Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz react to reports that defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike will return to the Baltimore Ravens after undergoing neck surgery for an injury that kept him out for most of the 2025 season. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.
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Video Transcript
A boost for Baltimore during draft week.
Ravens defensive tackle Nnamdi Maduabuchike, who suffered a ca- season-ending and career-threatening neck injury in week two last season, underwent neck surgery last week that left his doctors believing he will be able to resume playing this season.
This is huge news for somebody whose loss absolutely was massive, and it was felt throughout the course of the entire season for Baltimore, Carolina, as their defense was really never able to find a way to make up for the absence for him, and this is at least a sign of hope.
And above and beyond just for all of us as fans of the game, for the individual who thought maybe his playing career was gonna be cut short, to find out that there’s a path to him playing this year is huge for Nnamdi, also huge for the Ravens.
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Huge for him.
You know, whenever you see an injury like that, neck, spine, head, that is instantly when we start to approach the, approaching with abundance of caution kind of territory, when you start to question what is this guy’s future?
So just for Nnamdi as a person, so glad that he was able to get back and that he can feel confident enough to get back on the football field.
But like you mentioned, the Ravens’ defense was an absolute liability for them this past season.
It’s a massive reason why the Ravens missed out on the postseason and fell massively short of expectations.
So to get a guy back that was so incredibly reliable, has been reliable for the entirety of his career, going back to before last season.
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He played in 17 games in three consecutive seasons in ’22 through ’24, who has had 13 sacks in 2023, who is a massive part of their defense, for him to come back and just be a spark plug and a veteran presence for that defense I think is massive.
And then also to be yet another weapon for Jesse Minter, a defensive-minded head coach that has so many tools on this defense to work with.
You know, look at Kyle Hamilton and so many other pieces of this defense.
For him to be able to come back and be another tool, another weapon, a veteran presence, I, I think is massive.
I think we also need to keep in mind that just because he is medically cleared to come back to play does not mean that he’s gonna come back 100%.
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So always keep that in the back of your mind, that there’s going to be a ramping up period.
Maybe there’s a part of Nnamdi Maduabuchike a- a- that he was as a player previously that might just not be there anymore because his body just won’t allow him to be that.
I think that we all need to approach that with caution and grace.
But I think just to h- have him be able to come back, to get back on the football field and have the potential for him to be that same weapon that he was for the Ravens in his rookie deal, I think would be massive.