The Ravens play the first of their three preseason games on Friday, Aug. 9, at M&T Bank Stadium, and after three weeks of steamy training camp practices in Owings Mills, the players will certainly be excited about the chance to hit players wearing some other uniform.
“Preseason is huge,” said defensive back Ar’Darius Washington, who essentially earned his starting nickel job last year with a strong preseason. (He landed on injured reserve after just two games, however.) “You get tired of going against our team all the time. So, go out there and compete against some other guys [and] put it all out there on tape.”
Head coach John Harbaugh has already said that starting quarterback Lamar Jackson will not play, and it’s likely that many starters won’t play at all in the preseason; Harbaugh’s outlook on the value of preseason action shifted after starting running back J.K. Dobbins suffered a torn ACL in the last preseason game in 2021.
For younger players competing for starting jobs and those on the roster bubble, though, the preseason represents the next best chance to make a case for themselves. And for rookies, there’s something else: their first actual NFL game experience.
“It’s a feeling I’ve dreamt [about] since I was a little kid,” rookie tackle Roger Rosengarten said. “Now I’m going to play in my first NFL game here. … I’m super excited, and I can’t wait.”
While Jackson, tight end Mark Andrews, linebacker Roquan Smith and many other starters will sit out against the Eagles, here are five players to watch:
G/C BEN CLEVELAND
Most expected Cleveland to compete for the starting right guard job this summer after the departure of Kevin Zeitler, but with Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum out with a soft-tissue injury, Cleveland has shifted to center, and Harbaugh said he expects Cleveland to be at center for at least the next two weeks.
Cleveland has done some work at center dating to last year, he said, adding, “I’m definitely extremely comfortable there.”
This is a big year for Cleveland, a third-round pick in 2021 who is set to become a free agent after the season. Cleveland made two starts at right guard last year when Zeitler was injured and has made seven starts in his career but did not appear to be in line to start at guard this year.
Harbaugh likes to preach the virtue of “the more you can do,” and if Cleveland can show that he can capably play center, his value as a reserve interior lineman will increase.
G/T DANIEL FAALELE
The main reason Cleveland hasn’t slid into the starting right guard job is that the Ravens are giving Faalele every chance to win it, and the Eagles game will be his first real test.
Faalele, 24, is entering his third NFL season, and he spent much of last year rotating at right tackle with veteran Morgan Moses. The Ravens drafted Rosengarten in the second round as a potential starting tackle, so they have given a long look to the massive 6-foot-8, 380-pound Faalele inside at right guard.
“He can move his feet, he’s athletic, he’s flexible, and he’s intelligent, so let’s see what happens,” offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris said.
Born in Australia, Faalele didn’t play football at all until age 16 after he moved to the United States and attended IMG Academy in Florida. He was quick to pick up the game, and the Ravens hope he can pick up the nuances of guard just as well.
“Daniel has very good feet for his size. … He can also bend and create leverage,” Harbaugh said. “When you’ve got that kind of size when you’re coming off the ball and some of those combination blocks, we feel like he’s got a chance with [Linderbaum] to move people in there.”
OLB DAVID OJABO
The Ravens have been waiting for two years to see what they have in Ojabo, and with their roster as presently constructed, they need to find out sooner rather than later.
Ojabo has been on the practice field every day this summer, and beginning with live action against the Eagles, he can start to show whether he can be the impactful edge rusher the Ravens thought they were drafting in the second round in 2022.
Ojabo’s career has been slowed by injuries — the Ravens knew his rookie year would be that way after he tore his ACL at Michigan’s Pro Day weeks before the draft — but then he lost almost all of last season as well with a knee injury. He has played in just five of 34 games in two seasons.
Jadeveon Clowney left as a free agent, taking 9.5 sacks with him, and the Ravens are counting on Ojabo to help fill that void. Kyle Van Noy and Odafe Oweh are the presumptive starting edge rushers, and they figure to play little if at all in the preseason. Ojabo should get ample opportunity to show the Ravens that he can be part of the edge-rush answer going forward.
K JUSTIN TUCKER
Justin Tucker? What does he have to prove? Absolutely nothing. But Tucker will be a central player in the league’s new kickoff rule, which will debut with the preseason opener. NFL referee Clete Blakeman called the kickoff rule change the most profound in his 18 years in the league.
Last season, just 22 percent of kickoffs were returned, the lowest rate in league history, and the league overhauled the kickoff to try to generate more returns.
For Tucker, and all kickers, the challenge will be to place the ball in an ideal part of the “landing zone,” between the 20-yard line and opposing goal line; any ball that hits the ground outside the 20-yard line will be spotted at the 40 – goodbye, squib kicks — and traditional touchbacks will be spotted at the 30.
In training camp, Tucker and the Ravens have tried various approaches to create tricky returns on balls fielded in the landing zone, and this will also be the debut for the returners and return and cover teams as well with this new alignment.
Tucker said he’s pleased that the kickoff will remain in the game and acknowledged that this will make the play “much more exciting.” Plus, he said, he has essentially gone into the lab to work on his technique and his touch to try to gain an advantage.
“Just like a pitcher tries to develop his stuff, I’m doing the same thing out here,” he said after an OTA workout, “… whether that means putting the ball in different spots, making it challenging for a returner to scoop the ball easily — all of those things we’re looking at right now.”
Tucker noted that when the XFL adopted this rule, kickers got much more involved in tackling, but it’s fair to assume Harbaugh doesn’t want the most accurate kicker in NFL history involved in too many big collisions.
G ANDREW VORHEES
The Ravens have been patiently waiting for Vorhees ever since they traded back into the 2023 draft to select him in the seventh round, knowing he would miss the entire season after tearing his ACL at the Scouting Combine.
The former All-American at USC spent last season absorbing everything he could with the Ravens, and Harbaugh and others praised Vorhees’ work ethic throughout his rehab process. Vorhees’ strength was never in question, considering a day after he tore his ACL, he recorded 38 bench-press reps, the most by anyone at the 2023 combine.
Healthy again, Vorhees has been given the first shot to win the starting left guard job left open by the free agency loss of John Simpson, and though the first three weeks, Vorhees has continued to look comfortable there. And he said he was especially grateful to the Ravens “for believing in me and giving me a shot, given my circumstances.”
Against the Eagles, Vorhees will finally get to play in a game again for the first time in more than 18 months, and the Ravens will be able to see if he looks ready to be a Week 1 starter, essentially as a rookie.
“I’m just looking forward to the opportunity to get back out there and be able to compete against somebody that’s not a teammate,” he said.
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