RAVENS: DOOR NOT CLOSED ON STOVER

In the wake of veteran kicker Matt Stover saying that team officials informed him that the Baltimore Ravens are “going in a different direction,” Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome said Friday afternoon that he’s not ruling out Stover for next season. “That door is not closed on Matt,” Newsome said in a telephone interview from NFL Competition Committee meetings in Naples, Fla. “Both John [Harbaugh] and I met with Matt individually and he expressed his desires and what ours were. At that point, we had a very good understanding.” Stover, 41, is the third most accurate kicker in NFL history and owns five NFL kicking records, including a total of 14 game-winning field goals. However, the unrestricted free agent has lost some distance on longer field goals as well as kickoffs with the team keeping strong-legged kickoff specialist Steve Hauschka on the active roster last season. The Ravens, who plan to sign a kicker to compete with Hauschka and had interest in Mike Nugent before he signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, could go back to Stover as a fallback option. At this point, though, it appears to be a long shot that Stover would return. “As [Ravens coach] John [Harbaugh] said, we’re just looking for one kicker, whether that means Steve Hauschka or whether that means Matt Stover,” Newsome said. “But we’re looking to have just one kicker however that goes.”