OWINGS MILLS, MD. — Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said that wide receiver Zay Flowers never had to undergo surgery on his right knee, as some had feared, at the end of last season, and “should be ready to go” when the Ravens veterans take the field this spring.
Flowers suffered the injury in the regular-season finale against Cleveland and missed both Ravens playoff games. He said after the season that he felt he would have had a good chance to play if the Ravens had advanced to the AFC championship game, but their season ended a week earlier with a 27-25 loss at Buffalo in the divisional round.
Flowers led the Ravens with 74 catches for 1,059 yards and four touchdowns and became the first Ravens wide receiver named to the Pro Bowl at that position. (Receivers Jermaine Lewis, Jacoby Jones and Devin Duvernay had made the Pro Bowl as return specialists.)
Harbaugh said Flowers has been in the team facility during the team’s offseason conditioning program this spring and was “doing a little dance in the weight room this past week. … He said he’s feeling great, and his knee is back.”
Harbaugh met with the media May 4 after a two-hour rookie minicamp practice. More than 60 players were on hand for the workout, including cornerback Malaki Starks and linebacker Mike Green, the team’s top two draft picks; undrafted rookies who have been signed to the 90-man roster, and more than two dozen players trying out for the team.
Players who were on the practice squad all of last season, such as quarterback Devin Leary and wide receiver Dayton Wade, are permitted to take part, and Wade was among the most active players in the noncontact full-team periods.
One player who didn’t practice was tackle Emery Jones, the Ravens’ third-round draft pick out of LSU. Harbaugh said Jones is dealing with a shoulder injury and probably won’t be on the field until training camp.
Harbaugh said they wouldn’t push it with Jones and, “We’ll just have to see how it goes. He’s not going to practice in the immediate future.”
The Ravens signed veteran offensive tackle Joseph Noteboom this past weekend. Noteboom, 29, has played 71 games with the Los Angeles Rams over a seven-year career, including 35 starts. He has seen action at both guard and tackle, though Harbaugh said Noteboom’s focus will be “as a swing tackle as much as any thing for us, and that’s kind of where we really, really need that veteran presence.”
Ravens veterans will join the rookies on the field for the first of their 10 OTA sessions on May 27. The voluntary OTA workouts will be spread across three weeks, and then the entire team should be on hand for mandatory minicamp June 17-19.
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