Joe no: Ravens' Flacco reportedly set to miss time with 'disc issue' in his back

The Baltimore Ravens are dealing with some concerning news as they open training camp: quarterback Joe Flacco is dealing with a back issue.

It’s unclear at the moment how serious it is. Jeff Zrebiec, the Ravens beat writer for the Baltimore Sun, wrote that Flacco is dealing with back soreness that could limit him. But Zrebiec, citing sources, said, “it’s possible Flacco is either held out of a few practices this week as he continues to recover, or takes fewer repetitions during early training camp workouts,” which sounds relatively benign.

In subsequent tweets, Zrebiec reported that Flacco’s back “has been bugging him for a little while” and that he was more uncomfortable on Wednesday, prompting team doctors to check it out, and at the moment the Ravens are prescribing a week of rest for Flacco, with the hopes that the issue dies down.

NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero tweeted that Ravens doctors are still figuring out the exact timeframe for Flacco’s recovery; his colleague, Ian Rapoport, classified the injury as a “disc issue” but mentioned downtimes of both a week or two and 3-to-6 weeks in a tweet on the news.

As pretty much all of us know, back injuries are always to be taken seriously and can linger if not properly addressed at the outset.

The 32-year old Flacco, who is beginning his 10th season, has started 138 of 144 possible regular-season games since being drafted by Baltimore in 2008. He missed the final six games in 2015 after tearing his ACL.

Baltimore doesn’t have great backups behind Flacco: the No. 2 quarterback is Ryan Mallet, and Dustin Vaughan is also on the roster.