Ravens Pre-Snap Issues From The Spring Will Continue To Summer. Hopefully Not The Fall

This is likely to be a Ravens training camp that includes no shortage of awkward sequences.

Summer is the time for football teams to sort through things, and it was clear even during Organized Team Activities that this could be a janky operation at times. A lot of being thrown at this offense and its not a derivation of a former offense being run here – it’s a totally different playbook with different verbiage - and everything from the huddle to what comes in through Lamar Jackson’s helmet mic to when the ball is snapped to how much pre-snap motion is employed.

We’ve played plenty of clips on “The Daily Flock Show” of rookie offensive coordinator Declan Doyle’s coaching mentors, Sean Payton and Ben Johnson (whose offenses Doyle is borrowing from) bemoaning the pre-snap problems their offenses fell prety to when Payton got to Denver in 2023 and Johnson in Chicago last year.

The coaches hated it, of course, but they expected it and tolerated it for a spell, wanting to get it out of everyone’s system by Week 1. Even that is going to be ambitious – especially if the Ravens do go with an experimental center.

Not only is this all quite different, this offense is being asked to operate at a much faster speed than ever before with more diverse cadence and different footwork with this offense set to be under center more than ever before. Of, and they are trying to bleed in an offensive line where everything is changing except for the starting tackles and they are trying to bleed in two rookie receivers and two rookie tight ends and only the blocking tight end has been with Doyle before.

Okay.

Going out on a limb and saying these preseason games are going to be even more brutal than usual

Coaching It Out Of Them

Rookie head coach Jesse Minter was asked about players being addressed right on the spot during drills at OTAs when things got sideways to due to timing or being unsure of the assignment. But I also know this, Payton and Johnson are notorious taskmasters, and the same players making the same mistakes over and over won’t go unaddressed.

"In games, obviously you may not do that because you're going to the next play,” Minter said of the immediate corrections, “but it just stresses the importance of getting to the point where the ball is snapped ahead of the other side of the ball — whether that's offense or defense — is so important, the pre-snap operation.

“Just to eliminate any self-inflicted opportunities — that's really what we're trying to do. The guys have bought into that, and I would say over the course of about 11 practices that we've really been able to have, it's certainly cleaned up quite a bit over those 11 practices."

The speed will intensify when they put the pads on a month or so from now and then again for the exhibition games and none of that approximated the regular season. Doyle was tranquil talking about these blunders in June; that tone will change if it’s still going on by October.

“At times, you're going to see pre-snap fouls, and really by the time we get to the season, that needs to disappear.,” Doyle said. “That's unacceptable on any snap. If we have a pre-snap foul, we're putting ourselves in a [tough] position [because] that's a very controllable stat. So, we want to see that improve.

“We've seen that improve as we've gone - just the pre-snap operation. I think that's been a huge emphasis, not only for myself, but as Jesse talks to the team and can talk to the offense, he can piggyback on that. The pre-snap operation on both sides of the ball – that being really paramount that we can master that."

It will undoubtedly be a major talking point in July and August. Hopefully not much longer.

Subscribe On YouTube For The Best Ravens Coverage:

Add us as a preferred source on Google