What I'm Watching Closest During Ravens Training Camp (And Why You Should Too)

The thing that matters most of all during this Ravens training camp will be going on behind closed doors. If it even happens at all.

The Ravens are jeopardizing their very standing as legitimate contenders moving forward if they do not get Lamar Jackson signed to a long-term extension in the coming days. Yeah, days. If he cuts off talks when he starts playing football – or they start really practicing football in pads – then you can officially view Jackson as a pending free agent in 2027 who cannot be tagged and therefore either takes something they put on the table or he is traded.

That’s it. That’s where we are.

But, again, we won’t be privy to those machinations, and I don’t think Ravens Productions will be having a field day with those awkward conversations, either. As for what will transpire in Owings Mills this summer, there is one overarching roster issue with this team that all eyes should focus on, and if it goes as rough as I suspect it will (and as other much smarter football minds like Marty Hurney and Brian Baldinger, and Bucky Brooks and Phil Simms have told it might – along with numerous personnel execs in the NFL right now), then the Ravens will have to make a significant course correction.

They have quite a chore ahead trying to replace veteran Tyler Linderbaum, who left for Las Vegas on one of the most significant interior offensive line contracts in NFL history. And to this point the Ravens continue to ignore the free agents who are still out there.

The Center Is Paramount

It's not just which players are snapping the ball and how often they are doing it with the starters, it’s how effectively they can handle being the fulcrum of a brand new offense being installed for the first time ever by a rookie offensive coordinator, Declan Doyle, who has never called a play before. It’s an offense changing its tempo and pace and cadence with a quarterback who is used to a lumbering offense and snapping the ball deep in the play clock.

Everything is new, there isn’t anyone on the roster who any team in the NFL thought was a starting center at any point in their careers and the risk of pre-snap and procedural penalties as this transition takes place is increasingly high.

Yes, I am intrigued to see how rookie Adam Randall can handle this joker role and if the young specialists look the part and how the rookie receivers and tight ends shake out. But going into the season without a real center seems like a helluva risk to take with a $350M payroll and it stands out on the depth chart unlike anything else.

As much as I’d like to get cute and esoteric here, it is what it is. The center is at the center of it all. I still don’t believe anyone on the current roster will be holding down this job Week 1. And I am incredibly interested to see how long the Ravens let this competition drag on before they do something about it.

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