Baltimore Ravens turn to Michael Campanaro for punt return duties

The Baltimore Ravens waited 13 contests for returner Devin Hester to make a game-changing play on special teams.

It never happened.

As a result, Baltimore cut ties with the veteran by waiving him following the Monday night game against New England. Hester closed out his short time with the Ravens ranked 18th in the NFL by averaging 7.2 yards on punt returns.

"That was a little bit of a tough move just because we have so much respect for Devin and the effort he has put in," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "I told him we didn't get the job done. We didn't do enough to make the return game productive to make it worthwhile."

The final straw for Hester might have been his inability to field a punt deep in his own territory against the Patriots on Monday night that eventually led to a safety.

The Ravens will now turn to Michael Campanaro as the primary punt returner.

The Ravens selected Campanaro out of Wake Forest in the seventh round of the 2014 NFL Draft. However, he has struggled with injuries throughout his career. He suffered a calf injury in this year's training camp and was eventually waived with an injury settlement on Sept. 13.

Campanaro then was signed to the team's practice squad in early November. He averaged 13.2 yards on five career punt returns. Campanaro has also caught just 12 passes for 137 yards with a touchdown.

-- The Ravens' offensive line has been solid since five-time Pro Bowl guard Marshal Yanda moved from the right side to the left.

The reason for the move was two-fold.

With rookie left guard Alex Lewis out with a high ankle sprain, Yanda moved into his spot because the Ravens have more depth at right guard. Yanda has also been dealing with a sore left shoulder injury and playing on the left side has relieved some of the stress on the injury.

With Yanda providing support, rookie left tackle Ronnie Stanley, the No. 6 overall pick from Notre Dame, has been effective protecting Flacco's blindside.

Harbaugh said making that switch is a lot more difficult than most people realize.

"I don't know if it's quite as drastic as this, but in some ways, it's like you're a lefty all of those years, and now, you have to go over to the right of the plate and hit." Harbaugh said. "You're going to play golf the other way. You're going to play tennis the other way. You have your other hand down. You have your other foot back and everything is backwards; you're setting to the left instead of to the right. All the plays are flipped."

Vladimir Ducasse has played right guard in place of Yanda.

"You'd like to have your offensive line with some continuity," Harbaugh said. "I think you see that with them working together on those combination blocks, the calls, being on the same page - just the footwork, one guy working next to another guy and having the timing of the footwork where we don't step on one another, just something as simple as that. It's definitely a choreographed type of a thing with that offensive line."