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He's lost his starting job because of the return of Ed Reed, and at least for now, safety Tom Zbikowski has also lost the ability to practice with his teammates.
Zbikowski is still bothered by a heel injury that he suffered two games ago against New England.
While he's out of the walking boot that he was sporting yesterday, the third-year safety says he isn't able to do much rehab work at this point, making his chances for playing on Sunday against the Dolphins pretty slim.
"Lay on a [trainer's] table, read, and try and walk right now," said Zbikowski when asked what his rehab consists of. "That's about it. It's pretty exciting. It's actually pretty miserable, but it's just two treatments a day, just trying to get back out there as soon as I can.
"It's something that really can't be rushed. You don't want to mess around with that area."
It isn't just the bruised heel which is causing Zbikowski issues. He also is having some pain in the area that's normally associated with plantar fasciitis, and says that his bursa sac and Achilles are also irritated.
"It's one of those things where you bump it and it gets irritated and you just keep trying to progress as much as you can," Zbikowski said. "Try and put back-to-back workouts in and try and start strengthening it up."
When Zbikowski is able to return, his role will have dramatically decreased from the last time he was on the field.
With Reed out, Zbikowski served as the Ravens' starting free safety for the first six weeks of the season, and the Notre Dame product played pretty well. He posted 16 tackles and one pass defense this season prior to the heel injury.
He also returned 16 punts for 101 yards with a long of 20.
