Casey Rabach Fails His Physical With Ravens

Before the Bengals signed Guard Max Jean-Gilles on Tuesday, we posted earlier in the week that both the Bengals and Ravens were interested in former Redskins center, Casey Rabach. It was unclear if the Bengals wanted Rabach to come in at center or guard, but they were interested in him and got into a bidding war with division foe Baltimore Ravens. The reason they had been looking at Rabach is because their starting center, Matt Birk, is currently nursing an offseason knee procedure and won't be available for a few weeks.

Baltimore won the "Race for Rabach" and he signed with them on Tuesday. The next day, Rabach took his physical and, according to Aaron Wilson's (Ravens Insider and NFP writer) Twitter account, Rabach failed. ESPN's John Clayton's Twitter account gives us the reason why he failed the physical:

We find this newsworthy not only because it's bad news for a division rival, but also because of the fallout that would have ensued in Cincinnati had they brought Rabach in and he failed his physical here. Under that scenario, it would have been just a few days after fellow free agent guard Deuce Lutui failed his for the Bengals. It turns out that it was a major blessing in disguise that the Bengals lost out on Rabach, not only for obvious reasons regarding his health, but because of the PR backlash that no doubt would have followed.

What will be interesting to see now is if the Bengals end up still pursuing Rabach or not down the road. The initial thought would be that they wouldn't, especially with the signing of Jean-Gilles. But, if Lutui was granted another chance with his former team after failing his physical, maybe the Bengals would give Rabach another look once they feel his shoulder is healed.