The Baltimore Ravens have had a very strong offseason. The improvements they’ve made in free agency and the 2026 NFL Draft cannot be understated. Guys like Trey Hendrickson and Vega Ioane should bring a massive jolt. However, maybe the biggest additions could be seeing players return to full health.
The most obvious of those are Lamar Jackson and Nnamdi Madubuike. Jackson's feeling much better after dealing with a lingering hamstring issue for most of 2025, and there's growing optimism surrounding Madubuike's neck injury. There’s one more player who apparently dealt with an injury not only last year, but for the past five years: Nate Wiggins.
In an interview with The Journey Media, Wiggins revealed that he’s been playing through an injury since HIGH SCHOOL. After getting an offseason surgery, though, he’s back at 100 percent, and as a result, we could see him do real damage this year.
Baltimore Ravens could get a version of Nate Wiggins we've never seen before
If you watched him at Clemson or with the Ravens, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell that Nate Wiggins has been injured for five years. He was a standout in college, ran a 4.28 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, and has had a good start to his NFL career. In 2025, he endured some struggles and did play through a foot injury late in the year, but remained a solid starter on defense.
Wiggins didn’t specify what the injury was, and the surgery he had this offseason remains undisclosed. There’s speculation that it was on the foot that he injured in Week 13 against the Cincinnati Bengals, but neither the team nor Wiggins has confirmed the specifics. Regardless, knowing he’s 100 percent and has officially put past injuries behind him, we could see Wiggins unlock a new form in 2026.
The 2024 first-round pick can be quite the game-changer in the secondary. He’s a ballhawk, and when he gets his hands on an interception, there’s a realistic chance that he’s going to go a long way with it the other way. He has one career pick-six, and almost had a second in Week 2 last year, taking it 60 yards to set up the offense in the red zone. Now, if the surgery takes him from 60%-70% to 100%, as he says, Wiggins could grow from a sporadic game-changer to a lockdown X-factor on defense. Baltimore could really use a leap like that from him.
It’s also worth noting that Wiggins will get to work with a much better defensive playcaller this season, which might be more important than his surgery. Obviously, a player being able to fire on all cylinders at all times is crucial, but when you have a mastermind like Jesse Minter pulling the strings, players like Wiggins could truly take off. And the idea of combining those two things for Wiggins makes him a prime candidate for a major breakout.
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