Tavon Young battled back from three major injuries to play in all 17 Ravens games last season. The team is still moving on from its longtime slot cornerback.
The Ravens announced Young’s release Wednesday. This move will save them nearly $6MM. Young was a productive player in Baltimore, but the 2016 fourth-round pick ran into rampant injury trouble over the past several years.
Two knee maladies and a neck injury combined to sideline Young for 46 games over the 2017, ’19 and ’20 seasons. Young bounced back in 2018, playing 15 games and earning his Ravens extension — a three-year, $13.9MM pact. But a neck injury sustained during the 2019 offseason stalled that momentum. His 2020 knee injury led to a reworked contract.
Young, 27, played 51% of the Ravens’ defensive snaps in 2021. The Ravens endured a brutal injury season, one that saw corners Marcus Peters miss the entire year and Marlon Humphrey go down in December. This came after Baltimore traded rookie Shaun Wade to New England just before the season. Young broke up three passes, intercepted another and registered three sacks in 2021, giving him a bit of momentum after the run of injuries. But the various health setbacks stand to limit Young’s value on the market.
Young won’t have trouble finding work. Plenty of teams could use a veteran slot corner, despite his injury issues.