The comparisons began early in coaching camp. The day earlier than the Ravens took the sphere for his or her first full-team apply in late July, tight finish Mark Andrews mentioned rookie Isaiah Likely has “got a little bit of me in him, for sure.” Two days later, after hitting Likely for a 55-yard landing move, quarterback Lamar Jackson referred to as him “a baby Mark right now.”
There are worse issues than having two Mark Andrews in a single tight finish room. Through two preseason wins, Likely has dominated as if he had been the reigning All-Pro, not a late-fourth-round draft decide. He has 12 catches on 12 targets for 144 yards and a landing and is averaging 5.0 yards per route run, a measure of his effectivity as a receiver. Los Angeles Rams huge receiver Cooper Kupp, by comparability, led the NFL final yr with 3.1 yards per route run.
“He gets open,” quarterback Tyler Huntley mentioned of Likely after the Ravens’ 24-17 win Sunday over the Arizona Cardinals. “He knows what’s going on around him. He knows the plays, and like Coach [John Harbaugh] said, when he makes a mistake, he’s not going to make that same mistake again. He’s going to try to get better at everything, and it just shows in his work and his production. He catches the ball, and he runs after the catch.”
Preseason stars are sometimes relegated to regular-season anonymity, however Likely’s talent set may depart him with an outsize function in a passing offense missing established huge receivers. His emergence additionally raises the query of how Andrews most closely fits along with his rookie doppelganger — and the place tight finish Nick Boyle and fullback Patrick Ricard now stand in coordinator Greg Roman’s offensive image.
In the Ravens’ passing offense, Likely’s preseason function has up to now mirrored Andrews’ function final season. He’s lined up within the slot on 21 of the 30 passing performs (73%) the Ravens have referred to as with him on the sphere, in accordance with Pro Football Focus, beginning the opposite 9 as an in-line participant subsequent to the offensive line.
Andrews, in his record-breaking 2021, lined up within the slot 62.2% of the time. He additionally break up out huge on 15.7% of his passing performs, a flexibility that Harbaugh on Tuesday mentioned may lengthen to Likely as effectively.
“There’s personnel groups that you kind of imagine that you can put on the field,” Harbaugh mentioned. “And wherever they line up, I don’t think it’s kind of a stretch to say they’ll line up outside. … I think they’ll be out there. They can run slants and fades and even deeper routes. So I’m excited. I can’t wait to see what comes out of the laboratory. They’re going to be weapons for us. It’s going to be fun.”
The Ravens usually are not averse to multiple-tight-end formations. In 2019, Roman’s first yr as offensive coordinator, they deployed a minimum of two tight ends on over 40% of their performs, in accordance with Sharp Football Stats, and had the NFL’s finest offense. Ricard, who successfully features as a decent finish in Baltimore, performed over half of the Ravens’ offensive snaps in 11 video games final season.
This season, with two gifted receivers (Andrews and Likely) and two versatile blockers (Boyle and Ricard) at Roman’s disposal, the problem will optimizing their mixing and matching. At least one job seems to be like a simple name: Andrews performed 75% of the offensive snaps final season, and on passing downs, Likely ought to maintain secondaries sincere when the crew’s main receiver is unavailable.
But how a lot may they overlap? And what would possibly their on-field partnership appear like? The Ravens typically line up their receivers in condensed bunch formations, that means Andrews and Likely may begin their routes simply yards away from one another and have easy accessibility to the center of the sphere, Jackson’s candy spot as a passer.
Andrews, who’s developed right into a stable all-around blocker, may see extra time in 2022 as an in-line tight finish, working within the zones Boyle sometimes occupies earlier than the snap. He may additionally play extra out huge, lined up as a de facto “X” receiver, maybe throughout from the protection’s prime cornerback. Either alignment would free Likely to work out of the slot, protecting him away from the stronger defenders he’s struggled to dam within the preseason.
It might be a balancing act all season lengthy. Only Andrews might be penciled into most play calls. After two injury-riddled years, Boyle has to show his sturdiness as a blocker and respectability as a receiver. Ricard has expertise within the slot however a restricted route tree. Likely’s weaknesses as a blocker may very well be a inform for defenses. Then there’s rookie Charlie Kolar, nonetheless working his manner again from sports activities hernia surgical procedure.
“Every defense in the league wants to know what tight ends are on the field, because, ‘They love to do this when Andrews and Likely are on here; oh, it’s Ricard and Boyle; oh, it’s Ricard and Andrews,’” Roman mentioned earlier this month. “There are tendencies you build, so you’ve got to work against those tendencies, and you’ve got to try to make the players as well rounded as possible, so you can kind of mask any tendencies.”
The extra succesful tight ends and fullback the Ravens have, the much less they’ll must lean on their huge receiver corps. While Rashod Bateman and Devin Duvernay impressed all through camp, the crew’s positional depth continues to be in improvement. James Proche II, a camp standout, has missed two weeks with a soft-tissue damage. Tylan Wallace is recovering from a knee sprain. New signing Demarcus Robinson was among the many Las Vegas Raiders’ first wave of roster cuts and gained’t be anticipated to tackle a heavy workload.
Likely provides the Ravens some wiggle room. One of the primary questions requested of Ravens officers after he was drafted was whether or not he projected as a big-bodied huge receiver. Now variations of that very same query are being requested, solely with extra urgency and curiosity.
“He lines up as a receiver; he’s catching the ball as a wide receiver,” Harbaugh mentioned of Likely in late April. “He lines up at tight end. They motion him. They run him in [play-action] boots … and he’s just really electric. He runs downfield. Sometimes he blocks people and knocks them off their feet downfield. It’s just an interesting guy, but you watch him, [and] it’s not like an obvious position fit. He’s just kind of a playmaker-type guy. So I think he’s really intriguing. We’re excited about trying to figure out exactly where he fits, but he definitely fits as a playmaker.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com