OWINGS MILLS — It’s been a long road for Ravens offensive lineman Andrew Vorhees.
He spent most of his rookie season in the weight room as he recovered from knee surgery. Now, in his second year, Vorhees is competing for the starting job at guard, but he is not putting too much pressure on himself.
“I just think to go out to practice every day and just try to be the best football player that I can become,” Vorhees said. “We’ll let everything else take care of itself. I know these gentlemen upstairs have quite the job to decide who’s going to play at the end of the day. But as an individual, it’s up to us to become the best football players we can become and just make their jobs easier.”
Vorhees was selected by the Ravens in the seventh round with the 229th overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft. Vorhees had a redshirt first year to recover from a torn anterior cruciate ligament he suffered while participating in the scouting combine.
The coaches have been impressed by Vorhees’s adjustments after not being on the field for more than a year. Vorhees said the key for him has been leaning on his teammates and working hard in the recent voluntary offseason workouts.
“[It’s] unique in the fact that it’s such a repetitious position – being on offensive line,” Vorhees said. “And again, not being out on the field since the fall of 2022, and then making the jump from the collegiate level to the National Football League, it’s kind of a double-edged sword. So, at first, it was a little fast, but just over time, over these OTA [organized team activities] days and football school days, it definitely has slowed down a ton. I’m just thankful for the guys that are around me in the offensive line room, and they just help me and just make it easy.”
The Ravens hope Vorhees can start at left guard to replace John Simpson, who signed with the Jets this offseason. With the knee injury behind him, Vorhees is confident and focused heading into his first training camp.
He is no longer thinking about the injury.
“I think so, specifically [with] my confidence, just that first [moment when] the injury happened was just like, ‘Why?’ and then [I] kind of flipped it into, ‘Why not?’ and just attacked it straight on,” Vorhees said. “At the end of the day, controlling what I could control and my response to what had happened was just going to lead to the best outcome possible, so that’s kind of what the mindset flip was like for me.”
