What We Learned From Ravens Practice At College Park

The Ravens drew over 20,000 people to College Park to watch them practice at the University of Maryland in a practice short on veterans doing much but with some juice.

It was a spirited environment in which the defensive back-ups pretty much ate up the backups on offense in the primary team period and the 11-on-11 work they conducted. Rookie head coach Jesse Minter was clearly pleased with the overall session and especially the atmosphere as the Ravens head into an off day Sunday and then put the pads on for the first time Monday as things truly ramp up.

You never want to make too much out of any practice, especially this early in the process – and Ronnie Stanley, Derrick Henry, Trey Hendrickson and Nnamdi Madubuike were among those who did not participate (as well as guys on the PUP list, obviously). But here were some takeaways from the afternoon:

Backup OL Has Work To Do

This was a mess.

With a rookie offensive coordinator installing an offense for the first time and one that Lamar Jackson and Zay Flowers both referred to as “brand new” at various points this spring and summer, there was going to confusion. Especially for the less experienced players. We warned that with the introduction on new concepts like cadence and tempo from rookie coordinator Declan Doyle there would be issues in camp with some rough patches and this qualified.

Aeneas Peebles was wreaking havoc with interior rushes with the guards and center on the second and third team disjointed. Right tackles failed to pick up obvious oncoming pass rushers for free runs at No. 2 QB Tyler Huntley (second-round EDGE Zion Young benefitted from one such instance). The entire right side of the line jumped on the wrong count and pre-snap penalties were plentiful.

A lot of these guys won’t be on the team, but depth will matter on this offensive line and this team is littered with teaching points.

Keyon Martin Shines Again

This young defensive back is maximizing his early looks as veterans are slowly bled in and he is showing up with splash plays including an interception of Jackson Saturday on one of the few plays he was throwing the football (Jackson his tight end Mark Andrews for a nice pick up just before this pick.” No one is getting too carried away so early in the process, but Minter, who tends to be understated, noted after practice – “He’s had a really good couple of days … He’s a competitor, he studied the game,” and defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver raved about the former un-drafted free agent Friday.

“I love the kid,” Weaver said. “He is out here; he just competes every day. He is one of those guys where he is not a big dude — so those guys, they always play with a chip, and he carries it.

“He is having fun; he is energetic — you can feel the juice and the energy, and people feed off that. But he wants to rip your face off. He may not say it, but when he is out there, he competes every single snap. I absolutely love the kid."

Adam Randall Is Making Plays

This fifth-round pick is one of the more intriguing rookies on this roster, because Doyle’s mentor, Sean Payton (Broncos head coach) told us he spent a lot of time on Randall pre-draft and eyed him as a perfect candidate for the all-important hybrid Joker role in his offense, which Doyle is heavily borrowing from.

“He was a pet-cat of mine,” Payton said after explaining how much time he invested in working him out, noting, “absolutely he’s a Joker.”

Running plays are difficult to gage with back-ups and no pads, but he ran with intent and his build and speed are impressive and he looks like he can handle the TE stuff that comes with being a Joker and his expert hands were on display, easily shifting his hips and catching passes from Huntley there were behind him in team drills.

Loop Looked Shaky

The Ravens seemed to be imitating situations close to the season-ending kick that then-rookie Tyler Loop missed in Week 17 to send Baltimore out of the playoffs. He was trying 43 yard attempts from the left hash at the end of the two-hour session and certainly appeared to miss the first two, pulling them to the left. Minter called a timeout to ice him after that and there was some skin in the game – if Loop missed this one everyone had to do 50 push-ups.

“There’s something on the line and it's hard to create those types of environments,” Minter told the assembled media after practice.

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