Report: Ravens’ Steve Smith Sr. to return in 2016 if rehab goes well

Baltimore Ravens receiver Steve Smith Sr. announced during training camp this year that 2015 would be his 15th and final NFL season. Though Smith said he’d slept on it and talked things over with his wife and four children, not everyone believed that the 36-year old would be able to walk away while he was still feeling good physically and producing at a high level.

He played through broken bones in his back suffered in Week 4 against the Steelers, missing one game before returning. Then came Week 8, when Smith tore his Achilles against the San Diego Chargers, the first major injury he’d suffered since the 2004 season opener, when he broke his leg as a member of the Carolina Panthers.

Speulation began immediately that Smith wouldn’t let that play, the third-down catch late in the third quarter against the Chargers that saw him grabbing at his lower right leg, writing on the turf at midfield of M&T Bank Stadium, be the final one of this career, and now it looks like that could be the case.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Sunday morning that Smith would like to return in 2016 if he is healthy.

Citing “people who have stayed in regular contact” with Smith, Rapoport wrote if “Smith feels like his old, explosive self when he fully recovers from his torn Achilles, these sources say he’ll play again.”

Smith signed a three-year, $10.5 million deal with Baltimore in 2014, and 2016 would be the final year of that contract.

Rapoport said Smith is out of his walking boot, a significan rehab step, and that he has focused on hydrotherapy to minimize muscle atrophy. But Smith needs explosiveness and the ability to push off and cut, which will play a role in the ultimate decision of whether he returns to the field for a 16th season.

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