Retired LB Zachary Orr Contemplating Return To NFL

Former Ravens LB Zachary Orr announced on Wednesday that he’s contemplating a comeback after surprisingly retiring last year.

“I really don’t know [where I’ll play] yet,” Orr said, via NFL.com. “I’m eager to see. I just want to play football. I just want to play ball. I mean perfect situation, perfect scenario, of course Baltimore I have a great relationship with everybody in that organization, teammates that I’ve got to know really well that I’ll talk to for the rest of my life and then obviously with C.J. Mosley, we came into the league the same year and I felt like we had a chance to be one of the best tandems in the National Football League, we’re working toward that. So perfect scenario, Baltimore obviously would be favorites. But I just want to play football. And at the end of the day, that’s what I want to do. I love ball and I’m ready to give whoever or whatever my all out there on the field.”

Orr did say that the Ravens are aware that he’s considering a return to the NFL.

“They kind of have an idea,” Orr said. “They’ve seen how I’ve been talking, how I’ve been working and just kind of my focus in the offseason. I haven’t really been talking or working out like a retired player. So now I’ll probably get a lot of messages from a lot of people. A lot of people didn’t really know because I kind of just wanted to keep it under wraps and not jump to quick decisions or anything like that.”

Orr announced his retirement this past January after it was announced that he was dealing with a congenital neck condition that was expected to end his career.

Assuming he’s cleared to play, there could be a decent market for Orr, considering that he’s coming off of a very productive season.

Orr, 25, wound up signing on with the Ravens as an undrafted free agent out of North Texas back in May of 2014. He played out the final year of his rookie contract and is now an unrestricted free agent.

The Ravens placed Orr on season-ending injured reserve towards the end of December.

In 2016, Orr appeared in 15 games for the Ravens and recorded 133 tackles, three interceptions, two fumble recoveries, a forced fumble and five pass defenses. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 81 linebacker out of 87 qualifying players.

We’ll have more regarding Orr as the news is available.