Kane, The Athletic reported. On Wednesday, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that Fowler had suffered ‘a small foot fracture.’
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport later reported that Likely was undergoing surgery to repair the fracture. The timeline for recovery is six weeks, ‘though depending on the outcome it could be fewer,’ Rapoport wrote. That could mean Likely is on track to return to action before Week 1.
Baltimore begins the 2025 season as the first ‘Sunday Night Football’ matchup of the year. They’ll face the Buffalo Bills in Week 1 in a rematch of the teams’ clash in an AFC divisional round game.
Likely had a career-best year in 2024 with his 42 catches, 477 receiving yards and six touchdowns, though he still played second fiddle to Mark Andrews’ leading role at the position.
Isaiah Likely injury update
ESPN reported that Likely fractured his foot during Tuesday’s practice, and NFL Network reported that he was undergoing surgery to repair the fracture.
The reports also included a potential timeline for Likely’s recovery, as Fowler and Rapoport both wrote on the social media site X that he could return in time for Week 1 action. Rapoport’s report included a specific, six-week potential recovery timeline, ‘though…it could be fewer.’
A six-week recovery period would just about line up with Week 1 of the 2025 regular season.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said Tuesday that Likely ‘rolled his ankle’ and that it was a significant enough injury that the young tight end would miss a few weeks. Further tests revealed the small fracture in Likely’s foot.
Ravens TE depth chart
Likely is one of five tight ends on the Ravens’ expanded training camp roster.
Here’s who fills out the rest of the team’s depth chart at the position:
Mark Andrews
Isaiah Likely
Charlie Kolar
Zaire Mitchell-Paden
Sam Pitz
Andrews is still the leading tight end in Baltimore’s offense, though Likely has put up increasingly productive numbers in each successive year in his career – 373 yards as a rookie in 2022, 411 in 2023, then a career-high 477 in 2024.
Kolar was in the same rookie class as Likely, with the Ravens drafting him just 11 picks before his fellow fourth-year tight end. Baltimore has largely deployed Kolar as a blocker – more than 80% of his 285 offensive snaps were as a blocker, according to Pro Football Focus – though he did have a career-high 131 yards on nine catches last year.
Mitchell-Paden joined the Ravens’ practice squad last September and re-signed with the team on a reserve/futures contract in January. Pitz was an undrafted free agent pickup out of the University of Minnesota Duluth.