Ravens tight end Dennis Pitta has had serious corrective surgery on his hip each of the last two years but is hoping he can make a comeback at age 29.
"We still have some time to be able to assess where I'm at," Pitta told The Baltimore Sun. "I sure hope that I'll be on the field next year. That's my hope; that's my goal. We'll just see if we can get there."
At the moment, he's working out at the team facility. All of the team's top decision-makers have said the determination for Pitta to return rests on the tight end himself and his doctors.
Baltimore's desperation for receiving targets has not gone unnoticed this season and having Pitta back would be an enormous comfort boost for Joe Flacco.
That being said, a half-speed Pitta, or another version of the tight end who can't block and catch as effectively, would be a detriment. Injured players forcing their way back into lineups almost always create problems.
This is a difficult decision for the veteran, who needs to balance long-term pain with the possibility of gutting through another season in Baltimore.
At the moment, despite his optimism, there's no way Ozzie Newsome is counting on anything from Pitta in 2015. Though the Ravens aren't a team that desperately drafts on need, we wouldn't be surprised to see them pick up a tight end at some point.
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