Linebacker Zach Orr is exploring a comeback five months after announcing his retirement at the age of 24 because of a congenital spine and neck condition.
Appearing on NFL Network, Orr said Wednesday that his time away from the game has fueled his desire to return.
"Now that I actually had a taste of maybe the game being taken away from me, I'm even more hungry to play," Orr said.
A CAT scan after the 2016 season revealed that the first cervical vertebrae at the top of his spine never fully formed, and that puts Orr at an increased risk for death and paralysis.
Orr said he received additional opinions on his spine and neck condition during his brief respite from football.
"I had my mind made up. I was like, 'Man, the doctors told me I was done,'" Orr said. "This is a serious issue. So I'm going to leave it alone. But I just kept hearing that from multiple people and some were telling me to just go check out and seek out some more opinions and things like that and come to find out my condition, it is rare -- 0.01 percent of the people have what I have -- but there's no actual evidence or facts that I'm at a higher risk than any other player. And it's actually been documented that a college player who had the exact same thing that I have returned to play with no problems."
Baltimore Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome acknowledged Orr's intent to play in a brief statement Wednesday.
"I spoke with Zach yesterday and he informed me that he would like to continue to play football," Newsome's statement said. "He is a free agent."
Baltimore declined to tender Orr in March as a restricted free agent because no one expected him to play.
At least eight teams have reached out to Orr since he declared his intention to play again, and he's scheduled to visit the Lions on Thursday, a source told ESPN's Dan Graziano.
"I really don't know [where I'll play] yet," he said. "I'm eager to see. I just want to play football. I just want to play ball. I mean, perfect situation, perfect scenario, of course Baltimore I have a great relationship with everybody in that organization. ... So perfect scenario, Baltimore obviously would be favorites. But I just want to play football. And at the end of the day, that's what I want to do. I love ball and I'm ready to give whoever or whatever my all out there on the field."
The Ravens have used 2016 second-round pick Kamalei Correa at Orr's position at inside linebacker during offseason workouts.
"They've seen how I've been talking, how I've been working and just kind of my focus in the offseason," Orr said. "I haven't really been talking or working out like a retired player. So now I'll probably get a lot of messages from a lot of people. A lot of people didn't really know because I kind of just wanted to keep it under wraps and not jump to quick decisions or anything like that."