Ron Rivera gives injury updates on Logan Thomas, Sam Cosmi, and Benjamin St-Juste after practice

Ron Rivera speaks to the media after practice

Ron Rivera spoke to the media today and provided some injury updates. RG Sam Cosmi hyperextended his knee when he got rolled up on, but he returned to practice after getting a sleeve. CB Benjamin St-Juste tweaked his ankle yesterday, and didn’t practice today. Logan Thomas continues to miss all team activities with a calf injury that has sidelined him for over a week. Rivera made it very clear that they were being very careful with an aged veteran like Thomas. He was asked about Antonio Gibson’s injury at the end of practice, but he didn’t provide an update. Gibson reportedly left practice with cramps.

Sam Cosmi injury:

He hyper extended it. He went back out and finished practice. It sounded like he had hyperextended it, he had his leg locked out and somebody hit the kneecap from what I’m being told. So far, everything seems to be good. He went back and finished practice.

Yeah, it looked like he got it hyperextended. It was straight when he got bumped, somebody rolled into him I think, and so they let it calm down on the side. They checked him and put a sleeve on and he went back out there and didn’t seem to have a problem. I was watching him near the end just to make sure he looked good, and he sure did, he moved around pretty well.”

Benjamin St-Juste injury:

He’s got a little tweak on his ankle and obviously a guy that runs a lot, you don’t want to get out there and exacerbate the injury. We just wanted to be smart, see how he is. We slowed him down yesterday. Today, we just kept him out.

Logan Thomas injury:

At this point, this is caution. He’s a little bit older, veteran guy, a guy that’s coming back and we just want to be careful with him. Maybe we’re being overly cautious, but at the end of the day, the most important thing is the guy’s ready to play when we open up the season.

Caution with Thomas:

Yes, it does. Especially a guy in his position that’s so important for us. It wouldn’t do us any good to get him out there a little too early and all of a sudden that injury flares up again. So for the most part, we just want to be cautious. We want to want to take our time with an aged veteran like that.

Offensive line film against Cleveland:

I thought there were things that were better than people anticipated and then there were some things that we have to sure up. The nice thing is those incidents and mistakes, those are all correctable. Those are technique things more than they are anything else. I thought schematically, they handled all that pretty well. I think individually there are some things that do need to be shored up for sure.

Last roster spots at wide receiver:

I think it’s really going to be about fit. The guys that we’re going to keep really most certainly fit the needs that we have. We got a couple guys that are nice size receivers that run well, very good on special teams and that’s going to be one of the factors as well. Some position flex, we got a couple guys that can play all three of the wide receiver positions. Those are the guys that you also will take into big consideration. Special teams most certainly is a consideration.

Concerns about Emmanuel Forbes’ size after goal line tackle vs Cleveland:

I think the biggest thing more anything else is he doesn’t play to that size. He plays fast, he plays with his hands, plays with his eyes. He came in and took a nice angle and got himself in on the tackle. He’s going to go out and do what he’s done. He played in the SEC and he played there for three good years and did some really good things.

OL Coach Travelle Wharton back surgery:

Montez Sweat:

He’s looked good. He really has. He’s the guy that’s got some great explosion, play speed and quickness. You see it flare up when he’s focused in and ready to roll. You see some really good reps. You see some good flashes of what his abilities really are. It’s good to see him moving around and flying around. It’s one of those things that you just know he is ready to take that next step a lot. It’s very similar to what we saw last year with Daron Payne.

Ravens joint practices:

I said, hey, next time we’re on the practice field, it’s going to be this, it’s going to be competitive. We’re not there to beat anybody up. We’re there to play against somebody and learn and grow and develop and I was very direct about that. I’m going to be very direct in the next couple meetings that we have leading right up to practice. We don’t want to go around and bullshit. We want to come, we want to get around, we want to learn, we want to grow, we want to be able to work our offense and defense and special teams against a very good football team, very well coached football team. That’s pretty much been one of the standards probably the last 14 years since John Harbaugh arrived on the scene. So, we all can learn something from those guys and that’s the approach I want everybody taking.

Injured players traveling to Baltimore:

They should go with Baltimore. Our trainers will be there. They have the facility there that they’re allowing us to use some of it and so we can get our guys trained there and at the same time, they can still go to meetings, still go to practice, see what’s going on. So, unless the guy should not be walking, we should have everybody there.

Rivera’s Assistant Head Coaches(Eric Bieniemy and Steve Wilks):

It was a little bit different from what I had in Carolina because Coach Wilks wasn’t the primary play caller on defense and so Steve handled a few more things that Coach Bieniemy is not. But on the inverse, Coach Bieniemy is handling a few more things that Coach Wilks didn’t and one of those things primarily has been the scheduling and scripting of practice. That’s one of the things that as a head coach, you really do dive into and really get a really good feel for what’s going on with the team and how you see it with Eric.

You see that, you know, he’s doing things, he’s changed some of the things that we’ve done in the past and that’s fine because it goes right along with what he said about let’s be comfortable when we’re uncomfortable. So we’ve changed some things with that in mind, knowing that it’s going to be uncomfortable, these are going to be different. But it’s helped us. The things we did the other night as far as our last walkthrough practice, we scripted it accordingly to the way he saw it and it was different. A couple bumps, but as we smooth it out, I can see exactly where he is going with that and what he’s trying to do, what he’s trying to accomplish.

It’s been a good experience I think for him and it’s one of the things that, eventually when he gets his opportunity to be head coach, that he most certainly I think will do his way and will appreciate having had the chance to already take a look at it and see what works and what doesn’t work.

Eric Bieniemy’s role as a chance for development:

Absolutely, a little bit of mentoring there. I think giving him those responsibilities also gives him some practical application to it as well.