The Baltimore Ravens tight end has fully recovered from his 2023 injury and is ready to get to work.
Back in Mid-November, tight end Mark Andrews suffered what was originally believed to be a season-ending ankle injury. But after surgery and a grueling rehabilitation, including usage of a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, Andrews returned to the field in the AFC Championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs. He admittedly wasn’t 100-percent, but wanted to do everything he could in the team’s pursuit of a Super Bowl. Now, eight months after the injury, Andrews spoke to reporters that he’s fully recovered and ready to put in work at training camp.
“[I’m feeling] great. I feel awesome,” Andrews said. “Like I said, I spent a lot of time working in the offseason to work on myself and again, after OTAs, just put in that work and [I’m] excited to go out there and help this team and continue to grow in this offense and get better together. I feel 100-percent, if not better than I ever have.”
The transition from working out as a rehabilitation and returning to form into becoming stronger, faster and a better player happened over the offseason. According to Andrews, it hit about a month after the season concluded.
“I put in some work, stabilization stuff. It felt incredible [being fully healthy]. Being able to go out there run a route. I know what it—We worked really hard right after I got the surgery because it was a quick turnaround. So, the pain thresholds and all that stuff, I had to go through a lot. So, for me to be able to go through the offseason and go through a training session and feel incredible, be flying around and have the next day be able to do it again, that was a great feeling.”
As Andrews enters his seventh NFL season, he says he’s incorporating new things into his regimen.
“For me, a lot of balancing, little different muscles, started doing a little bit of Pilates, stuff like that,” Andrews said. “But I ran a ton this offseason. I think everybody knows I like to work hard. The only way to get better at football is football, so we spent the time, me and my family and everybody involved to run a lot of routes, catch a lot of balls and I’m excited to show that off.”
This summer, as he’s for a few offseasons now, Andrews competed against his siblings.
“My brother was covering me and my dad, we have the ball machine so he’s the quarterback of the thing,” Andrews said. “He’s a sniper on it.”