Justice Hill Camp Update — August 31: Randall to Injured Reserve
2026 NFL Season · Monday, Aug 31
Adam Randall, the rookie our last episode called the long-term threat to Justice Hill's job, went to injured reserve with a designation to return, and the backfield cut from six backs to three. Hill is among the three, per the room-level reporting, but August ended without answering the passing-down question.
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The biggest item in Justice Hill's week is about the rookie behind him. Adam Randall was placed on injured reserve with a designation to return, per Ryan Mink at the team's site, in the same announcement that set the roster — a move Mink called a surprise, coming after a finale in which Randall had a memorable stiff arm. What put him there is unreported: no account we can cite names an injury. A designation to return means this is a deferral, not a removal — Randall can come back during the season. The rest of the room emptied out around it. Six backs became three — Derrick Henry, Hill and Rasheen Ali on the roster Baltimore announced Sunday, per the room-level reporting off Mink's article — with three waived, including Jonathan Ward, who started Baltimore's preseason game against Minnesota. Ali, the third back in that group, returned to practice Monday of last week after missing roughly two weeks, per Quentin Corpuel at the team's site.
Hill himself has no reported rep in the window — he is not in the joint-practice coverage, and the veterans sat Friday's finale behind Tyler Huntley, per Corpuel — so the passing-down read the last episode wanted from the finale never came, and the whole of August closed without one. The offense's stated shape points one way regardless: coordinator Declan Doyle, per a team-site mailbag, says the vision for Henry "is an immense role," in a piece that expects heavy early-season Henry volume. That is the world Hill's job has always lived in.
For a first-time listener: the June preview said Hill's value lives in a specific job — the passing-down back behind Henry, 21 catches in 10 games last year before a neck injury ended his season — with the job safer than the body and Randall drafted as the long-term threat. Our last episode wrote that a six-man backfield could not keep everyone, and that is the one line the week fully redeemed. The threat is now postponed to midseason rather than eliminated, and Hill's own case is unchanged for lack of reps. We'll pick the thread back up as the opener approaches.
_Data via nflverse._
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