The Ravens could soon place one of their tight ends on injured reserve after an injury from this past Monday night’s game. Before fantasy owners go sprinting for their phones, it’s not Mark Andrews or Isaiah Likely dealing with injury but third-string tight end Charlie Kolar. Kolar suffered a broken arm, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, and is expected to miss four games before a possible return. 
According to Pelissero, Kolar suffered the broken bone early on in the fourth quarter then went on to finish the game before ever undergoing X-rays. A four-week absence would include a bye week but would also end in the midst of a 10-day stretch in which the Ravens play three games ending on Wednesday, Christmas Day. If he missed exactly four weeks, to the day, he would be returning on Christmas, so it’s probably not likely that they’d see him return with only three missed games on a short week.
For this reason, an IR stint might be best, especially considering that Baltimore still retains five of its eight IR activations. This would see Kolar make a return in time for the team’s regular season finale against the Browns and, potentially, in time for a playoff run.
Kolar is no stranger to injury, missing all but two games of his rookie season on IR after surgery to address a sports hernia injury. In his third year with the team, he’s posted career highs in receptions (9) and receiving yards (131). Kolar has obviously been playing third fiddle to teammates Andrews and Likely, but that certainly doesn’t mean he’s not a talented tight end in his own right.
According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), while Andrews ranks as the fourth-best tight end in the NFL out of 77 graded players at the position and Likely ranks 12th, Kolar sits just behind them at 16th. This isn’t the usual scenario in which one of the three tight ends is a talented run blocking specialist, all three have exceptional receiving metrics with Kolar holding the seventh-best receiving grade in the league.
In response to the injury, head coach John Harbaugh told the media they were “going to put another guy out there,” per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic. Obviously, Andrews and Likely will continue to dominate time at tight end, but Kolar still played about a third of the team’s offensive snaps. If they’re going to replace those snaps with somebody currently on their roster, they’d have to dip into the practice squad.
Currently, Zaire Mitchell-Paden is one healthy option. The 25-year-old was signed as an undrafted free agent in Cleveland following a graduate transfer year at Florida Atlantic in which he caught nine passes for 90 yards and a touchdown. He was more likely signed based on his time at Division II Notre Dame College where he caught 90 balls for 1,206 yards in four years. Another option is Scotty Washington, who the Ravens signed to their practice squad today, per Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2. Washington joined the team’s practice squad about this time last year but didn’t open this year with the team after failing to make either roster.
The team also rosters undrafted Samford rookie Qadir Ismail. The son of a former two-time 1,000-yard receiver for the Ravens, Qadry Ismail, Qadir is a converted quarterback who became a wide receiver at Villanova before transferring. Now, in the NFL, Baltimore views him as a tight end, but he’ll need to get healthy in order to make an impact this year.
