The bleachers are up, the fields are lined, the players are back in the building and beginning today, the Ravens hit those fields for the beginning of 2023 training camp.
Throughout the next five weeks, the Ravens will grind toward shaping their initial 53-man roster, which must be set on Aug. 29, after the last of three preseason games. Although most of those roster spots are spoken for, jobs will be won and lost with performance on these practice fields during the next month.
Training camp always provides plenty of twists and turns along the way to the regular season. Will new faces be added to the mix? Which undrafted rookies will create buzz? Will serious injuries drastically alter the outlook at a specific position? The Ravens painfully saw that at running back just two years ago.
As training camp begins, here are five other key questions for the Ravens:
1. How different will the Ravens’ offense look under Todd Monken?
The Ravens’ offensive overhaul is one of the top storylines in the league, as the Ravens have veered from Greg Roman and his run-first approach and hired Monken as the new offensive coordinator. Monken has been praised for his ability to adapt to his personnel, and he has a singular dual-threat talent in quarterback Lamar Jackson, so it stands to reason that Jackson’s running ability will remain a key component of the offense.
But with the free-agent signings of Odell Beckham Jr. and Nelson Agholor, the return of injured Rashod Bateman and the drafting of rookie Zay Flowers, the Ravens have the most explosive corps of wide receivers in Jackson’s six-year career. They also have one of the league’s elite tight ends in Mark Andrews and an emerging tight end in Isaiah Likely. The passing game has never looked more promising, and it’s up to Monken and Jackson to deliver on that potential.
With his new contract in hand, Jackson can put all the focus on football, and he has jokingly said he looks forward to throwing for 6,000 yards this season. The Ravens aren’t going to show all their cards on practice fields or in preseason games, but things such as athleticism, explosiveness and offensive tempo could be quickly apparent.
2. How does Lamar Jackson look?
The last time fans saw Lamar Jackson on a field, he was hobbling to the locker room with a knee injury at the end of the first quarter against the Denver Broncos in early December. He didn’t play again the remainder of the season, marking the second straight year his season was cut short by injury.
Jackson got his record-setting contract this spring, and after missing the first OTA workout, he was on the field throughout the remainder of spring workouts. Jackson stressed that he is fully recovered from the knee injury, and he appears to be a little lighter than last season. In news conferences, he has appeared more relaxed than last spring and summer, when he was peppered with contract-related questions until he politely shut down all such discussion before the season began.
With the Ravens’ rebuilt receiving corps, and with Tee Martin shifting from wide receivers coach to quarterbacks coach, Jackson and his continued development as a passer will be one of the keys to the season.
3. When will J.K. Dobbins get on the field?
Anyone hoping the J.K. Dobbins drama would subside with the start of training camp will be disappointed. Dobbins was placed on the physically-unable-to-perform list to begin camp, so the timetable for his return to the field remains up in the air.
When Dobbins last met with the assembled media, the running back was griping about his lack of usage in key moments of the Ravens’ playoff loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Since then, Dobbins, who is entering the final year of his contract, opted to stay away from optional OTA workouts, made cryptic comments about his contract status, did not take part in minicamp practices and watched the running back market take a beating this summer.
Head coach John Harbaugh said he expected Dobbins to be on the field for the June workouts, but, “it just wasn’t in the cards, apparently.” While on the PUP list, Dobbins can take part in team activities but is not allowed to practice. He can be activated from the preseason PUP list at any point in training camp; players beginning the regular season on the Reserve/PUP list must be sidelined a minimum of four games.
Dobbins, the Ravens’ second-round draft pick in 2020, is the team’s presumptive No. 1 back if healthy, but he has missed 25 of 33 games in the past two seasons after suffering a torn ACL in the 2021 preseason finale. He missed the entire 2021 season, then returned to the field last year. He played in four games before going on injured reserve to have a cleanup procedure on his surgically repaired knee. Dobbins returned to play in four games, including back-to-back 100-yard rushing games against Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
Dobbins finished the season with 92 carries for 520 yards and two touchdowns, and he has averaged 5.9 yards a carry in his career. Since he joined the league, that’s the highest average of any running back with at least 200 carries.
4. Will the Ravens add free-agent veterans where they lack depth?
Echoing his predecessor Ozzie Newsome, general manager Eric DeCosta has stressed that the roster-building process never ends. Indeed, within the past week the Ravens have signed running back Melvin Gordon, adding a veteran to the mix with both J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards saddled by significant injury history, and cornerback Arthur Maulet, addressing depth concerns in the secondary.
The Ravens’ depth remains questionable especially at outside linebacker, and it seems likely the team will add a veteran during the summer. The Ravens were reportedly interested in edge rusher Dawuane Smoot before he re-signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and they also have shown interest in former Patriots linebacker Kyle Van Noy, who had five sacks in eight games with the Los Angeles Chargers last year. Justin Houston, 34, who led the Ravens with 9.5 sacks last year, also remains available.
In another echo of Newsome, DeCosta frequently has said, “You can never have too many corners.” This spring, DeCosta said that lack or cornerback depth is “a fast way to get beat.”
Health concerns surround this group, and that might have led to the signing of Maulet, 30, a six-year veteran who started eight games over the past two years for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Rock Ya-Sin has essentially replaced Marcus Peters as a starter outside, but Damarion “Pepe” Williams will begin preseason on the PUP list because of a spring injury, and second-year cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis was on injured reserve (hip) for the last half of last season.
The group competing for backup spots includes rookie fifth-round pick Kyu Blu Kelly and veterans Kevon Seymour, Daryl Worley, Ar’Darius Washington and Trayvon Mullen, Lamar Jackson’s cousin. Brandon Stephens, a college cornerback who projected as an NFL safety, could in in the mix as well depending on need.
5. Which undrafted rookies will create the buzz this year?
It’s as certain as summer thunderstorms in Baltimore: A rookie wide receiver makes a few dazzling catches on the practice fields or preseason games, and fans clamor for that player to beat the odds and make the 53-man roster. (Paging Jeremy Butler, Quincy Adeboyejo and Shemar Bridges.)
To be sure, with five first-round draft picks in the receiver room now (Odell Beckham Jr., Nelson Agholor, Laquan Treadwell, Rashod Bateman and Zay Flowers), the odds are even more stacked than usual against an undrafted rookie receiver. Still, health concerns for several of those players could open the door ever so slightly, and fans will have a local rooting interest in undrafted rookie receiver Dontay Demus Jr. from Maryland.
A couple of other undrafted rookies with natural rooting interest are running back Keaton Mitchell from East Carolina and outside linebacker Malik Hamm from Lafayette.
Mitchell is the son of Anthony Mitchell, a reserve defensive back on the Ravens first Super Bowl team. The younger Mitchell got a long look this spring with both J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards sidelined from OTA and minicamp workouts, but his chances to make the team seemingly took a hit with the signing of veteran Melvin Gordon last week.
Hamm, meanwhile, is a Baltimore native who played scholastically at City College before moving on to Lafayette. He had flashes this spring playing behind David Ojabo and Odafe Oweh, and with depth concerns at his position, there’s a chance for him to make some noise this summer.
Note: This story was updated following the signing of Arthur Maulet.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox