These Ravens Position Battles Will Wrap up During Preseason Finale

The Ravens don’t have too many noteworthy position battles.

They will have some agonizing decisions to make about the practice squad, for sure, with a host on undrafted rookies showing some ability throughout the summer. But thre is also some real seperation in tiers of this roster.

And the reality is, even in the areas where Ravens coaches have spent oh so much time opining about who is going to start where or how arduous the decisions are, this 53-man roster has not carried much mystery throughout the offseason, especially when they added trusted veterans Calais Campbell and Ethan Pocic to it after the draft.

Rookie head coach Jesse Minter is incredibly conservative about how he approaches these preseason games and the final one is the least utilized of all in terms of key backups, let alone starters. Even fewer players will take part friday against Washington. Camp is over and the staff knows who they like and how much they like them. Practice squad is a different story for sure, with Friday a big deal there, but most decisions are being made based off prior performance and what the Ravens could get in return in trade for certain who depth players who might appeal to other teams.

Here are the few remaining situations where the Ravens have yet to declare their direction – formally, informally, again, we know.

Center

It’s always been Pocic and the way Doyle spoke about how “massive” a position this is for him as a rookie play caller with a new system, it was even more obvious why the guy with 6,000 snaps is going to start Week 1 over the guy with 11. Jovaughn Gwyn has a nice camp; they didn’t pay Pocic to back up a guy who played special teams almost exclusively in Atlanta.

We heard firsthand from Doyle's mentor, Sean Payton, how essential a veteran center was to him as a novice head coach. Same with Doyle as a novice OC.

The only real intrigue here is whether they risk Pocic getting hurt Friday as they also build up his conditioning after missing so much time coming back from Achilles surgery.

Wide Receiver 2/3

I suspect the Ravens try to unleash Ja’Kobi Lane on the league. I don’t see how they trust their novice tight ends to lean into that a ton, and the Ravens have been in 11 personnel (three receivers) two of every three snaps in the exhibitions. Make of this what you will, but the Ravens have had four receivers on the field for 9% of their preseason snaps, second-most in the NFL (the league average the last two weeks is 1.2%).

Rashod Bateman is practicing and the Ravens are acting as if the three charges of family violence against him are no hinderance to him playing, and given their sordid history with such matters, no reason to think it won’t be all-systems go from their standpoint unless the NFL decides he should go on the Commissioner’s Exempt List while the law sorts things out.

But Lane is more of a compliment to him and Zay Flowers than Devontez Walker would be; Walker is more a replacement for Bateman. But 11 will likely be their base and I suspect Lane is that guy. Lane might not even play in this game and with fellow-rookie receiver Elijah Sarratt playing just six snaps the last game he should be some run against the Commanders.

WILL Linebacker

Does Teddye Buchanan get some reps in this game? He didn’t come of the Physically Unable To Perform list that long ago, but is clearly ahead of schedule from his ACL tear. If he can’t go Friday I’d think there is a decent chance he doesn’t play Week 1. They aren’t going to be in rigorous practices coming out of final cuts and this would be the last chance to really test things.

The fact the Ravens haven’t let Trenton Simpson take a snap in the preseason, despite three seasons in the NFL in which he’s yet to really establish himself, tells me there’s always a very real chance he starts next to Roquan Smith against the Colts. Simpson is probably better as an outside linebacker in sub packages and it would not be surprising at all if the Ravens signed or traded for an inside linebacker before this time next week.

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