AP

Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs suffered a season-ending torn Achilles in Week One and hasn’t been seen or heard from since, staying away from the team facility and declining to talk publicly about his plans. But the team believes Suggs will be back.

“In my last conversation with him, his answer to me was ‘I don’t want to leave the game the way I left it out in Denver,’” Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome said. “I think he’s using that as motivation.”

Newsome said nothing much should be read into the fact that Suggs chose to stay away from the team after he got hurt.

“I think he had his reasons why for not being here, both personal and other reasons,” Newsome said. “He chose not to be in the building so that the focal point is on the guys, as he would say – on the field, and not necessarily on him as a guy that’s rehabbing.”

Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti said the team didn’t fully realize just how important Suggs was until it had to play a season without him.

“The one thing that I think I underestimated was when Suggs went down in Week 1,” Bisciotti said. “Now, at the end of the year, I think I didn’t come close to understanding the impact.”

Suggs is scheduled to count $7.45 million against the Ravens’ salary cap in 2016, a hefty price for a 33-year-old coming off a serious injury. But the Ravens think he’s well worth it, and they’re eager to see Suggs back in Baltimore.