Keyon Martin

Ravens CB Marlon Humphrey Undergoes Finger Surgery

By Ely Allen | at November 16, 2025 8:50 am

By Thursday of this week, the Ravens knew they would be down two defensive players, and by Friday, they had already placed one of them on injured reserve.

The Ravens acknowledged a finger injury to first-team All-Pro cornerback Marlon Humphrey last week, even though it didn’t actually keep him from being a full participant in practice. In the team’s win over the Vikings, though, Humphrey only played 45 of the team’s 65 defensive snaps, when he normally only takes a handful of snaps off. This week, the finger injury kept him out of practice all week.

Head coach John Harbaugh acknowledged that Humphrey may require surgery on his finger the day after the game, per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic. On Wednesday, Kevin Oestreicher, who writes for USA Today as part of the publication’s NFL Wire Network, quoted Harbaugh’s report that Humphrey had gotten “his finger pinned.” Pins are usually placed in broken fingers with unstable or misaligned fractures to help them heal and set properly. Pins remain in the finger until the bones are healed, then are taken out in a minimally invasive procedure.

This does make Humphrey inactive for today’s game, but he is not the player who was placed on IR. Harbaugh relayed to the media that the 29-year-old quarterback will likely only miss a week or two. The player who was placed on IR yesterday was undrafted rookie linebacker Jay Higgins IV. Not to be confused with the second-round Iowa State wide receiver in Houston, Jayden Higgins, Jay played for the rival Iowa Hawkeyes and signed with the Ravens after falling out of the draft.

While making the initial 53-man roster as an undrafted free agent is an impressive feat, though a common one in Baltimore, Higgins hasn’t actually seen any time on defense, instead working as a core special teamer throughout his young career. Per Zrebiec, Higgins sustained a “notable knee injury” sometime during the team’s trip to Minnesota and left the locker room after the game with a significant brace on his right leg. Harbaugh informed the media on Monday that the injury is not season-ending but that it would take a few weeks for Higgins to come back from.

With Humphrey out, the Ravens head to Cleveland with Nate Wiggins, Chidobe Awuzie, T.J. Tampa, and undrafted rookie Keyon Martin as the only healthy corners on the active roster. Martin is the one listed as the second-string nickelback, the position most frequented by Humphrey. The team did call up veteran cornerback Amani Oruwariye as a standard gameday practice squad elevation for added depth at the position.

The Ravens utilized their other elevation to call up another undrafted rookie linebacker in Chandler Martin out of Memphis. Martin and Higgins were frequently viewed as competitors for a 53-man roster spot throughout the preseason, and Martin ended up on the practice squad while Higgins made the team. Now, Martin will get his chance to fill in for Higgins on special teams today.