Ravens center Matt Skura has done well with his rehab from a season-ending knee injury, but he isn't quite ready for practice yet.
Skura will start training camp on the active physically unable to perform list, meaning he can return to practice at any point.
He went down with an ACL, MCL and PCL injury on Nov. 26, early in the Ravens' Monday Night Football rout of the Los Angeles Rams. Undrafted rookie Patrick Mekhari took over for the rest of the season.
Skura was having his best year yet, turning himself into one of the better centers in the league. He attacked his rehab this offseason, and was ahead of schedule. He passed the Ravens' difficult conditioning test in mid-June.
It seems Skura won't be out for long, even though he's not ready for full action at the start of camp. The Ravens traditionally take a cautious approach to players returning from injuries to ease them back in.
"I'm optimistic about Matt, I really am. That's a big plus for us," Head Coach John Harbaugh said last week. "We'll be careful and we'll see how he looks and feels. I know he's worked really, really hard to be ready."
The Ravens will have plenty of competition at center in training camp with Skura, Mekhari, Bradley Bozeman (last year's starting left guard) and undrafted rookies Trystan Colon-Castillo and Sean Pollard.
