It could have been an aggressive drive to the basket. Or maybe it was a rebound and put back over a defender. Eric Weddle doesn’t remember the exact details and in this case, they hardly matter.

What matters is that for months, Weddle listened to his close friend, Tony Jefferson, say that his left knee was improving and he was feeling better. Yet when Weddle would invite his former Ravens teammate to make the short drive over to his southern California home to play in the full-court basketball games that Weddle regularly hosts, Jefferson became apprehensive. More telling was when he did play, Jefferson, known for his energy, enthusiasm and eagerness to throw his body around, looked timid and uncomfortable.

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Until one day it became clear that things were starting to change.

“He did something that was so explosive and apparent that it was on another level from all of us retired middle-aged men,” Weddle recalled. “That was a ‘Wow’ moment. It was like, ‘Damn T.J., I see you now. You’re coming around, you’re getting there.’ As we moved forward, he just built his confidence.”

Jefferson, now 30 and in his second or third stint with the Ravens depending on how you quantify his four-game run with the team to close last season, is moving as well as, if not better, than he did when he played for Baltimore from 2017 to 2019. His diving interception of a Lamar Jackson deep pass intended for Rashod Bateman, was one of the best individual plays a Raven has made all summer. If he’s not making plays in coverage or run support during training camp, he’s rallying the defense, counseling a younger defensive back or celebrating with teammates.

Go off then TJ 🤣🔥@_tonyjefferson

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) August 16, 2022

After going the better part of two seasons without playing in an NFL game, Jefferson feels and looks rejuvenated. All it took was four knee surgeries, rethinking a decision to retire and a return to a place that has always felt like his ideal football home.

“He’s had an incredible story,” said Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald.

As the Ravens prepare for their second preseason game Sunday night against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium, Jefferson is returning to the place where his NFL career started. He made the Cardinals as an undrafted free agent in 2013 and developed into one of the better young safeties in football while he was there.

Nine years later, he’s in a far different stage of his career, but the circumstances should feel familiar. Jefferson needs to play well enough over the final two preseason games to land a spot on the 53-man roster. As good as he’s looked this summer, safety is one of the Ravens’ deepest positions and their defensive backfield is loaded with competition. Jefferson remains firmly on the proverbial “bubble,” which is an improvement from where he’s been at different points over the past three years.

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“None of that matters. Well, it matters because obviously, I want to make the team and I want to play. But at the end of the day, where I’ve come from, what I’ve done, it’s all relative, man,” Jefferson said in a recent interview with The Athletic. “I’m OK with whatever happens, however the cards fall. I want to go out there, have fun and give it my all. I already knew going into the situation I’m in, it wasn’t going to be easy. We have a lot of good players and we’re crowded at my position. But I have the ability to play football and I’d like to continue to think that.”

As Jefferson lay in a heap on the worn grass at Heinz Field, the odd feeling in his left knee failed to obscure the myriad thoughts bouncing around his head. It was only Week 5 of the 2019 campaign, but he knew his season was over. He also understood that his Ravens career was probably soon coming to an end.

Jefferson, who tore his ACL and lateral collateral ligament, wants to be an NFL general manager after his playing days are over. He studies contracts around the league so, of course, he had an acute grasp of his own situation in 2019. He was already in his third year with the Ravens, who signed him to a four-year, $34 million deal in 2017. The guaranteed money on his contract was paid out. Furthermore, the Ravens committed big money to safety Earl Thomas nine months earlier and had young safeties and homegrown players Chuck Clark and DeShon Elliott waiting in the wings.

“I knew they were ready for the role regardless. I saw them as rookies, how they prepared and how they’ve been,” Jefferson said. “I understand that it’s a business. The type of person I am, I was excited for them. I was once in their shoes when I was in Arizona.”

Jefferson knew his fate once the offseason moves started and the Ravens had to perform their annual clearing of salary-cap space. Adding insult to injury, he had to come to grips with the final 2 1/2 months of the Ravens’ 2019 season, the team winning 12 consecutive games without him to finish as the AFC’s top seed. Jefferson was a leader on the team and had mentored several of the young standouts on the roster, so he certainly felt satisfaction on that front.

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However, he endured tough moments during his time in Baltimore, which would have made the team’s regular-season success in 2019 even sweeter. After one particularly difficult loss in Pittsburgh, a teary-eyed Jefferson walked around the locker room apologizing to his teammates.

It hurt not being on the field for the 2019 thrill ride, which ended in the AFC divisional playoff round with a shocking home loss to the Tennessee Titans. A little over a month later, Jefferson was released.

“Me and (general manager Eric DeCosta), we have a good, transparent relationship,” Jefferson said. “We talked. Whatever needs to be said, needs to be said. There’s no hard feelings.”

Jefferson had a far more pressing matter — getting healthy. He had his knee operation on Oct. 15, nine days after sustaining the injury. A nine-month recovery would allow him to be in an NFL training camp with ample time to get ready for the 2020 season. It didn’t take too long for Jefferson to realize that probably wasn’t going to happen.

“A lot of people think once you tear your ACL, it’s supposed to be a nine-month recovery, but when you tear other ligaments, it poses other problems,” Jefferson said. “For me, it was just a scar tissue issue. I just had so much scar tissue.”

Jefferson’s response to adversity has always been to work harder. That’s his inclination and it’s served him well. As the weeks and months rolled off the calendar and the 2020 football season grew closer, Jefferson’s knee felt nowhere near ready. His range of motion was nonexistent. The only thing he knew to do was to attack his rehab even harder.

There were days when Jefferson worked out three times. COVID-19 had shut down everything else, so when Jefferson wasn’t helping out his wife with their newborn twins, he was working on his knee. Progress was negligible.

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“The frustrating part of it was that I kept doing it and doing it and I wasn’t getting any results from (the rehab),” Jefferson said. “My knee was kind of stuck.”

Jefferson took a free-agent visit to the Indianapolis Colts about a month into the 2020 season and hit it off with general manager Chris Ballard. Jefferson was intrigued by the opportunity, but both he and Ballard agreed that Jefferson was still not fully healthy and him playing on a bum knee wouldn’t do anybody any good.

When the Colts’ visit ended without a deal, Jefferson was resigned to sitting out the entire 2020 season with a focus on getting healthier. He had two procedures to remove scar tissue from his knee, believing that would get him over the hump.

“There were days where I’d see him and he could barely jog,” Weddle said. “I was trying to get him out of the house and get his spirits up. He’d say he was good and he was feeling good. But it was like, ‘Dude, I get it.’ We’re close and when something is wrong, the people closest to you know.”

The turning point for Jefferson came in February 2021, when he had a fourth surgery, this one performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache, a renowned orthopedic surgeon and the team physician for the Los Angeles Rams and Dodgers. A procedure that was supposed to take no more than 45 minutes lasted 90. ElAttrache found and removed an area of dense scar tissue that apparently went undetected in the two previous procedures. Its presence explained why Jefferson had limited range of motion.

Following the surgery, Jefferson was stunned how much better his knee felt. He had already been working with Derek Samuel, a physical therapist who has helped a number of professional athletes and former NFL players, but their sessions suddenly went to another level.

“That’s when we really grinded,” Samuel said. “It was a very long rehab, a lot longer than you’d hope. He worked his ass off. He worked as hard as anybody that I’ve had in the gym. He was always prepared and he liked to push. He was the type of athlete that you really hope you’re going to get once every couple of years because nothing would be too much, nothing would be too hard. The guy loves to grind. I absolutely fried him and he took it like a champion.

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“He’d been around enough players who had ACL tears and reconstructions, knowing it doesn’t always work out the way it should. He was absolutely frustrated. He was pissed off. But he used the frustration in the most positive way. He wanted to outwork everything. He didn’t care.”

Samuel laughed when he recalled how he told Jefferson that he may not have the time to fit working with him into his busy schedule. Former NFL running back Darren Sproles, who lives in Southern California and has gotten to know Jefferson, told Samuel that the safety was Samuel’s “kind of guy,” and suggested that they work it out. Jefferson didn’t initially get the best time slots for the therapy sessions with Samuel, but he was consumed by the work.

Jefferson went through a similar experience with Les Spellman, a highly-regarded speed performance coach who he started working with in 2018. Jefferson had three young kids, including newborn twins at home, so there were constraints on his time. He made it work.

“Only mutual time we could find was 6 a.m.,” Spellman said. “There were probably 1,000 6 a.m. (workouts). That’s what it took. We have 40 to 50 guys we work with in the league and a bunch are first-rounders. But there’s only one or two guys who would commit to 6 a.m. and never be late. It was pretty much locked in. There’s things that make Tony special. What he’s able to do is stay consistent to a plan. He’s really bought in when he does something. Most guys will stay consistent for a little bit and they’ll go find something else. But sticking to a diet, sticking to a plan, sticking to a schedule is hard for most people. His ability to do that is really unique.”

Spellman and his staff at Spellman Performance developed a three-step plan for Jefferson. The first stage was just getting him back to normal biomechanics after he had knee surgery. The second was aimed at matching the volume of NFL practices and games, making sure his body could handle the grind and intensity of an NFL season. The third phase called for Jefferson to ramp everything up, increasing his volume, speed and acceleration in and out of breaks. Jefferson’s every move during workouts was tracked by a GPS unit.

“He told me he felt like a rookie again,” Spellman said. “Obviously, he’s a lot more mentally strong than most. There were some darker moments. We’d be like, ‘Do it this way,’ and he’d say, ‘I can’t.’ He wasn’t physically at the point where he wanted to be and he was getting frustrated about that. But the thing that he needed was time. That’s what he needed.”

Jefferson also needed a team willing to take a chance on him. A little over a month before training camps opened in 2021, the Colts still maintained some interest. So did the San Francisco 49ers, who brought him in for visits three different times. One involved a physical. The other two included workouts. Jefferson opted to sign with the 49ers, preferring to stay on the West Coast and feeling that he fit better on their roster. It wasn’t long before he started having second thoughts.

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Bothered by summer hamstring and groin injuries, Jefferson called his agent, Joel Segal, to tell him that he was planning to retire. Segal and Jefferson’s wife, Jennel, advised him to think things through and not make a life-altering decision based on emotion. Jefferson agreed.

“I was really close,” Jefferson said. “I was on my way to stepping foot into my next career.”

Jefferson has a longstanding offer to coach at his high school, Eastlake High in Chula Vista, Calif. His good buddy, Weddle, is now a high school coach in Southern California and Jefferson has talked about joining his staff. Jefferson also has interest in scouting and starting what he hopes will be an ascent up an NFL front office. But he has always told himself that he’d play until he can’t. He wasn’t ready to concede that his playing days were over, so he stuck it out.

Jefferson was placed on injured reserve in August and released by the 49ers. He was re-signed to the team’s practice squad about two months later and elevated to the active roster for two games, playing mostly on special teams. Jefferson, though, knew that he wasn’t in the 49ers’ plans. That became very apparent as he was spending game weeks working as a scout team wide receiver.

“It was definitely humbling and it was also a big adjustment. I was going into a new environment with people I really didn’t know and people who really didn’t know me. It was tough to keep my mental (focus) right,” Jefferson said. “I was literally on the scout team running routes for the defense. I was kind of like, ‘Do I really want to continue with this? Am I really getting better? Is this really where I’m at in my career? Is this how it ends?’ I definitely didn’t have any plans to play offense. I just had to have some type of mental toughness every morning, getting up and knowing that was my role for that organization at the time.”

The 49ers and Jefferson agreed to part ways in early December. In Baltimore, Elliott and fellow safety Ar’Darius Washington had just gone down with season-ending injuries as the Ravens’ health woes, particularly in the secondary, continued. Jefferson sent DeCosta a text message, reminding him that he was available. DeCosta and the Ravens made no promises beyond a workout.

Jefferson was so amped for the opportunity that his old secondary coach Chris Hewitt, now the team’s pass game defensive coordinator, had to calm him down and remind him to breathe. Jefferson was running around like it was the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl.

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“I looked at that as my last opportunity,” Jefferson said. “I gave them all I had.”

The Ravens offered Jefferson a spot on the practice squad, which was good enough for him. In his first week back, Clark, one of the few Ravens defensive backs who had avoided a major injury, tested positive for COVID-19. Six days after he signed, Jefferson was on the field against Green Bay, trying to defend Aaron Rodgers. He played 47 defensive snaps the following week and was one of the few bright spots in a blowout loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, finishing with 10 tackles, a sack of Joe Burrow and a pass breakup in the end zone.

It all was bittersweet. Jefferson was back on the field, doing what he loved and playing with the joy and exuberance that’s always been a part of his game. Yet, the injury-depleted Ravens went into a tailspin that they couldn’t get out of, losing their final six games to go from the AFC’s top seed in early December to out of the playoffs and in last place in the AFC North by the second week of January.

Still, Jefferson was buoyed by how he played and how good he felt, knowing it would only get better with a full offseason to get stronger and faster and focus on areas of his game that needed improvement, rather than on rehabbing an injury. He gained confidence from teammates who told him how much his return gave them energy and motivation. Re-signing with the Ravens on a veteran-minimum type one-year deal was a no-brainer for both sides.

“It was a tough journey, but like I said, I’m just happy,” Jefferson said. “What better situation could I be in than this one?”

Jefferson arrived in Baltimore as a heralded free-agent signing in 2017. He certainly had some very good moments and was a key part of some highly-ranked defenses. But his first stint with the team felt somewhat disappointing, particularly with how it ended. Jefferson found himself the target of fan criticism because he wasn’t able to consistently make game-changing plays.

So much, though, has changed. Jefferson isn’t worried about justifying a contract or meeting bloated expectations. He’s not burdened by anything beyond having fun as he tries to resuscitate an NFL career that appeared over not too long ago. No longer viewed from the prism of what could or maybe should have been, Jefferson’s perseverance and devotion to the franchise have made him a fan favorite this summer.

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“With people on the outside, maybe you don’t live up to the contract or you don’t make enough plays and they create this stigma about you and are always negative,” Weddle said. “T.J. is the most likable, fun-loving, talented and passionate dude I’ve ever been around. Sometimes it takes longer to come to fruition. To come full circle and for him to show it and be the guy we wanted him to be, you have to believe that he’s there for a reason. It’s his time to show it. He’s going to take advantage of this second chance, because he had it taken away by an injury and he never thought he’d get it back. When you have a guy like that, that’s a dangerous guy.”

(Top photo of Tony Jefferson: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)