The Baltimore Ravens have dealt with plenty of injuries over the course of the 2021 season. However, they got a few of their players back in Week 11 against the Chicago Bears, including tight end Nick Boyle.
Boyle suffered a gruesome leg injury in 2020 against the New England Patriots, with his return in Chicago coming just over one year after he saw his season end last year. When asked about the full extent of his injuries Boyle went into detail and named the areas that were impacted on his leg.
“I had a hamstring, meniscus, PCL, MCL, a little fracture, and then I had a clean-up late.”
The veteran tight end was also asked if his hamstring was completely off of the bone, to which Boyle explained what happened in that area.
“Yes, the inside part of it was. Usually, people have them on the outside, but it was different. It was on the inside, because the way it got hit, it kind of came through, and my whole inside of the knee blew-out.”
Many knew when the replays were initially shown of Boyle’s injury that it was bad. While answering a different question, the tight end went into detail that he had two surgeries, but mentioned the support system that he had, both with his family and with the organization.
“Yes, I had two [surgeries]. I had the initial one, and then I had one late summer. But those were both necessary for me to get back out there. And just like I said, it’s a lot. Even when I first had surgery, that was the like the worst surgery of my life. That week after was miserable – staying there in Texas – but luckily, I had my family come with me and everything. And just my whole support system, and even with the Ravens, they’ve been really good to me and allowed me to take the time to come back, which is a blessing.”
The fact that Boyle is playing football and was able to rehab to the point where he feels comfortable suiting up is a great thing. He admitted that he had questions about whether he would play this season, but went through a process mentally.
“…When you get injured like this, you fight daily battles with yourself when you’re not feeling good yet, maybe because you’re not fully warm. There is a whole process, like I said, and you’ve got to get fully warm, you’ve got to get fully into it. And from a mental aspect, coming off of injuries, you always think to yourself, ‘Am I going to be the player I was before?’ That goes through your head daily, and you’ve got to really erase that, and just go to work and work every single day, erase it and go and attack the next day like that. I have full belief that I will go out there, and I will be how I was, and I will be even better. But that stuff just takes time.”
Boyle is a big part of what Baltimore does on offense, so to have him back on the field is a big boost to their offense. However, the most important thing is that Boyle was able to make a full recovery, something that is a testament to the hard work that the tight end put in.