Which Ravens Storylines Are Worth Paying Attention to at OTAs (And Which Aren't)

Organized Team Activities are right up there with the fungible salary cap as most overhyped and overanalyzed and more overrated aspects of the NFL.

Taking attendance and playing pre-school by babysitting players with fake practices after the draft, is not going to mean a damn thing come September when the pads come on. In virtually every instance for virtually every team and every player. With the rarest of exceptions.

And even in those situations – rookie head coach with a wildly inexperienced staff replacing a future Hall of Fame coach with a veteran staff – the actual participation won’t really amount to much. OTAs are inherently voluntary for a reason and it's incumbent on the team to secure clauses in contracts that compel the player to attend if they want his presence to be certain.

But when a team makes the drastic switch in coaching staff as noted above, and does it with a two-time MVP quarterback yet again more than a year behind in a contract extension from where he should be and that QB was willing to leave money on the table to use his free time outside the team facility in springs past, and you converted $50M in base salary upfront and further ceded him any and all leverage in the process, and he isn’t around for the start of OTAs, you’ve got a problem.

Consider that a meaningful storyline – as meaningful a storyline as there is anywhere in the NFL in mid-May.

Where In The World Is Lamar Jackson?

How much the franchise QB is around will say much more and matter much more than whatever go does say if he shows up and speaks to the media during OTAs. It speaks louder than anything general manager Eric DeCosta will allow himself to say about this situation. Making a calculated decision to stay away at this point in time is as close to a true portal into Jackson’s psyche as you will ever get.

The fact the offensive coordinator has never done any of the duties most incumbent to his new job – ever – and is the same age as the QB, and already put his foot deep in his mouth the first time he spoke about Jackson and OTAS … All of that speaks volumes as to what is going on here.

This issue of whether he is in the building for these training sessions is a Declan Doyle problem and Eric DeCosta problem and Sashi Brown problem and Jesse Minter problem. Not a Lamar problem. He demanded a trade before finally getting a fair contract last time. He has more leverage than ever now.

The Ravens social streams treated him reporting to lift some weights a few weeks back like a huge news event. Plenty of pom-pom wavers and fanboys want to pretend they aren’t at another preventable stalemate with their QB yet again. They need to grow up and ask why history keeps repeating.

Consider me a considerable Doyle skeptic even if he had his QB signed long-term and in the building every day and even if he had a starting caliber center on his roster. I wouldn’t consider Jackson’s presence alone to be an indication of anything getting done, but its impossible not to see an absence as a strong and direct signal to the people who decide his salary.

Can Doyle Sell His Offense?

The offensive coordinator is being asked to make a leap and to do so without anyone on his staff who succeeded in the OC role before, either. No matter how much Lamar is or is not around, Doyle is going to have to project a plan and have solutions to an offense with serious problems all around and in critical situations, and some dubious personnel in critical spots.

Far more important than anything that happens on a football field the next few weeks, is Doyle believable in front of the media? Can he project to you or me that he’s ready for this, let alone Derrick Henry? Is he commanding? Believable?

He needs to be a salesman, and able to back it up. Players can see right through it otherwise. Alert media members will see through it. If you aren’t seeing alpha leader of the offense with the right combination of confidence and ego for someone with nebulous qualifications, neither is the locker room.

Injury Updates

Again, who caught a deep pass from an un-drafted rookie quarterback against air and who looked good off the edge with a fake pass rush against a fake tackle doesn’t do much for me. But there are a number of Ravens who had some offseason procedure or another, and what we learn about their status over the next month will be fairy telling.

Minter is making it a point to say as little as possible about these situations, but there is also going to be a mandatory mini camp at the end of these OTAs before everyone leaves for vacation and key players like Nnamdi Madubuike won’t be participating in it, among others, and I’m interested to hear what timelines, if any, the Ravens provide on these situations.

What Doesn’t Matter?

The media is allowed to watch these glorified seven-on-sevens like once a week. So many players will be in the best shape of their lives and so many will be making highlight reel catches and primed for a breakout. Read all about it!

And it’s all baloney.

Trying to project training camp heroics – and failures, for that matter – into the regular season is a waste of time and energy. We all understand why it’s out there, and the reporters have a job to do and people want NFL quasi-information 365 days a year. That’s why the teams let media see slivers of this, because it’s free content and publicity as they try to sell tickets for the upcoming season.

But this is so far from being a real approximation of NFL football it’s scary. To get caught up in anyone having a great May, is to play a trick on yourself.

And in terms of line play – and this team is facing massive questions at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball – it’s an absolutely exercise in extreme futility to attempt to generate any sort of conclusions or analysis from how anyone does in fake drills in the spring. Whether or not they go about getting an actual NFL center – that’s an imperative plotline – while any coach trying to pretend they have the answer in-house based on these “practices” is just wasting his breath and wasting your time.

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