The Opening Drive, 8/12: Wiggins' Injury Status, A Position of Concern, Preseason (Pre)-Preview
A busy day at The Castle ran the full range of emotion for Ravens fans.
It was an eventful Tuesday at The Castle in Owings Mills, but not for the reasons that we would’ve hoped when we woke up yesterday morning. The headline news of the day revolved around an injury to a prominent player that had fans (and presumably the team brass) on pins and needles, while some other updates we received were on the less than positive side regarding practice performances from an important skill position. All of that, and some other updates from the podium are on the docket for today’s Opening Drive, so without further ado, let’s get into it:
Nate Wiggins Carted Off
To paraphrase the great Ozzie Newsome, you can never have too many cornerbacks on your roster. It’s a smart idiom to fall back on, and one that is constantly proven true due to the physical, laterally explosive nature of a position that often finds itself in the midst of collisions, and mid-air fights for the football.
The Ravens front office once again found themselves turning that phrase over in their minds as their star player at the position, 22 year-old Nate Wiggins, was carted off of the practice field during Tuesday’s practice:
This led to a nail-biting few hours of waiting for updates, as Wiggins figures heavily into Baltimore’s plans as a key piece of Jesse Minter’s defense. Entering his third season (and into his physical prime), Wiggins had three interceptions in 2025, and is currently listed as a starter at left cornerback on the Ravens defensive depth chart, per ESPN.
The words “carted off,” “knee/leg,” and “ton of pain,” are never ones that you want to see in one tweet when describing a player leaving the practice field, and a mad scramble began to try and determine the severity of the situation. Minter provided some context later on in his press conference:
Hearing that Minter was optimistic was a small sign of comfort, but without further concrete information available, the possibility of something longer term still remained - for a bit longer, that is. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tweeted a few hours later that Wiggins’ injury didn’t lead to any structural damage:
Training camp injury scares are never fun for anyone, least of all a player like Wiggins, who is approaching negotiations for his second contract in a year or two. Thankfully, it seems like something serious was avoided here, though the Ravens will no doubt be careful with the young defender in the coming weeks.
Behind Wiggins on the team depth chart are veterans Marlon Humphrey, Chidobe Awuzie, T.J. Tampa, Amani Oruwariye, and more unproven names such as Chandler Rivers, Bilhal Kone, Keyon Martin, and Robert Longerbeam. Removing Wiggins from that mix suddenly makes Baltimore look pretty thin at this position, so that leaves food for thought on A) how they should manage their starters throughout the rest of camp, and B) what they can do to improve the position before Week 1.
