BALTIMORE RAVENS

Ravens sign arena QB David Olson

David Olson was at Ravens camp on Friday.

(CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said Joe Flacco would have back surgery, which is not currently the expectation. USA TODAY Sports regrets the error.)

The Baltimore Ravens have signed Arena League quarterback David Olson, the team announced Friday.

Olson, who worked out for the Ravens on Thursday and will join the team Friday, will be thrust into a temporary role, as starter Joe Flacco is expected to miss a week because of back injury. Olson joins Ryan Mallett, the expected starter with Flacco out, and Dustin Caughan. Training camp started Thursday.

Olson played under coach John Harbaugh's brother, Jim, at Stanford. In his final season, he transferred to Clemson and most recently played for the KC Phantoms of the Champions Indoor Football (CIF) league.

The news comes after talk that the Ravens would pick up free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who coach John Harbaugh praised earlier this week. They could, however, still add Kaepernick.

“He's a really good football player,” Harbaugh said of Kaepernick after practice Thursday. “I believe he's a really good person. It all depends on a lot of things. It depends on Colin first of all and what's his passion, what's his priority, what's he want to do, what kind of shape he's in. So we'll just see where it goes. I don't think it's different for us than any other team.”

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