Out of kindness, we’d say he was not assured a job when the Ravens arrived for coaching camp in late July. In reality, Josh Oliver was not even a part of conversations forecasting the previous few gamers to make the staff’s 53-man roster.
“No one was talking about him; you guys hadn’t talked about him much, right?” coach John Harbaugh stated final week to a gaggle of media members. Heads shook in reply.
At tight finish, the Ravens had an All-Pro starter in Mark Andrews, a recuperating staff pillar in Nick Boyle, two fourth-round picks in Charlie Kolar and Isaiah Likely and a hybrid fullback in Patrick Ricard. What work may presumably stay for Oliver, a man who’d caught a dozen NFL passes whole since he was a third-round choose in 2019?
Oliver didn’t see it this fashion.
“Josh just flat out won a job; he won a roster spot in training camp,” offensive coordinator Greg Roman stated. “It was definitely not a sure thing, and he just won it. For him to not be on the team for us would have been ridiculous with how he was improving. … He just made us put him on the team, and he continues to make us play him.”
Oliver, 25, has reworked himself into one of many key blockers for Roman’s vaunted working assault. He will return to the location of his early NFL frustrations when the Ravens face the Jacksonville Jaguars, the staff that drafted after which traded him, on Sunday.
“It was tough,” he stated of these injury-marred two years. “It helped get me to where I am at this point, but there were definitely some obstacles I had to overcome. … I feel like I overcame it and grew from it. You learn not to take anything for granted.”
Any profitable NFL staff will function a couple of heroes nobody noticed coming.
Safety Geno Stone started the summer time on the Ravens’ roster bubble. If the 2020 seventh-round choose was going to make the ultimate 53, it could be due to his particular groups acumen. No one envisioned him taking snaps away from incumbent starter Chuck Clark, prize free-agent addition Marcus Williams or first-round choose Kyle Hamilton. But Williams dislocated his wrist in Week 5, and Stone, together with his rock-solid information of the defensive playbook, stepped in as a starter on the again finish. He has the third-highest protection grade of any security within the NFL by way of 11 weeks, based on Pro Football Focus.
When the Ravens signed huge receiver Demarcus Robinson off the Las Vegas’ Raiders’ discarded pile in August, most observers thought he would make the staff, however solely as veteran insurance coverage behind No. 1 huge receiver Rashod Bateman and 2020 third-round choose Devin Duvernay. Now that Bateman is out for the season with a foot harm, nonetheless, Robinson has develop into quarterback Lamar Jackson’s favourite exterior goal. He caught all 9 passes thrown his means for 128 yards within the Ravens’ Week 11 victory over the Carolina Panthers and was the most efficient huge receiver within the league, based on Football Outsiders’ DYAR rankings.
Of all these unsung heroes, nonetheless, none was much less sung than Oliver.
With his chiseled 6-foot-5, 259-pound body and 4.6-second clocking within the 40-yard sprint, he seems the half as a lot as anybody within the Ravens’ locker room. He hails from a exceptional athletic household that features former NFL defensive again Clarence Oliver and former main league beginning pitcher Darren Oliver. He broke out as a senior at San Jose State regardless of dealing with frequent double groups, and the Jaguars envisioned a red-zone monster after they used a excessive third-round choose to snag him.
But a hamstring harm value him the primary six video games of his rookie 12 months, and a damaged foot value him all the 2020 season. The Jaguars weren’t overflowing with star energy at tight finish, however they primarily dumped Oliver in March 2021, buying and selling him to the Ravens for a conditional seventh-round choose.
In his new residence, coaches talked about him extra when it comes to potential than anticipated manufacturing: What would possibly he add to an offense if he harnessed all these bodily instruments? “It’s just going to come down to … He’s learning, he hasn’t played a lot of football in the NFL, but he’s a talented guy,” Harbaugh stated initially of Oliver’s first coaching camp with the Ravens. He made the roster and performed in 14 video games however his 9 catches and inconsistent blocking didn’t add as much as a slam-dunk case for remaining on the staff in 2022.
“Here’s a guy, [after] three years in the league for various reasons, he hadn’t quite gotten over the hump yet,” Harbaugh stated.
Oliver stared his NFL mortality within the face — “It’s always in the back of your head, but you also get urgency from it,” he stated — and bulldozed over that hump by remodeling right into a participant nobody foresaw when he was a draft prospect: a block-first destroyer.
The enjoyment of teammates’ and coaches’ voices as they describe his transformation testifies to Oliver’s embrace of soccer’s dirtier arts.
“As far as his blocking, it is so much improved from a year ago, probably as much as any player I’ve ever worked with over one year’s time,” Roman stated. “It’s a credit to him. I definitely think teams that are getting ready to play us around the league, they’re probably … I can envision them watching us and looking at him saying, ‘Holy cow, who is this guy?’”
Tight ends coach George Godsey gushed after watching Oliver throw his physique at New Orleans Saints edge rushers Cam Jordan and Marcus Davenport in Week 9: “I think he walks out there breaking the huddle and puts his hand in the dirt. This guy is a physical player out there.”
Oliver compelled his means into the lineup within the position Boyle used to personal. He has performed at the least 30% of the staff’s offensive snaps in each sport this season, appearing as a run blocker on about 62% of these, based on Pro Football Focus. He grades because the sixth-best run blocker amongst all tight ends, per PFF. His seven catches on 12 targets received’t blow your eyes out the again of your head, however that’s not what the Ravens are asking of him.
“There was not a lot of talk about Josh Oliver before the season,” Andrews stated. “And then you see how good he’s playing, his body, just everything he’s doing. Hats off to him; he’s been a big part of this offense, a big part of what we’re doing. It’s play in and play out of him just mauling dudes.”
Oliver cited Boyle as his position mannequin for bettering as a blocker. “Just watching him every day, seeing him work at his craft, really helped me out,” he stated. “First and foremost, it starts with attitude. After that, it’s technique and want-to.”
With Oliver, Likely, Boyle and maybe Kolar (but to play due to sports activities hernia surgical procedure) within the combine, Andrews described the Ravens’ tight finish room as “scary.”
“For [Josh] to earn the playing time he has in that room even says more I think,” Harbaugh stated.
“I think in a lot of ways, this season has been what I wanted it to be,” Oliver stated. “I’m finally able to be a factor in the way I want to be, and I feel like it’s just starting.”
Week 12
Ravens at Jaguars
Sunday, 1 p.m.
TV: Chs. 13, 9
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
Line: Ravens by 4
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Source: www.bostonherald.com