Rookie Hurst confirms surgery will delay start

MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. – Ravens rookie tight end confirmed Saturday that he will miss “a few short weeks” with an injury.

On Friday, the 25th birthday of the No. 25 overall draft pick, NFL Network reported Hurst has a stress fracture in his foot and would undergo a procedure that day. The reported timetable for his recovery is three to four weeks.

“Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and well wishes on my surgery,” Hurst wrote on Twitter. “Not the best birthday present/news I’ve ever received but I’ll be back stronger in a few short weeks! Sorry Raven Nation for the delay but I will rehab and work harder than ever to be back in the best shape imaginable and to make this season a special one. Much Love.”

Hurst’s injury is another complication in the Ravens’ crowded tight end competition. The Ravens return veterans

and who started a combined 19 games last season, and drafted in the third round.

and also have impressed coaches at various times throughout the preseason. More injuries: Coach indicated another key contributor would miss the season opener and a rookie could miss the entire season.

Defensive tackle had surgery on an umbilical hernia, Harbaugh said Saturday after the Ravens’ win over the Dolphins. Henry will be out for “a few weeks.” Harbaugh said the hernia was not football-related; the injury might have been pre-existing and "kind of opened up on him a little bit." Henry is defensive tackle

top backup; behind him on the team's unofficial depth chart is rookie

Sixth-round pick appears to have fractured his forearm during Saturday’s game, Harbaugh said. Harbaugh said it’s unclear whether the safety’s injury will be season-ending. The former Texas star had his left arm in a sling as he walked back to the locker room in the second half. Ravens rookie offensive tackle

who started Saturday's game before leaving midway through the first half, suffered an injury to his foot or toe, Harbaugh said. The team expects to know the severity of the injury Sunday.

“Once we get to the season, I think those guys will be week-to-week,” Harbaugh said of Henry, Hurst and Senat. “That'll probably be what it is, and we'll just see where they're at.” Jimmy Smith speaks: Asked how he would spend the Ravens’ first four regularseason games, offered a simple alternative to playing.

“Training,” he said Saturday night. “Every day.”

The Ravens’ solution to replacing their top cornerback, suspended for violating the NFL’s personal-conduct policy, will be far from straightforward. The defense has by now gotten used to playing without Smith for stretches, but it was appreciably worse against the pass last season when he went out with a season-ending Achilles tendon injury.

In his first comments since the NFL announced Tuesday it had found evidence of Smith’s “pattern of improper conduct” toward a former girlfriend, he declined to comment further on what the league called “threatening and emotionally abusive behaviors.”

But he did not hesitate to voice his belief in the players who must now perform in his absence.

“I have the ultimate confidence in the defense,” he said after the Ravens’ 27-10 win over the Miami Dolphins. “They did well. They always do well, I feel like. … We’ll be fine.”

Smith called the suspension “difficult,” but said the support of his Ravens “family” has made it easier to bear. He said he knows what he needs to do to be ready for Week 5. The trouble is in how the Ravens will handle the four weeks before that.

“It’s going to be a challenge, but I’m definitely preparing for it,” he said of his eventual return. “I’m a vet, so I know what I need to do to get ready, especially coming back against the [Cleveland] Browns with a loaded wide receiver group. I know what’s expected, I know what I have to do.” Family tragedy: the daughter of Ravens wide receivers coach

died Saturday morning, the team announced.

Bobbi had sickle cell disease, a hereditary blood disorder that makes red blood cells change shape and can cause health problems.

Bobbi, 20, was a student at Towson University. Bobby and his wife, have another daughter, sons, and

“The Ravens Family extends deepest sympathy and prayers to Wide Receivers Coach Bobby Engram, his wife Deanna and their children on the passing this morning of daughter, Bobbi,” the team said in a statement on Twitter. and two