The Ravens will start a brand new part of preparations for the season after they return to follow Tuesday with no followers in attendance and the ultimate discount to a 53-man roster looming subsequent week. After three weeks of coaching camp and two preseason video games, most of their plans are set, however a couple of positional battles and harm questions stay. Here are 5 issues we discovered from Ravens coaching camp:
Injuries from final season will create doubt proper up till the primary snap of Week 1.
We can’t say the well being information has been unhealthy thus far. Running again J.Ok. Dobbins and cornerback Marcus Peters are again working towards after neither performed a regular-season snap in 2021. No one suffered a catastrophic harm in camp, although the Ravens actually didn’t need two key rookies, beginning middle Tyler Linderbaum (foot) and defensive deal with Travis Jones (knee), to lose ramp-up time.
But the pains of 2021 — by the measures of Football Outsiders essentially the most injury-marred season any crew has endured within the final 20 years — aren’t but behind them. We won’t have a clear learn on the Ravens’ prospects for 2022 till we see very important gamers similar to Dobbins, Peters and left deal with Ronnie Stanley in recreation motion.
The Ravens began final season 8-3 and sat atop the AFC standings after 12 weeks, however even after they had been profitable, they weren’t complete. With no Dobbins or Gus Edwards, they now not dominated on the bottom. With no Stanley, they may not reliably defend franchise quarterback Lamar Jackson. With no Peters, their turnover differential and move protection tilted towards the dregs of the league.
They have the instruments to unravel these issues however provided that their star gamers, every of them irreplaceable at this juncture, are match. Coach John Harbaugh has spoken optimistically however cautiously about their outlook. Dobbins, for instance, has made progress reducing and accelerating in particular person drills, however we do not know if he’ll have the additional twitch that made him particular as a rookie in 2020. Stanley performed one recreation final season, however now we have not watched him function on a wholesome ankle for nearly two years. If he returns to follow within the subsequent week or so, will we see the mobility that made him the most effective move blocker within the league in 2019? Will outdoors linebacker Tyus Bowser, a vital starter due to his versatility, be prepared for the opener after tearing his Achilles heel within the season finale? Will Edwards, a robust backfield accomplice for Dobbins, assist in any respect this yr?
Each of those conditions has its personal complexities, however the total level is that this: For all the nice and never so good we noticed in coaching camp, now we have but to see the actual 2022 Ravens, and we would not for some time.
The Ravens didn’t discover an apparent alternative for Marquise Brown, however they may have discovered one thing pretty much as good or higher in Isaiah Likely.
What’s left to say in regards to the rookie tight finish from Coastal Carolina? He was the breakout star of minicamp and essentially the most constant spotlight machine in coaching camp. On Sunday evening, a nation of soccer followers took discover as he caught eight passes for 100 yards within the first half of the Ravens’ 24-17 preseason win over the Arizona Cardinals. Fox analyst and former NFL tight finish Greg Olsen gushed each time Likely broke a deal with or glided into an empty expanse left by the protection.
Olsen noticed what the Ravens have witnessed for the final three months: Likely is a pure receiver with velocity to outrun linebackers and safeties, arms to grab contested catches and a really feel for locating open area paying homage to All-Pro teammate Mark Andrews. We don’t need to overstate primarily based on practices and preseason reps in opposition to second-string defenders, nevertheless it’s tough to recollect a younger move catcher making a greater early impression in these components.
Meanwhile, the Ravens nonetheless should not have a transparent No. 2 vast receiver to pair with 2021 first-round decide Rashod Bateman. Third-year candidates Devin Duvernay and James Proche have each delivered stellar follow moments, however they’ve additionally missed time with minor accidents, and neither comes with a resume that screams “star NFL receiver!” The similar may very well be mentioned for former Kansas City Chief Demarcus Robinson, whom the Ravens added final week.
Can they run the passing offense they need with Jackson throwing to a world-class tight finish in Andrews, a largely unproven No. 1 wideout in Bateman and a second tight finish, Likely, who was obtainable late within the fourth spherical of this yr’s draft? It’s not the profile most groups aspire to within the pass-crazy trendy NFL, however Jackson received a 2019 Most Valuable Player trophy with fewer thrilling targets, so who’s to say he can’t make it work? The image appears to be like a lot better with Likely in it, not one thing a variety of analysts would have mentioned on May 1, when the Ravens had simply traded Brown and declined to choose a large receiver within the draft.
Odafe Oweh appears to be like just like the move rusher who was promised.
If vast receiver was essentially the most regarding place group for the Ravens going into camp, outdoors linebacker needed to rank an in depth second. The Ravens added a safety blanket after they re-upped with veteran edge rusher Justin Houston, who performed higher than his modest sack manufacturing steered in 2021. They banked a long-term answer with second-round decide David Ojabo, who would have gone about 30 slots greater if he was not recovering from a torn Achilles. But with Bowser nonetheless rehabilitating his personal torn Achilles, the image round Oweh seemed foggy.
Rather than add to this uncertainty, the 2021 first-round decide blocked it out with the excellence of 1 dominant follow efficiency after one other. Did you see how the Cardinals struggled to maintain Oweh out of their backfield throughout his temporary run within the second preseason recreation? That was him each day in opposition to the Ravens’ offensive tackles.
We knew Oweh’s exceptional athletic upside popping out of Penn State. We noticed him convert promise to manufacturing with a string of signature performs within the first half of his rookie season. We additionally noticed him out of place due to overeager reads and worn down by accidents late within the season. After shoulder surgical procedure in late January, would he make a leap in Season 2?
The early returns are past promising. Oweh’s vary is identical, however he retains his arms extra energetic and has discovered to bend his 6-foot-5, 257-pound body so blockers can’t get a clear shot at him coming across the edge. He has promised we are going to see a “different Odafe” as soon as the actual video games start. New defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald has mentioned with out reservation he may develop into a dominant participant as quickly as this season.
It’s tough to overstate how massive a deal that may be for the Ravens, who haven’t knocked it out of the park creating move rushers in latest seasons. Macdonald can scheme up strain, identical to Don “Wink” Martindale did earlier than him. But there’s no substitute for star-level expertise at one of many NFL’s premium positions.
The Ravens have extra depth however face most of the standard questions on their offensive line.
We have talked many times about how Jackson’s 2021 season fell aside as he misplaced religion in his safety. The Ravens are in higher form to supply him peace of thoughts with sturdy Morgan Moses at proper deal with and Linderbaum, who stepped in seamlessly, at middle. They can have extra solutions to surprising questions if Patrick Mekari, the perfect super-utility lineman, and Ja’Wuan James, a high quality beginning deal with when wholesome, sit in reserve. But that rosy outlook is predicated on the belief that Stanley will once more sit on the high of the meals chain, resembling the All-Pro who guarded Jackson’s blind aspect in 2019.
Remove a wholesome Stanley from the puzzle and the items don’t match almost so properly. The Ravens would favor to not make a weekly guess on James, who has performed 4 video games since 2018 and has not began at left deal with since highschool. They would favor to have Mekari as an possibility at deal with as a substitute of beginning at middle, the place he’s performed since Linderbaum damage his foot. They would favor to have a transparent starter at left guard, the place Ben Powers’ reliability appears to provide him a slight edge over the bigger, extra agile Tyre Phillips and mammoth second-year contender Ben Cleveland, who couldn’t move the crew’s conditioning check in the beginning of camp.
A little bit of uncertainty at left guard wouldn’t be an enormous deal by itself, however the Ravens are once more dealing with questions at three of 5 spots, with the accidents to Linderbaum and Stanley pushing again the time after we will see your entire beginning unit operate collectively. There isn’t any place group extra depending on continuity and coordination, so these absences make it much less probably the Ravens will hearth on all cylinders when the common season begins in lower than three weeks.
The Ravens added vital items to ensure they aren’t caught quick like they had been for many of 2021. They nonetheless don’t know — not hope, however know — their offensive line will likely be a power relatively than a supply of tension this time round.
All the insanity round Lamar Jackson’s contract has not affected him as a quarterback.
Aside from the speaking heads on ESPN and Fox Sports debating whether or not Jackson ought to take the sector with out an extension in hand, the Ravens’ franchise participant has not given us lots to speak about this summer time. He confirmed up able to work from the primary second of camp and has served as a dependable middle of gravity for each follow. He’s carrying an additional 20 kilos of muscle, most of it seen in his higher physique, and we are going to all be fascinated to see if that diminishes his capability to bend time and area as a runner. But coaches and teammates agree he has by no means thrown the ball higher presently of yr, even when the offense did sputter in the previous couple of practices earlier than the Ravens departed for Arizona.
Jackson’s unresolved extension has not jarred the franchise off-balance within the quick time period, which is all teammates and Harbaugh may have requested for.
So we’re again to acquainted questions in regards to the participant: Will Jackson put behind him the jumpiness he confirmed in opposition to the blitz within the second half of final season? Are his receiving targets and offensive coordinator Greg Roman’s system adequate to assist him flourish as a passer? Can he keep away from the diseases and the unhealthy step in Cleveland that value him 5 video games — his first prolonged NFL absence — final yr? Will all of the carries as a runner meet up with him?
It’s not as if the incessant contract hypothesis will go away if there’s no decision by Jackson’s Week 1 deadline. But he and the Ravens must really feel some aid that the problems in entrance of him, for now, are soccer points.
Preseason, Week 3
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Source: www.bostonherald.com