J.K. Dobbins suffered an Achilles injury in the Ravens' Week 1 win over the Houston Texans and his season is over, Head Coach John Harbaugh announced following the 25-9 victory.
"I feel bad for him, this is not the way we expected this to go," Harbaugh said. "J.K.'s a strong-minded individual. He's got a big heart. He's going to bounce back from this as well.
"I'm kind of crestfallen for him. He was playing well. We'll put our arms around him. He'll get into rehab. And he will be back; he's a young guy."
Dobbins entered the game averaging 5.9 yards per carry for his career, but he has missed 27 games during his first three seasons.
The starting running back was assisted off the field and to the locker room during Baltimore's second touchdown drive. Dobbins was hurt at the end of a 5-yard catch and run.
Justice Hill and Gus Edwards handled the running back duties after Dobbins left, with Hill punching in a 2-yard touchdown on the play after Dobbins' injury.
Dobbins has worked extremely hard to come all the way back from his season-ending preseason knee injury in 2021 and was beginning a contract year. He had eight carries for 22 yards before leaving and scored Baltimore's first touchdown on a 4-yard leaping run in the first quarter. Dobbins also caught two passes for 15 yards before leaving the game.
Dobbins was activated off the PUP list on Aug. 14 and reported to training camp in excellent shape. He did not play during the preseason and was looking forward to carrying a full workload entering Sunday's game.
Ravens teammates were emotional after the game talking about the loss. Linebacker Patrick Queen was part of the same draft class as Dobbins and is also in a contract year.
"That guy is a good brother of mine," Queen said. "It hurts to see that type of stuff happen to somebody so good. [He's] just a good person [and] good athlete. Obviously, you have to just keep going on, it's just tough. I just ask that everybody prays for him, pray for his mental [state], prayers for Marcus [Williams], pray for those guys. Stuff like that, that's why he went in the situation that he went. It's just tough. It just hurts, honestly. It hurts a lot."
"I feel so bad for him," Hill said. "All the work that it takes to get back to this point – a lot of work – and my dog goes down. It's just so unfortunate."
Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. just came back from his own long journey following a major knee injury.
"You just made my stomach hurt again," Beckham said. "It's the ugly part of this game. And these people are your brothers; you [have] blood, sweat and tears with them. It's a sick feeling that I have over me just to know that that's what happened. So, my prayers go out to him him and his family. I texted him. I said, 'Wherever you need me, whatever you need from me, I'm there at the drop of a dime.'"
