After suffering a knee injury in a preseason finale, Baltimore Ravens running back J.K. Dobbins was diagnosed with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and is expected to miss the 2021 season. 

“Been down this road before,” tweeted Zac Hiller, Dobbins’ agent, while retweeting an ESPN report about the injury. “He’ll come back bigger stronger faster.”

Dobbins left the Ravens’ preseason finale at Washington on Saturday night midway through the first quarter after being tackled by Jimmy Moreland and Jordan Kunaszyk on a screen pass from Lamar Jackson, who was making his preseason debut.

Dobbins fell down in visible pain. Soon the 22-year-old was treated on the field, taken to the blue injury tent, and carried off the sideline, where he was ruled out for the rest of the game, according to Associated Press inputs.

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In the replays, it could be seen that the running back had his leg bent backwards and went down immediately grabbing his left knee.

Coach John Harbaugh said only that the former Ohio State star would be evaluated. Sunday’s news will come as a blow to the Baltimore side, which led the NFL in rushing last season.

Much of the Ravens’ rushing prowess of late has been because of quarterback Lamar Jackson, but Dobbins ran for 805 yards and nine touchdowns as a rookie last season. Meanwhile, Gus Edwards, who ran for 723 yards and six touchdowns, could now play a more important role.

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Baltimore set an NFL record Saturday with its 20th consecutive preseason victory, but this hasn’t been an easy training camp for the Ravens. Jackson and Edwards both missed the start of camp after positive COVID-19 tests, and the team’s revamped receiving corps has had injury issues as well.

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Dobbins’ injury will likely bring more questions about whether it’s worthwhile for key players to play at all during the preseason. But Dobbins had only three carries in the team’s first preseason game and four in the second. He had two on Saturday.

“All I know is (Dobbins) is one of the toughest guys out there,” Hiller wrote on Twitter on Saturday night. “No matter what it is this is only year 2 of 20.”

With inputs from the Associated Press