Keaton Mitchell sure looked like he was back on Thursday.
The Baltimore Ravens running back and ECU football alum had a memorable night in his first preseason scrimmage since his rookie season. He had a 23-yard touchdown and finished with 68 yards on nine carries in a 24-16 win.
Mitchell has had a great training camp and looks to be 100% from his knee injury in 2023. He returned the play toward the end of last season but the team and even Mitchell admitted he wasn’t at the top of his game.
He was on Thursday.
Keaton Mitchell (AP photo)
“I feel good just coming back from strength and conditioning, OTAs, camp,” Mitchell said after Thursday’s game. “Feel a lot better, a lot more confident. So just being more confident in myself and trusting my knee — that it’s stronger, and it can do what I need it to do.”
Ravens coach John Harbaugh was happy to see Mitchell shine.
“Keaton’s one of those guys that’s obviously got that ability to take it to the house at any time,” Harbaugh said. “You can bounce it to the edge. You can cut it back. He’s good in the pass game, and then also establishing the fact that you’ll run the ball between the tackles. I think he’s doing that, too. And that’s really important. You don’t want to be the guy that they say, ‘Oh, he is an outside run game guy,’ right? You want to make him pay between the tackles, too. That’s something, too, that I know he is very focused on.”
Mitchell admitted the road back from the injury, rehab and playing last season was grueling, but he said he always had faith he’d make it.
“It took a lot,” he said. “[I was] just trusting the rehab, trusting the people that’s putting you through the rehab, talking to God, [making] sure you’re following the right steps, and you have to be disciplined with everything you do. And most importantly, just trusting yourself.”
Photo credit: Keaton Mitchell (AP photo)
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