athlete
Former Arizona State wide receiver Xavier Guillory watches the Northern Arizona-Arizona State game from the sideline in a sling after suffering a clavicle injury in an NFL preseason game. (Photo by Nate Mills/Cronkite News)
Matthew Singer
Xavier Guillory and those around him were hoping for an encouraging start to his NFL career. The wide receiver was a key cog in Arizona State’s exhilarating ride to the Big 12 football title last year, and he entered his rookie season with the Baltimore Ravens with high hopes.
Then, in the third quarter of the Ravens’ final preseason game, his dreams collapsed. Initially, it wasn’t even clear if Guillory was injured. Eventually, he revealed on social media that his clavicle was broken, causing the Ravens to waive him with an injury settlement.
Just as his NFL career was beginning, it came to a pause. But not an end.
“Time to heal, I’ll be back,” Guillory wrote on X on Aug. 26, three days after he suffered the injury in Baltimore’s game against the Washington Commanders. For Guillory, it was more than just a tweet. It was a promise.
Time to heal, I’ll be back 🙏🏽 Romans 8:28
— Xavier Raphael (@GuilloryXavier) August 26, 2025
Broken collarbones are often season-ending injuries. It was a big setback for Guillory’s professional career as he tries to stick to an NFL roster but, at least for the moment, his recovery process won’t include surgery.
“It’s difficult because I think he was having a pretty good camp,” said Hines Ward, a longtime NFL wide receiver and current ASU wide receivers coach who worked closely with Guillory in 2024. “I mean, just from the people that I know that work with the Ravens, who raved about him.”
Playing for a Sun Devils team that finished as the Big 12 champions in 2024, Guillory was the team’s third leading receiver in yardage behind wide receiver Jordyn Tyson and running back Cameron Skattebo. Guillory functioned as the wide receiver starting opposite Tyson in most sets, and was one of the essential players on an ASU team that captured the nation’s imagination as it sailed to the College Football Playoff after media selected the Sun Devils to finish dead last in the Big 12.
Following the 2024 season, Guillory declared for the 2025 NFL draft and, after no team selected him, the Ravens scooped him up. Throughout training camp and the preseason, Guillory quickly proved he was worthy of the contract he signed.
Ward believed that Guillory had a good shot of making the Ravens’ 53-man roster or practice squad because of his ability and, more importantly, his work ethic.
“They raved about his work ethic, the way he practiced,” Ward said. “But you go down the last preseason game, it can be demoralizing.”
Toward the end of the 2024 season, the Sun Devils lost Tyson to the same injury for two of the most pivotal games of the year: the Big 12 championship game against Iowa State and the Peach Bowl game against Texas.
“You can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and then you have an injury,” Ward said. “I think he’s kind of leaned on (Tyson) a lot. I know those two have spoken about the injury and how long it takes.”
A broken clavicle can take anywhere from several weeks to several months to heal, depending on the severity of the injury and the treatment time.
“It’ll take usually 10-12 weeks just for the bone (to heal),” said Dr. David Carfagno, a sports medicine director at Honor Health. “It usually heals quicker in the younger population because you’re growing and you’re skeletally mature. So our high school kids, maybe the early college kids. But once you start getting up into 20, 21, 22, 23, you kind of slow down the benefit of that now, and it’s also a very powerful contact sport so he might be out for a few months.”
As the 2025 NFL season kicks off, Guillory, 24, will spend the next few months undergoing intense rehabilitation with the intention of rejoining the Ravens’ 53-man roster or practice squad.
“Return to sport after (therapy), so around three to four months time, he’s good,” Carfagno said. “They’re going to be getting back to (football activities) to be ready for his position, which again he’s going to need not only dexterity with his arms with catching, but also to be able to take a hit. So that will be up to the therapist, the doctor, the trainer and the coach.”
From his vantage point in Tempe, after watching Tyson recover from the same injury, Ward remains optimistic about Guillory’s future. Tyson, a junior for the Sun Devils, lived up to his preseason All-America billing as one of the country’s top college football receivers during ASU’s opening win against Northern Arizona last Saturday, when he had 12 receptions for 141 yards.
In fact, Guillory has returned to his college roots, where he can rehabilitate under familiar eyes in the Valley.
“Luckily for him, he doesn’t have to have surgery, so the recovery won’t take as long,” Ward said. “And from what I’m hearing, he might have an opportunity to get back and they sign him on the practice squad considering how the season goes for the Ravens. He’s here, right now, he’s back in Tempe, he’s getting rehab here, he’s working out.
“I’m praying each and every day he has a fast recovery so he can go out there and land with a team, get developed and continue his football career.”