In a shocking news release Tuesday evening, Ian Rapoport revealed Baltimore Ravens safety Ar’Darius Washington tore his Achilles during conditioning this offseason.

This is a massive blow. Sure, the Ravens added Malaki Starks in the first round this past draft, which will help offset this. But that was to help support Kyle Hamilton and Washington playing full time. It would have allowed the Ravens to have three reliable safeties, allowing Hamilton to play his versatile chess piece role that had him in Defensive Player of the Year discussions in 2023. In 2024, Hamilton was moved to a traditional free safety role, which helped turn around a failing defense, but limited his splash play impact as a versatile weapon.

The hope was that drafting Starks would put everybody in comfortable positions: Starks at free safety, Washington at strong safety, and Hamilton at nickel with the ability to move around and do anything. Then all three would have the ability to move around from those typical assignments to create confusion.

The Achilles tear comes at an awful time for Washington. After being a priority UDFA, Washington missed significant time his first three years in the NFL despite massive flashes and even won a starting role for Baltimore in 2023 out of training camp before getting hurt in the second game. Then in 2024, he eventually leapfrogged both Marcus Williams and Eddie Jackson on the depth chart to help turn the defense around, creating multiple impact plays. He was given the low tender as a restricted free agent. He will be an unrestricted free agent in 2026, but now will have to do so following this massive injury.

With the loss of Washington, Hamilton and Starks line up as the top two, every down safeties. Both are capable of playing in any three of the rotational spots between free safety, strong/box safety roles, or nickel roles, though Starks’ best spot in college was as a free safety. Behind them, second-year players Sanoussi Kane, a seventh-round pick, and UDFA Beau Brade are the next in line. Both flashed in preseason last year and seemingly earned more and more snaps down the stretch when Williams was benched and Jackson cut.. Both will likely have a shot at having significant snaps on the defense in 2025.

Outside of Brade and Kane, the Ravens could go look on the market for another safety. Justin Simmons, Julian Blackmon or even a Chuck Clark reunion are possibilities to fill a traditional safety role to allow Hamilton to be a versatile weapon again.

Achilles are tough injuries, and while the expectation is that Washington will miss most or all of the season, there have been swift recoveries before. Cam Akers tore his in mid-July and then returned in January for the Rams’ Super Bowl run in 2021. Aaron Rodgers returned to practice 77 days after tearing his in 2023. Ravens legend Terrell Suggs tore his in April of 2012 but returned six months later to help contribute during their Super Bowl run that year. Hopefully, Washington can find a similar recovery timeline to those players.