Keaton Mitchell Joins The Lounge | Baltimore Ravens

Keaton Mitchell Joins The Lounge | Baltimore Ravens

[Music] Welcome into lounge presented by DraftKings. I’m Ryan Mink here with Garrett Downing and we are thrilled to sit down with running back Katon Mitchell. Thank you for joining us. No problem. No problem. So, I’ve noticed your cleats since the start of training camp. And today I came in for a closer inspection. I was kind of I’m not going to lie. I was stalking you a little bit. I was like, “Look at this.” Are those Roadrunner cleat? Yeah. That is sick. I got some more coming in. Yeah. More Roadrunner cleat. You’re going to have diversity of Road Runner. That’s sick. Yeah. Somebody out there giving me right to them. Awesome. So, very fitting. I mean, were you a big Roadrunner fan growing up or you’re like, I’m fast, we’re going fast. So, my sister made a little uh highlight clip of me and then she put in a little road runner, the meat meep. She put that in there and then it just took off from there. Yeah. Does it say it says meat meep on the like toes in it? On the toe. And the other one say wink. My uh uh friends in college used call me Wink. Hey, no no no no background with it. It just wink. Just wink. Yeah. No, no, there’s no story with it. Just just wink. Just wink. All right, we’ll we’ll run with it. What? Didn’t you have a pendant that had Roadunner? Yeah, the Road Runner on there. Yeah. All right. I like it. Have you always had that? Is that Is that I got it after my rookie year. Okay. About Yeah. Around there somewhere. That is super sick. Well, we’re watching practice. You look like the Road Runner again out there this practice event. You feeling fast? Oh, yeah. faster than I ever felt. I feel real good. I’m not gonna lie. Yeah. How I mean, how I’m just curious. Obviously, we saw how fast you were as a rookie. I mean, you look at the NextGen stats and you had some of the top top speeds in the league. Yeah. How do you after the knee injury that you suffered, like how do you get even faster than that? I mean, just grinding and then you really just starting from scratch, working the muscles you never thought you had to work before on both legs. So, like just getting that going and then stronger. So, yeah. Interesting. Was there a point where you felt like, oh, I’m faster? Like whether it’s the actual times? cuz I know you you you’ll pay attention to some of those times that you’re running too, but like was there was it either a time or a moment or a play where you felt like my speed is back and maybe better than ever? So, when we came back for uh strength and conditioning, uh we were doing like uh 15 yard buildups or um yeah, buildups. And um I was uh going with Ant. He was like, “I’m going to go with Katon so I can hit my top speed or whatever.” And then we end up going. Boom. He hit 22. And then Sam was like, “Oh my.” Uh, and then aunt was like, “What’d I get? Did I hit my PR?” He like, “Yeah, uh, you hit 22.” But Katon, golly, you just broke your PR. Oh, wow. I ain’t even I didn’t even know I was running that fast, but I definitely hit 22.4. So, yeah. Wow. I mean, that has to be a pretty awesome feeling given everything that that you’ve gone through. Yeah. Facts. That that’s cool. I mean, feeling for for I’ll tell you the moment for me where it I was like Katon’s back. It was actually just a couple weeks ago, maybe like a week ago, watching practice and there was a play where you came around the edge and you just turned it up field. Oh yeah. And you probably know what I’m talking about. And then you were just off to the races and I was like, man, he just continues to make these types of plays. Like we saw we saw it a little bit in the offseason, but then once we got into training camp and then you turned the edge and then you just like you hit the you hit the turbos. Yeah. And like that play to me was like there’s no doubt that this guy’s running like he did as a rookie. Yeah. When I came back last year, I came back but I only had one gear. I ain’t going to lie. Now I got all my gear. So we rolling. Yeah. Tell me about that process last year. And you know obviously after the rookie season that you had it was, you know, you got that adrenaline rush like you made it. you were making plays and then to suffer the injury, it felt like last year you were just like, I’ll do whatever it takes to get back on the field. Did you feel like you were kind of a little ahead of yourself almost? Yeah, definitely. Uh, it was rock bottom. Uh, lonely, just me grinding up here every day. Didn’t really have an off season. I ain’t go home. Just me, K, Scott, uh, Mike, Adrian just grinding every day while everybody on vacation. So, it was like hard times. Um, then when everybody came back, just sitting in the wait room watching them guys go out there and practice. And then it just got to a point where I was like, man, I don’t know if I could take uh take it much longer. So, once I started running, cutting, I like, man, I got to get out there soon. I can’t even take it no more. So, yeah, I just went back out there. Yeah. Yeah. And so you you you come back last year and like you said, you only had one gear, but you you made it back. And I think obviously in a lot of ways just getting back on the field last year was a pretty significant accomplishment in and of itself given the significance of the knee injury and just the long road that you had to to come back and and get to that point, but was it how did you handle it last year? Like you get on the you you cross the hurdle of suiting up again, but you’re not like the same player that you feel like you can be. How did you handle that? Just kept praying, kept going. Um ignore the noises of like all people that was saying I’m never going to be the rookie year me again just ignoring that. Um and just we got a little sand saying now uh just staying rooted to what uh we got going on. So just staying down, staying rooted uh cuz eventually I knew I was going to get back to myself. Can’t let the outside noise get to me. So, uh, yeah, I just stayed down, kept praying, and now I’m back. It’s better. So, coming off of last season, did you stay around here the whole offseason this year, too, to to train last offseason? No, this this Yeah, this offseason. Oh, this off season? Oh, no. Well deserved break. Yeah, I was gone. I took so many trips. I was gone. Overdue. Yeah, I was gone. You paid your dues the previous offseason. Yeah, I was gone. Yeah. to going back to, you know, you have this incredible start as a rookie. A what was that that journey like as as a rookie when you come on and you just burst on the scene like that that big? Yeah. Take me through what that journey was like for you as an undrafted rookie. It was lit. It was lit. I ain’t going to lie. No. um coming in as a rookie undrafted pops was like uh get on special teams and then from there you’ll make the team if you working hard on special teams and then just when you get your touches make them count. So um they put in a little package for me versus Detroit. A little reverse that went for 10 yards. That was my last touch. That was my only touch that game. And then when was the next game? Was it uh Seattle? I think it was. Yeah, Seattle. It was Yeah. Then my first few touches was gone. Then hey, I felt comfortable and I was just doing me, right? There it goes. Once you once you’re out of the box there, there ain’t there’s no putting you back in. Like once you made those plays, it was like, “All right, we’re just running with this now.” Yeah. Facts. Do do you uh do you feel like if that injury didn’t happen, I mean I know you can always play the what if games. Like I feel like that season might have turned out differently for the Ravens. Like that’s how many plays you were making. Sure. How tough was that? And did you feel the same way when when you had to watch from the sideline during that playoff stretch and down the the stretch there? Hey, it was hard, but I always was like just control what you can control. Mhm. when you get back out there, then we can make that run. Yeah. But yeah, h how who did you lean on during the hard times of this recovery process? Uh Trent Simpson and Tavius Robinson. My dogs, they were there for me. Yeah. Yeah. What was it about your guys’ connection that just made you feel like those were guys that you could kind of lean on for support? Uh they was just we was just always around and um they was always texting me or whatever. Um, you know, I was in the house, so uh, they was like, “Come on, let’s go get something to eat, man. Let’s just go hang out. Uh, let’s go to the baseball game. Let’s go here.” And, um, and we end up going to Cancun together. I was like, “Yeah, these my dogs for real.” And, uh, yeah, we just stayed with each other from there. They honestly seemed like two of the nicest guys on the team. Oh, yeah. They some great guys. Yeah, especially Tavius. Yeah, especially Hey, off the field. Yeah, he a nice dude, but on the field once he put them bands on and cut his circulation off, he a whole different dude. Does he actually cut his circulation off? We got to ask Tavius about this thing. He also he also does the eye black, too. Like he puts on the war paint. I told him, bro, he got to go full sleeve tatted up. Wait, you going to be dangerous for real? Yeah, he cut his circulation off. That’s crazy. That’s I’m going to have to ask him about that. So, so I think a lot of people, you know, we’re watching you practice and we’re like, man, Katon’s back. Like, I’m excited to watch you get the ball, but how you get the ball is the question mark, right? You got Derek Henry in there and Justice Hill and those guys are both awesome also. So, like, how do you look at that situation? I think Todd Monkin the other day was like, “It’s a fight for snaps in that room because you’re all so good.” Yeah, for sure. Uh, it’s a great room. Um, start off by kick return. Get the ball at kick return. Um, and just whenever I get subbed in or whatever, you know, Derek going to need his 25, 30 carries, Jess going to get his and then me and Shane, we going to get whatever they don’t get and make it count. I mean, I guess that’s the same exact scenario you were in as a rookie, too. That worked out pretty well. Facts. Yeah. Hey, I ain’t going to say too much, but but it’s happening. Yeah, it’s it’s Yeah. Well, one of the things I think that stands out to me about you is a whenever you get the ball, you have the ability to take it to the house. And so I’ve always kind of said that like it’s not I’m sure you would love any player would love a lot of volume. You love 15 20 carries a game. Anybody would love that. But you don’t need them. You like say no. No. Really? What’s your What’s kind of like your ideal? My ideal carries? Yeah. Give me 10. Give me 10. Just come in there and hit home runs. You’re just like that D. Just give me Just give me some. I just need a little bit. I’m going to make them count. Right. Right. That’s my thing. It’s like you don’t need 20, but because you can you’re kind of like a three-point shooter a little bit. Like that’s the way I see it. Like you can come in off the like come in off the bench instant offense and provide a spark to this team, which is exactly what you did as a rookie. I I like to stick with the home run theme here. I’m going designated hitter, right? He’s not out on the field all the time. He’s not playing all those defense stuff. He’s the hitting DH. He uh hit bombs. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You’re you’re down. Speaking of baseball, I’m a little butt and I’m a Oh, there you go. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Beat one out, too. I’m sure. I’m sure single. That’s That’s your game right there. Keep this rolling. Yeah. Um, but yeah, that’s my thing. I just think that like no matter how many carries or touches you get, like you can you can take it to the house. And so, how does that affect your approach and your mindset going into games? Whatever ones I get, make them count. Yeah. You might get one, better make it count. Yeah. Make the first one count. You might get another one. Make that one count. You might get a third one. And then and I guess you kind of have evident you have proof of that from your rookie season. So like do you call back on that thinking like okay that Detroit game I got one the next game Seattle it ramped up and I took it to the house. Like is that kind of how you think about it as you’re looking about what your role could be this year? I mean yeah and no I don’t really think of the past but I mean I’m just thinking of it as whatever they need me to do. special teams, uh, offensively, uh, whatever. Just whenever I’m out there, get your best and just be myself and take one to the crib. How good do you feel as a kicker turner? Uh, good. I got to get a little bit get the feel a little bit more cuz last year I was I told you I got I had one gear last year. I had one gear. But, uh, nah. Um, Chris going to do a good job of showing me the ins and outs of it and hopefully I get a couple of returns this year. I mean, they’re going to be more returns this year with the rule changes and stuff. So, yeah, they they better not give us a touch back. 35 35, right? You putting L and Derek all them at the All right. See, he’s making a good case. He’s making good better kick it to me. Yeah, that’s what he that he’s just trying to talk that into the coaches right there. Opposed to coaches saying, “Give me a shot. Hey, sure. But did you return kicks in college? They ain’t let me. Why not? They ain’t want me to get hurt. Uhhuh. In college, you know they don’t be blocking for real. NFL they got a job. They better block. But no. Um, so college they had me and then I was getting smacked like the first two games. They’re like, “Nah, we going to stick on offense. They wasn’t blocking for real.” And then my junior year, um, we got to the bowl game and I was like, and I was done. I was like, “All right, can I get at least one kick return?” And then they put me back there and I took it for 80 and then that’s all I needed. I was like, “All right, I’m good. I’m good.” You talk about your dad and and his advice to you when you were coming in as a rookie and, you know, your father being a former Ravens player, Super Bowl winner. Yeah. Uh, what what influence does that have on you and does he have on you and kind of helping guide you along your NFL career? He got the ring. I’m trying to get a ring. I’m trying to match him with They get bigger every year. So, his will be Yours would be like twice the size of his. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I need that ring. I need that ring. That’s it. Did he Does he bust his out? Does he ever Every time he come up here, he wearing it. He try to wear his every day. All right, bro. Relax, relax. He showed me some highlights. He cold. I ain’t know he was that cold. You know when you young, you like pause, you weren’t even like that for real. And he pull he got the old little what’s it called? VHS or whatever the VHS tapes. Yeah. Yeah. Pop the VCR. He pulled it. He like, “Hey, I got it. It’s the tape.” He turned it on. I was like, “Okay.” You just got to keep a VCR working just so you can show the highlight tapes. He was trying so hard to find it and then he finally got it. I like it was all right. You roast though you and him he’s coming up to try to tackle you in the hole. Yeah. Was that ever is that a debate that you guys have had? Oh, he not he not messing with me though. He got mood feet. He’s He’s 6’2. I’mma give him a little heavy. Uhhuh. I’m gone. That’s all he got. Was was when you were growing up, was football like with him being a football player. Was that something that was like you always played? You always loved the game. It was always part of your childhood. Everybody in my family played football. Me, my brother, my pops, my mom. The only person I ain’t played football was my sister. Yeah. So, so who gave you your speed? Mom, dad? My mom was pretty fast. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, she ran track at Texas. Okay. Yeah. I don’t know. One of them. Well, she I mean, if she’s a little combination, we’ll give him a combo. Yeah. Give him half and half, right? So, and and was that did you have conversations with him about when you’re growing up about the potential of making it to the pros and was that something that like you thought was a possibility as you were a kid growing up? I was just out there having fun. I ain’t going to lie. It’s a kids game out there having fun. I ain’t really Yeah. Everybody want to get to the NFL, but feel me? I went to ECU, then it got real. I was like, “Oh, I might got a chance.” And man, yeah, it happened. And it I I feel like you still have that same attitude. Like you still to some degree have that same like mindset. You’re just like, “Hey, I’m playing a kids game and I’m having fun.” Like, is that the still the same approach that you take? Oh, yeah. Got to got to have fun cuz once you get born then you ain’t going to be the same out there, man. Eventually you going to want to retire. You got to have fun. You We up here. You getting up at 6:00 a.m. 5:30 all the way to 5:30 p.m. You got I love it. You got to have fun. Can’t be too uptight, too serious. So yeah. Ke, I I looked at your knee and I see these scars, right? And like that’s a testament, man. That’s like part of your seen this one. No, I hadn’t seen that. Oh boy, man. I did. Yes, that was not facing me. I mean, a how serious that knee injury was. That was a big one. Oh, yeah. Career ending. That is that what they told you? Yeah. Everybody think it was just the ACL. It was my ACL, PCL, LCL, hamstring and hamstring. Yeah. Tour. Yeah. And so who told you career ending? Uh the people. Like when did they tell when you went in for surgery? when they tell you that or when it first happened or what? Uh they tried they ain’t want to like tell me oh that’s career ending probably like once I start rehabing things started getting better they was like yeah that was a career ending. M they thought like this is kind of what was running through my mind at the time that you probably weren’t going to do you really gota like you can’t speed up rehab, you can’t go too slow. You just got to stay on track and just trust trust the man up there. Wow. Yeah. Obviously it’s not career ending because you’re you’re still here and you’re still and you’re showing that you know you still have you can still play. Yeah. What what does that mean about your character and the type of person and player that you are to overcome that? Hey, everybody built different, man. Shout out to my college running back coach, Coach Foster. Man, he always tell us we built different. Just got to carry yourself like that. Like it ain’t over till you say it’s over. Stay down and get to it. Yeah. Do those scars make you a stronger person? Like has this made you better, stronger? This injury? Yes. Yes. It taught me a lot of stuff. I never really had adversity like this for real. But yeah, this taught me a lot. Like what? I ain’t going to get in depth. I’m going to get a little emotional. But hey, I would People were saying I should get tattoos, but like no, I need to see these scars just to remind me remind myself what I went through. M. So yeah, it was long lonely nights. People go ghost. Remember everybody was there when rookie season breaking them long run. But once it’s over with, you see all the people go away. You still got a handful of people that’s still there for you. But no, it definitely got dark. Yeah. There was no light. Hey, just stay down though. What was there one moment that was the the darkest? The darkest moment probably like when I was really when nobody checking up on me. It was like a two week, three week nobody checking up on me. Uh I couldn’t I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t walk. What? I was in crutches or I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t do nothing. And it was just hey figure it out. M and that was that was like what was that shortly after the injury happened? H after surgery. When was that? After a little after surgery. Yeah. I think it’s tough like and I I’ll just speak for myself, you know, like I felt so bad for you, you know, and it’s like tough when you see somebody and and you know, even when I would just see you even when you came back a little bit and you were hanging around the locker room and you see you and you’re like down like you can tell like it’s tough and you don’t know what to say. You know what I mean? Like No, I try to I try to I try to keep a smile on my face and try to not like let people see that side of me. Yeah. But definitely when I leave this building Yeah. Tough. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and but you worked your way through it. Oh, yeah. Facts. And And if there’s one thing that that you take away from that whole experience um and being able to come out of it, like the motivation of anyone else that’s going through a tough time or going through injuries and that’s just part of what happens in the league when they’re going through tough times. Like what is the motivation that you take from that whole experience? Just lean on God. He gonna be there with you when you up here and when you down there. Just lean on him. Talk to him every day. And just know it can happen. Like if you want to come back from that injury or whatever you going through, you can get through it. You just got to lean on God cuz he got all the answers. And just trust in him. It’s awesome. Well, I got only one thing left to say. That’s meet me. Appreciate it. Me, are you allowed to wear those cleats during games? I don’t know. These next ones I might be able to, but those I doubt it. Okay. I might wear on them pregame. Okay. I got some I got some more coming in. All right. All right. Keep our eye out. We can’t wait to see them. Hey, Katon. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Welcome back into the lounge podcast. We are coming to you from the Segeek studio. We want to mention our partners at DraftKings Sportsbook. They are an official sports betting partner of the Baltimore Ravens. DraftKings Sportsbook, the crown is yours. Thank you to Katon. Uh I like sitting down and talking with him. um also applaud him and thank him for being so open and um forthcoming and talking about his injury and the tough times that he that he went through uh during that and it’s really good to see him on the other side of it. Yeah, I’m I’m really excited about Katon. I’m not going to lie. Like that’s been one of my biggest uh takeaways from the OTAA’s mini camp and now into training camp is how good he looks. I I I I didn’t know, you know, man, it’s going to be tough to find Katon some snaps. That’s how kind of I was thinking OTAAS is how you going to do this, you know, how you going to get him some? And like now I’m like we have to find a way to get him enough touches, you know, and like he said, it’s not 1520, but like he can do some damage with with some touches. But to me, seeing how well he’s run in training camp, like that number’s bumping up for me. Well, as he said, kick return is going to be a big piece of that. And I think there’s going to be a lot of action on kick returns that they’re not just going to give uh the ball give the offense back. It’s not just touchback territory. And so he’s going to get opportunities there. But I do think that he’s going to like he can catch the ball out of the back field. He’s good. He has good hands in that regard. If you get him in a mismatch situation out of the back field on a linebacker, like that can be a house call. And then if you just give him the ball, like something that stands out to me about him is yes, he’s got the speed around the edge, that’s where I think he’s at his best, but he’s not afraid to run between the tackles either. And that’s what that’s what separates him in my mind as like a as a difference maker is that he can do a lot of different things. He’s not just He’s not just a guy who can catch it on the back field. He’s not just a guy who you got to use around the edge. You can use him in different ways. He runs between tackles, too. He runs between the tackles and so he has the the whole playbook is open when he’s on the field, which is important for a guy like him. Yeah. Well, and Justice Hill had 47 carries, I believe it is, uh, last season. You know, maybe Keaton eats into that a a little bit. The thing about Justice is like Justice was so good on third down as a receiver and as a pass protector and all those things. So I think some people think, oh well Katon like he can be kind of your third down back guy and like Justice is a very good very good third down back. Yeah. And you know, does Derrick Henry have as many carries as he did last year? Maybe that declines a little bit. You know, Dererick Henry’s a machine, but the fresher you can keep him for the playoffs, I think the better, you know, and so now that you have Katon in the mix, maybe that he takes a little bit off of Derek’s plate also, uh, with Derrick obviously still being the workhorse. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s tough to see exactly where those carries come from because there’s so much I think the Ravens probably have the best running back trio in the game when you really look at it and and if continues to play the way that we think that he can. And I’m with you like I I think I think the Ravens may win the Super Bowl two years ago if he stays healthy for that stretch. And now you inject him back into this offense that already has so many other pieces. I I I like my three-point shooter analogy better. I think that’s better than the the DH. Well, he doesn’t fit the DH. I mean, he’s a DH. When I think of DH, I think of like Prince Fielder, a big guy that just like Ceil Fielder go way back. Loafs out to the field and just hacks the ball. Like I think of him as instant offense coming in off the bench and providing a spark. Yeah. Yeah. Three-point shooter works. I’ll give it to you. Yeah, I’ll give it to you. You know what? Actually, his his thing talking about college, how they wouldn’t let him uh return kicks. What that reminded me of was Hollywood Brown as a rookie. remember when he he got thrown out there for punt returns on the first first one he dropped it and he got smacked and they were like never again. That’s enough. That’s enough. Yeah, I do remember that one. Uh but yeah, I’m I’m I’m I’m excited. I think we both are about Keon and he’s one of my favorite guys to talk to. Just he’s he’s very authentic and uh I hope listeners, viewers got a chance to see him and his personality and glad to see him doing well and and certainly uh rooting for him this year. So absolutely. Uh as always, you can email us at the lounge at ravens.n nfl.net. We we love hearing your emails, reading those emails. So, send in those uh questions, comments, thoughts that you have about this team and and where this team could go. Also, coming up on Sunday is the stadium practice. We’re going to be practicing at Emity Bank Stadium. That is going to be carried live on our YouTube channel as well as our app and our website. So, make sure you check that out on Sunday as well. Thank you so much for watching and listening and we will be back with you again soon.

Ravens RB Keaton Mitchell joins team insiders Ryan Mink and Garrett Downing to share the journey back from his major rookie knee injury, how he sees his role in 2025, the story behind his flashy cleats, and more.

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