OWINGS MILLS, MD. — Zay Flowers deked to the outside, stuck his foot in the ground hard and then cut inside, gaining separation from cornerback Kevon Seymour. The receiver that Lamar Jackson has dubbed “Joystick” caught the pass as the crowd roared, winning yet another 1-on-1 battle.
During the past two days of training camp, the Ravens have held 1-on-1 battles between receivers or tight ends and defensive backs, always one of the more entertaining periods of camp, and Flowers, the Ravens’ top draft pick out of Boston College, has been one of the stars of the drill.
Seymour drew the unenviable matchup against Flowers multiple times on Aug. 2, with Flowers usually getting the better of him, though the drill always favors the offense with no rush and no other defenders. Seymour did get physical with Flowers and blew up one of the last reps at the line of scrimmage.
By the end of the period, fans were chanting for a Flowers matchup against Marlon Humphrey, though that never materialized. (Humphrey lost to Nelson Agholor on a deep ball on the first rep of the drill.)
Every year, the first-round rookie is bound to generate a lot of attention, and thus far, Flowers has looked like everything the Ravens had hoped he would be. He works tirelessly, runs hard, cuts well, gets open and catches the ball. And he always looks as if there’s nowhere else he’d rather be than on the practice field.
“The smile that he has on his face, the joy … he definitely appreciates being here,” Odell Beckham Jr. said after an early camp practice.
Flowers and Beckham spent time in Florida working with Jackson before camp began.
The offense didn’t win all the 1-on-1 drills, though. Brandon Stephens ran with Devin Duvernay and made a nice play to break up a long pass down the right sideline, and Kyle Hamilton broke up a pass in a marquee matchup with tight end Mark Andrews, though Andrews reacted as if he should have caught the ball. Arthur Maulet scored an interception for the defense, jumping in front of a pass intended for Tylan Wallace.
One notable development from the 1-on-1 drills: Starting cornerback Rock Ya-Sin went down after a rep against Shemar Bridges. He was attended to by trainers on an adjacent field before heading inside. After practice, head coach John Harbaugh said the injury didn’t appear serious but added, “We’ll know more once they get a look at it.”
The Aug. 2 practice was longer than the previous two, but the players were not in full pads. A few veterans, including Beckham and defensive lineman Michael Pierce, did not take part and watched from the sideline, while veteran offensive lineman Morgan Moses, Ronnie Stanley and Kevin Zeitler called it quits after individual drills and younger players took their spots in full-team drills.
And the workout ended with a drill that has become a team favorite since being instituted last training camp: Rookies try to recover a wet football on wet grass as veteran players pelt them with water from a hose.
Harbaugh said tight ends coach George Godsey and director of football research Scott Cohen came up with the idea. “A lot of fun,” Harbaugh said. “… Value too. You have to be able to handle and recover a wet football, so we checked that one off the box. We’ve worked on that.”
NOTEBOOK
STONE, OJABO SIT OUT: Safety Geno Stone missed his second straight practice after suffering an ankle injury on July 31, and linebacker David Ojabo did not practice either. Ojabo briefly left practice with a trainer on Aug. 1, then returned to the field but didn’t take part in any drills afterward.
The other absences were the players who remain on the PUP or Non-football-injury list: running back J.K. Dobbins, wide receiver Rashod Bateman, fullback Patrick Ricard, offensive lineman Andrew Vorhees, linebacker Tyus Bowser, cornerback Trayvon Mullen and long snapper Nick Moore. Ricard did some conditioning work on a side field.
HARBAUGH: NO UPDATE ON DOBBINS: Head coach John Harbaugh had no update on when running back J.K. Dobbins would return to action. Dobbins, the team’s presumptive top running back, is on the PUP list, and has not taken part in any on-field activity this spring or summer. He is entering the final year of his rookie contract and has made cryptic comments on social media suggesting dissatisfaction that there’s been no movement on a contract extension. Dobbins hasn’t spoken to the assembled media since the playoff loss at Cincinnati, when he expressed dissatisfaction with his lack of use in key situations.
Harbaugh expected Dobbins to be on the field for mandatory minicamp, but Dobbins, who did report to the facility, did not practice.
Asked about whether a long layoff by Dobbins in training camp would be an issue, Harbaugh said, “There is a point in time when it does become a concern. … J.K. and I talked last night. We talk a lot. He wants to be out there, and he needs to be out there, just like any player does. Other than that, there’s nothing else I can really add. I don’t know when he’s going to come back, but I know I’m going to be really happy when he does.”
ROSBURG RETURNS: The Ravens had a familiar face on the practice field: former special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg. Not only was he on hand, but Rosburg was actively involved in the field-goal portion of practice, and at one point appeared to even be instructing an official.
“He will be a coach here for a week, coaching special teams and everything else, probably,” Harbaugh said. “He does a great job. Jerry is family. Once a Raven, always a Raven, and we love Jerry. … He probably misses it just a little bit. You can see that.”
Rosburg retired in 2019 after 11 seasons with the Ravens, then joined the Denver Broncos last year as an assistant to coach Nathaniel Hackett. After Hackett was fired late in the season, Rosburg was the team’s interim coach for the final two games.
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