The magnitude of what had just happened didn’t hit Zaire Mitchell-Paden until hours later, when he was walking off the team plane in Baltimore.

For years, he had dreamed of this moment: his NFL debut. He wasn’t a star high school player at Richard Montgomery, or a top draft prospect coming out of college, but he waited patiently for his turn, always believing it would come. And, after three years on the practice squad, he finally did it. With Patrick Ricard out with a calf injury, the Ravens activated Mitchell-Paden for the first game of the season.

He didn’t tell his family until the day of the game; he didn’t want to get their hopes up if it didn’t work out.

But it did. Mitchell-Paden played 15 snaps in his first NFL game and had a key block on a Derrick Henry touchdown run in the Ravens’ 41-40 loss.

Afterward, for the first time, he had an opportunity to reflect on accomplishing his dream.

“Once we got off the plane back here in Baltimore, I was just like, ‘Wow, I just played my first game,’” he said Friday at the team’s practice facility.

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This Ravens season is not going the way they had planned — they are 1-4, with injuries to key players leading to poor performance — but it has created an opportunity for Mitchell-Paden. He’s on the 53-man roster, and his job is important albeit unsung: He blocks for Henry.

With Mitchell-Paden on the field, Henry has rushed for 5.3 yards per carry and all four of his touchdowns, according to Sports Info Solutions. With Mitchell-Paden off the field, Henry’s rushing average has dipped to 4.6 yards per carry, more than a yard less than he averaged last year (5.9).

Yet Mitchell-Paden never expected he’d be playing fullback, let alone football at all.

From basketball to football

Despite spending his middle and high school years in Rockville, less than an hour from M&T Bank Stadium, Mitchell-Paden wasn’t a Ravens fan. He cheered for the San Francisco 49ers for a bit but stopped following them, he said, once Colin Kaepernick was no longer on the team.

Football wasn’t even Mitchell-Paden’s main sport. For most of his childhood, he dreamed of being a basketball star. He played football his freshman and sophomore years at Richard Montgomery, but that was more of a side quest to pass the fall.

He realized, though, during his junior year, that colleges were interested in him only as a football player. So he started pouring everything into the sport, switching from defensive end to tight end and then to wide receiver for his junior and senior seasons. The offers from NCAA Division I schools started coming in, but there was a major hurdle: his grades.

“It’s simple, I just wasn’t disciplined enough in school,” he said. “I did everything I was capable of doing, but I wasn’t a good test taker.”

Despite having interest, he didn’t have the GPA to sign with any of the top programs that approached him. But a good SAT score did just enough to help him secure a spot on the team at Notre Dame College, a Division II program in Ohio. He faxed his letter of intent form at 7 a.m. on signing day, his senior year, with just his mom and coach Josh Klotz in attendance.

“His mom was so proud, so excited, glowing,” Klotz said. “It was just a really cool moment to see how much work Zaire had put into it and how he really transitioned into a great football player and young man and got a full ride to college.”

Mitchell-Paden thinks this path helped him — and hurt him. It was an advantage, he said, to go somewhere he could build his confidence and skills, but playing against lesser talents made it difficult to learn to prepare and compete. After three seasons, Mitchell-Paden transferred to Florida Atlantic University for his final year of eligibility.

The goal was to raise his profile ahead of the 2022 draft, and, although he wasn’t picked, he signed with the Browns as an undrafted free agent. He was activated off the practice squad just once in two years but was a healthy scratch who did not see game action.

After the Browns released him prior to the 2024 season, Mitchell-Paden signed to the Ravens’ practice squad, where he remained for the rest of the season.

While on the practice squad for so long, so close to his ultimate goal but not quite there, Mitchell-Paden kept himself engaged and competitive. On the Browns, he said, they kept a whiteboard in the defensive backs room of tight ends who successfully blocked them. He tried to make sure his number was always on that board.

“It was difficult, but I didn’t allow it to be,” he said. “I made sure I just showed up every day and gave the defense the best look I could possibly.”

Even now, after he’s finally made it, he’s not content. He’s learning a new position — fullback instead of his natural tight end — and he knows his playing time may diminish once Ricard returns. He could even lose his spot on the team. He’s leaning on Ricard, Henry and his trainer to help him. They remind him to play low and physically and to transition his hands once he makes contact with the defender.

Maybe after the season he’ll celebrate this milestone, he said, but he has more he wants to accomplish first.

“Just making sure I do my job,” he said. “I’m filling in a big role for Pat Ricard and just making sure I’m able to do the job he’s able to do to the fullest and put that out there as best as I can.”