The Ravens have potential replacements on their roster

 Kindle is out indefinitely with a fractured skull, with the Joe Flacco team prepared to play the season without him. Foxworth's situation is more definite, with the club's top cornerback erased for the season after tearing knee ligaments last week.

The Ravens have potential replacements on their roster. However, the top two candidates, Fabian Washington and Lardarius Webb, are returning from severe knee injuries themselves, with Washington expected to be ready for the opener and Webb an uncertainty.

Then there's All-Pro safety Ed Reed. He isn't practicing, either, as he tries to recover from offseason hip surgery. No one is sure when he returns, and that includes Reed. He could be ready for the regular-season opener. Then again, he might not.

"We'll just see how it plays out," general manager Ozzie Newsome said of the latest setbacks. "I just wish I knew where the next injury was coming from."

The Ravens have been down this road before, with the club decimated Ray Rice last season by injuries to its cornerbacks. It not only survived; it reached the playoffs for the second time in John Harbaugh's two seasons as head coach and destroyed New England ... in Foxborough, no less ... in the playoffs.

If there's a concern it's only that it's too early to start subtracting important players because of season-ending injuries. I mean, the Ravens haven't been in camp a week, and already we're wondering how they patch their secondary, what effect Kindle's injury might have on the pass rush and what becomes of Reed.

They can operate without Kindle, who figured to fill in behind starter Jarret Johnson, but Foxworth's loss is a legitimate headache -- with Baltimore scrambling to find someone, anyone, to take his place. If you're trying to catch division champion Cincinnati, you better be able to defend the pass. I don't care how you do it -- rush the passer, lock down the corners, confuse the quarterback, something -- but make the quarterback uncomfortable.

Yet the Ravens just lost a promising pass rusher and their best corner, while the Willis McGahee Bengals added pass catchers Terrell Owens and Antonio Bryant, as well as rookie tight end Jermaine Gresham, to beef up the 26th-ranked passing offense. So what? So that Bengals team beat Baltimore twice last season and didn't lose a division game.

"I know from my experiences you've got to weather storms," Newsome said. "Something happened early to us, but we can always draw on (the lesson) that we didn't pick up (tackle) Willie Anderson until the 53-man cut (in 2008), and he went on to start 11 games for us. I guess because we've been in this business (my message would be) let's worry about the season when we get around to it."

Beck is a savvy player that can be effective in the West-Coast system but his physical limitations will always hold him back. Right now the signal-callers on the Redskins roster are Rex Grossman, Colt Brennan and Richard Bartel. It is very conceivable that Beck could surpass all of the above mentioned quarterbacks on the depth chart.


"It wasn't anything odd. It happened on grass, so I can't even blame it on turf.

"I just feel like I'm letting everyone down. I know it's stupid. Everyone keeps saying you didn't do it on purpose, obviously, but you're expecting to be there to help the team - and then you're not."

Foxworth started all 16 games of the regular season last year and both of Baltimore's games in the play-offs, but now coach John Harbaugh is hoping some else in the team steps up to plug the gap.

"It's unfortunate. He wasn't touched," said Harbaugh. "Nobody's worked harder during the offseason and we were counting on him.

"I can't wait to see who steps up. I can't wait to see who that we're all talking about a month from now that stepped up to fill that spot."

With star safety Ed Reed also recovering from hip surgery, the Ravens have a depleted look to their secondary, but Foxworth has promised to help out off the field as much as he can.