Justice Hill is in Year 8 with the Baltimore Ravens now, and he says he turns 29 in two weeks. That is a long way from where he was on Sept. 2, 2021, when an Achilles injury changed both his roster outlook and his mindset.
Hill tore his Achilles on the Ravens' practice fields in Owings Mills, Md., and he now looks back on that moment as a turning point. Before the injury, he had already been dealing with uncertainty. Five days earlier, he missed the Ravens' final exhibition game against Washington because of a high ankle sprain, and during that same stretch John Harbaugh told him he would be cut before later offering a different message: “This is going to be your year.”
The timing made the whole situation harder to process. Hill said he felt like he was battling more than just a physical setback. He described the sense that everybody in the building did not want him there, and admitted he was internally frustrated. He also said the mental strain affected his ability to focus, adding that he had an opportunity but was so caught up in everything else that he could not fully lock in. In his view, that was part of why the injury happened in the first place.
There was even more instability around him. Nine plays into the 2021 game, J.K. Dobbins tore his left ACL, adding another major hit to the Ravens' backfield. For Hill, the injury and everything around it became a reset. He rehabbed, returned and now describes himself as a new version of himself, one shaped by the hardship rather than defined by it.
What changed for Hill
Hill said the experience forced him to rebuild his mental approach as much as his body. He explained that adversity helped build his character and mental toughness, even if it “sucks” in the moment. Looking back now, he said he needed it.
That perspective fits his place on a Baltimore team with Super Bowl aspirations in 2026. Hill is no longer the player wondering whether he would be on the roster the next day. Instead, he views himself as someone who has earned his place through the same adversity that once seemed ready to push him out.
