Ravens reach injury settlement with DL Derek Wolfe after his second hip surgery in five months
The Ravens have reached an injury settlement with Derek Wolfe, coach John Harbaugh announced Tuesday, ending the defensive lineman’s tenure in Baltimore after just 14 games.
Wolfe, who missed all of last season with hip and back injuries, announced Monday that he underwent his second hip surgery in five months. His $2 million salary this season was fully guaranteed, and he was set to count $3.8 million against the salary cap. It’s unclear how the Ravens’ injury settlement will affect his cap figure.
After signing a three-year, $12 million contract extension in March 2021, Wolfe said he hoped to build on a strong debut season in Baltimore. But Wolfe, 32, suffered an apparent back injury in training camp last year, was designated to return in late October from injured reserve and was never healthy enough to come back.
During his appearance on a hunting podcast in March, Wolfe discussed potentially retiring, though he later tweeted that he was going to return. His wife shared on social media Monday that Wolfe underwent surgery in January on his right hip and had to wait until recently to undergo surgery on his left hip.
In an Instagram story Monday, Wolfe said he wanted to live a “normal life.” Wolfe has long dealt with injuries; he’s missed 39 games over the past nine seasons. He said on the hunting podcast that he wants to make sure he’s healthy enough to hunt after his football career is over. His young daughter has shown an interest in hunting, Wolfe said on the podcast, and he wants to make sure he’ll be able to take her.
“She’s got a little plastic bow and arrow that, when I’m out there shooting, she wants to come out and shoot, you know?” Wolfe said in March. “She wants to do everything dad’s doing. So I already know that she’s going to want to be involved in this, and it’s something she’s going to want to do. And, you know, we’ll see. Killing’s not for everybody, you know, but I love to be in the woods. I love to be in the wild. I want to bring my family into that as well.”
In 2020, Wolfe started eight of 14 games, recording 51 tackles, six tackles for loss and one sack while grading as one of the best run defenders in the league, according to Pro Football Focus. He hasn’t played since.
“We had a really good run,” defensive lineman Calais Campbell said of Wolfe on Tuesday.
He and Campbell helped build that Ravens defensive front into one of the best run-stopping units in the NFL. The Ravens allowed the eighth-fewest rushing yards in the league in 2020.
“He’s a Raven at heart,” Campbell said. “We definitely had a lot of fun together. I loved being his teammate.”
The Ravens bolstered their defensive line this offseason, bringing back Campbell, Michael Pierce and Brent Urban while drafting Connecticut defensive tackle Travis Jones in the third round. Pierce, however, was absent from the first day of mandatory minicamp Tuesday with what Harbaugh called a “personal matter.”
Baltimore Sun reporter Matt Cohen contributed to this article.
