It didn’t take Zachary Orr long to believe he made a mistake by retiring from the NFL because of a medical issue.

What transpires for the rest of his career will show whether the Baltimore Ravens erred by letting one of their top young linebackers walk away.

Orr is attempting to resume playing six months after being diagnosed with a congenital spine deformity. He visited Detroit on Thursday and followed with a Friday trip to Indianapolis. Another journey to the New York Jets was set if Orr doesn’t sign with the Lions or Colts beforehand.

Orr wouldn't be on the free-agent market right now if Baltimore had tendered a restricted free-agent contract in March. The move wasn’t made because the Ravens truly believed Orr was done playing when he announced his retirement in January. Thus, Orr became an unrestricted free agent.

As a restricted free agent, Orr was likely to receive a one-year, $2.7 million tender that would have required an interested suitor to surrender a second-round draft pick as compensation. The Ravens also would have been given the chance to match any offer sheet Orr signed.

Orr likely will garner a higher salary now after becoming an unrestricted free agent one year earlier than expected, especially because no compensation is needed to sign him.

STEELE: Why Orr should stay away

The odds of Orr re-signing with Baltimore seem low. Both parties were in contact initially, but Orr said he hadn’t spoken to the Ravens "in the past couple of days."

Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome, whose team already lost two starters (cornerback Tavon Young and tight end Dennis Pitta) to injury during offseason training, issued a terse statement Wednesday that Orr “informed me he would like to continue to play football. He is a free agent.”

"I have nothing but respect for that organization," Orr told co-host Mark Dominik and me on SiriusXM NFL Radio. "It was a crazy situation. I thought I was done playing ball and they thought the same as well.

"They allowed me to become a free agent. We’ll just leave it at that."

Orr on SiriusXM offered a different reason for his initial retirement than the one he shared during a January news conference at Ravens headquarters. At that time, Ravens doctors had discovered that Orr's C-1 vertebrae was never fully formed while conducting scans on a herniated disc, which had landed him on injured reserve.

Orr said in January that he had received "multiple opinions from multiple doctors and spine specialists and everything like that" in regards to the risks of paralysis or even death involved with continuing to play.

"They all were just shocked," Orr said at the news conference. “Everybody that broke down the situation to me were pretty much lost for words because they were trying to figure out how I have been playing football this long without anything major happening."

Orr said Friday morning that "it was probably a premature decision for me to retire so early just because I listened to one doctor."

"After people found out I only went to one doctor, they were telling me, ‘You’ve got to go get a second opinion,'" he continued. "It was kind of eating at me. Obviously, I wanted to play ball. I love ball. I went ahead and did that.

"Every opinion after that I found out that I'm not as at great a risk. Really, there was only one doctor that looked me in the eye and told me I was at greater risk. The rest of the doctors told me I wasn't."

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Orr said he began training in earnest last month for an NFL comeback. Orr, 25, enjoyed his best NFL season in 2016 with a team-high 132 tackles playing alongside C.J. Mosley at inside linebacker.

Orr attributed much of his success to Ravens linebackers coach Wink Martindale for working with him since entering the NFL as an unsigned college free agent from North Texas in 2014.

"He saw the potential in me," Orr said. "Every day the last three years he worked with me. It all just came together."

Unfortunately for Martindale and the Ravens, it looks like another team willing to take a chance medically shall reap the rewards from the type of player Orr has become.

"There’s a higher percentage of (doctors) thinking I’m not at increased risk than the latter," Orr said. "Talking it over with them and my family, we’re real confident. This is something I’ve played my whole life."