Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco will add to his uniform this season.
After tearing his ACL and MCL last year, Flacco said on the first day of training camp that he will wear a brace on his left knee both during practice and in games throughout the entire year.
"If it helps a little bit, that's huge," Flacco said. "I'm not going to leave it up to risk and then have something happen and say, 'What if?' I'm going to wear it. There's no reason not to."
Other quarterbacks, such as New England's Tom Brady and Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger, have also adopted wearing a knee brace after major injuries. It provides more stability, especially on the front plant leg as a quarterback throws.
It's a precautionary move, not a decision made because Flacco is experiencing problems.
Flacco has already participated in four days of practice because injured veterans and rookies reported to camp Friday. He said he knee has felt "really good."
"Within a couple minutes, I really forgot about it," Flacco said. "It's not like that's going to be like that the whole time, but I felt like that's a good sign for how it's going to be moving forward."
Flacco still expects his biggest adjustment moving forward to be mental, not physical. He's going to need to get comfortable with players coming at him again, especially near that rehabbed knee. Flacco's injury came when one of his offensive linemen was pushed into his knee.
Flacco won't have defenders around his legs in training camp, as players will be strongly warned not to get too close to the franchise passer. That test would have to come in the preseason.
However, Flacco doesn't want to put himself at too much risk in preseason games. He said suiting up for the first preseason game on Aug. 11 at M&T Bank Stadium is not the next goal on his checklist.
"The goal is to make sure I'm as healthy as possible, regular season, Game 1," Flacco said, adding that he hasn't talked to Head Coach John Harbaugh yet about a definite plan. "I'm not ridiculously worried about playing a ton in the preseason."
