Running back Jake Funk’s addition to the Ravens’ practice squad will bring him close to home for Christmas, and it comes during a difficult holiday season.

“My mom, she was extremely joyful that I could be home for the holidays with her,” Funk said. “My dad just recently passed away here last summer. So being able to come home for her first holidays home alone is something that is just super special for me.”

Funk, who was born in Gaithersburg, will add depth to a running back room that recently lost rookie Keaton Mitchell to a season-ending knee injury. Nobody wants to see another player get injured, but the opportunity for Funk has made his family’s holiday season a little brighter.

Funk was the 2015 Maryland Gatorade Player of the Year out of Damascus High School before he went to the University of Maryland and was named third-team All-Big Ten in his final season with the Terps.

Funk left Maryland third on the school’s all-time list for most yards per carry in a single season — a feat he accomplished after two ACL tears in college. He was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the seventh round of the 2021 draft.

Early in his rookie season, Funk was placed on injured reserve, but the Rams activated him in time to join the team on its run to Super Bowl LVI, a 23-20 win. That was the same game Odell Beckham Jr., now with the Ravens, tore his ACL. Funk is excited to reunite with the veteran receiver.

“I love OBJ,” Funk said. “We spent a good amount of time together in LA, and he’s somebody that I have a lot of love for.”

After the Super Bowl, Funk bounced around the league, often to the practice squad. He went from Los Angeles to New Orleans to Indianapolis (where he was on the active roster for one game in 2022 and four games this year) to Miami. He was released by the Dolphins on Nov. 18.

The Ravens weren’t on Funk’s radar before this week. He was on his way to work out elsewhere when he got the invitation. Saying “yes” was a “no-brainer,” he said.

As the Ravens set their sights on what would be Funk’s second Super Bowl, the 25-year-old hopes to help in any way possible. He’s ready to prepare the starters by contributing to the scout team, and if he’s called upon to play, he’s ready for that as well.

“There’s Super Bowl talent and Super Bowl intentions on this team,” Funk said. “And I’m somebody that has been fortunate enough to be able to have won one of those in my career and just be able to come in and help this team in any which way possible, and that’s what I’ve set myself out to do.”