“He was a guy who exploded off the tape,” said former Ravens director of college scouting Phil Savage. “He had 18 sacks at ASU. He was such a dynamic, disruptive player on tape. We watched the film in that old facility and said, ‘This guy has to be the best player in the draft.’
The Ravens couldn’t envision any scenario where they believed he’d be on the board at No. 10. As a matter of fact, most on the staff woke up on that April morning in 2003 believing the team would draft Cal quarterback Kyle Boller with that pick because Marshall quarterback Byron Leftwich wouldn’t make it to them either. Instead, in a bizarre twist of events, Minnesota allowed their clock to expire while picking No. 7 as Leftwich quickly went to Jacksonville, Carolina snuck into No. 8 to select tackle Jordan Gross, and the Vikings wound up with defensive tackle Kevin Williams. All of the picks flew off the board in less than 60 seconds as the Vikings fumbled on the clock in what was an unprecedented few moments of confusion on the draft floor in New York.
Suddenly, Suggs was the forgotten man, and Newsome couldn’t believe it. The Ravens did some thorough work on Suggs’ background, which had some red flags. He had been accused of an assault just three weeks before the draft in Arizona after an altercation at a basketball game that landed him in a Phoenix courtroom. The Ravens thought that was one reason the hometown Cardinals didn’t pick the ASU product, as expected, with the 6th pick. and instead dealt with New Orleans for the rights to select Jonathan Sullivan from Georgia.
One scout said he was “a smart kid who only acted like a thug,” but was essentially just an immature kid who was only 21 years old when he walked into the Ravens’ facility for the first time in 2003. The Ravens needed a pass rusher, and he was a tremendous talent. Besides, with the Ravens’ ethos on defense and Rex Ryan, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed in the fold at that time and Deion Sanders on his way, whatever shortcomings Suggs had would be “absorbed” in the words of then head coach Brian Billick. Given their initial assessment of him, Suggs rarely disappointed on the field after the pick and was rewarded on July 15, 2009 as the Ravens signed him to a six-year, $62.5 million contract. His bonus check of $33.1 million made him the highest paid linebacker in NFL history.
Now in early May 2012, coming off of their second AFC Championship Game loss in four seasons and with time running short for Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, it appeared as though Suggs would be lost for this season, dimming hopes of a Super Bowl appearance in New Orleans nine months later.
All of sudden, the drafting of Upshaw looked like another genius move by Newsome.
“You never replace a Terrell Suggs,” Harbaugh said at his first appearance after the injury was announced during the rookie mini camp that had more seriousness knowing that Suggs wouldn’t be on the field in September for the kickoff against the Cincinnati Bengals. “You go with the next player, and then you play defense. And I think we’ll be really good. The good thing is that we still have a lot of veteran anchors out there. People want to talk about this ‘aging defense,’ but I just don’t see it. We’ve got a lot of good, young players rolling in there. Yeah, there are some great players who are older, but they have to play at a high level to stay ahead of the young guys. So, I don’t think we’re an aging defense. We have some star players – two guys, basically [Ray Lewis and Ed Reed] – who are older guys who can still play at a high level. But the rest of them are young guys.”
The questions lingered all spring about all of the Ravens’ question marks. Even coming within a dropped pass and a missed field goal away from a Super Bowl berth, fans and pundits use the inordinate amount of offseason downtime to create conversation about the hopes of next season. And make no mistake about it — the Ravens had certainly lost some talent via free agency and now were faced with the reality of playing without their best and most feared defensive player. In Las Vegas, where public perception is backed with U.S. currency, lines dropped the Ravens from 12-1 to 20-1 to win the Super Bowl simply on the Achilles tendon of Suggs.
Most teams don’t begin camp with questions about their kicker, but Cundiff’s spring and summer dragged on with Harbaugh continually saying that he was committed to the most-maligned man in Baltimore.
Ed Reed sent his almost annual smokescreen during the summer, hinting at retirement enough to get sports talk radio humming about it, but he reported to camp ready to play out the option year of his contract. Meanwhile, his fellow Hurricane alum left tackle Bryant McKinnie was the first big question mark to surface once training camp formally began in Owings Mills, sending Harbaugh a cryptic series of texts and messages about falling on his property in Florida and injuring his back. The Ravens, who brought the maligned veteran in from Minnesota early in the 2011 season, never seemed to have a handle on the big left tackle from The U and felt he was unreliable.
Many fans who longed for the days of open practices and two-a-days in Westminster were given a chance to see the Ravens at free scrimmages at three locations: Stevenson University in Owings Mills, Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis, and downtown at M&T Bank Stadium. In just two summers, all three have become wildly popular and a chance for folks who can’t afford PSL’s to come and get close to the team. While not a replacement for the openness of Westminster, it was a solid gesture by the team as they prepared for the season. The Ravens have also held a lottery for about 100 fans per day to come to Owings Mills as V.I.P. guests during the August training camp.
For Cundiff, by August it had been more than six months since the ugly miss in New England, but the reminders were everywhere. Fans mock-cheered a field goal at the early Baltimore scrimmage and his burgeoning competition with rookie Texas free agent Justin Tucker became “the” camp issue where every kick was tweeted, analyzed, and dissected. Even for those who had forgiven Cundiff for the AFC Championship Game miss, hadn’t forgotten. As Harbaugh said in March, “You never get over it,” and clearly some of the fans concurred.
The offensive line became the biggest question mark on the team with McKinnie’s absence and tight ends Dennis Pitta and Ed Dickson enduring nagging injuries throughout camp. The Ravens drafted Osemele and Gradkowski to play, but didn’t necessarily see them in the starting lineup in 2012. Birk reported to camp in great health, but once again Oher was being shuttled from the right side to the left side and wasn’t truly getting comfortable at either position. The loss of Grubbs in free agency had certainly created a major hole, and it was no coincidence that the team struggled to run the ball in 2011 when he was missing from six mid-season games with a toe injury, including a hideous 12-7 loss on Monday Night Football in Jacksonville when Ray Rice carried the ball just eight times, inciting scathing criticism of Cam Cameron’s offense.
The year-long money battle with Rice finally ended literally at the 4 p.m. contract deadline on July 16th and landed the diminutive back with the giant heart a five-year, $40 million deal. Had Rice not signed, he would have played the 2012 season under the $7.7 million franchise tag tender, which would’ve created some more cap problems as well.
Harbaugh liked the late addition of Houston wide receiver Jacoby Jones, which solidified the Ravens’ return game on punts and kickoffs as well as adding a fresh face for the deep ball that Flacco could throw better than anyone in the NFL.
On defense, with Suggs believed to be gone for the long haul, several players like Paul Kruger, Dannell Ellerbe, and Upshaw came into camp hungry to improve their position within the defense. With a new defensive coordinator and Johnson, Redding, Nakamura, and Zbikowski gone, Harbaugh would get a look at his favorite part of the grueling dog days of August: competition. At heart, the underdog in Harbaugh was always looking for a like-minded, ham-and-egger who wanted to sweat for a chance to be a special teams player to make the 2012 Ravens.
The Ravens had always found undrafted free agents and unheralded small school wunderkinds who, when given the chance in Baltimore, showed they could play. August is the incubator for finding out whom amongst the previously overlooked will make an impression and find their way onto the roster. It happens every year – one or two of these unheralded guys make the team and four years later wind up starting for the Ravens.
Linebacker Albert McClelland knew this when he reported to Baltimore in 2010 and now he was one of the “next man up” players who would get a chance to increase his role. He knew more than most kids coming out of college about the Ravens because he was from Lakeland, Florida – hometown of Ray Lewis. He became the third undrafted linebacker, joining Jameel McClain and Dannell Ellerbe, to make the squad by capturing the attention of Pagano, Pees, and linebackers coach Ted Monachino with solid play during the preseason.
“We work hard,” McClelland said of being the youngest of the crew. “We are always hungry, never full. That’s something that those guys told me since Day One. We are still out here eating. Everybody still has hunger in their stomach. We are out here grinding each and every day to prove ourselves.”
Pees, who saw the pipeline of lunch pail guys in New England, saw how the Baltimore system worked to the benefit of all young players – from the first pick like Upshaw to an undrafted, more raw talent like McClelland. “We have the best guys in the league if you want to know how to be a pro,” the new defensive coordinator said. “If you’re a young guy walking into one of our defensive meetings, there’s Ray [Lewis], there’s Ed [Reed] and Haloti [Ngata]. These players are the best of the best, not only as players, but at showing by example how to be a pro – how to take notes, how to prepare, how to eat and lift and all the other things that separate you from others. Our young players are accelerated by these influences. As coaches, we say: ‘Do as they do, and you’ll be fine.’ ”
Part of how to be a pro also included all of the wisdom that came from being around a team full of sage veterans and a coach who was old school. Harbaugh developed mantras and themes for the team each year. At the start of training camp he preached a new motto, with a not so subtle stab at everyone who endured the pain of the past eight months having to think about Foxborough: “finish everything”.
That statement needed no explanation given what the Ravens had accomplished in 2011 but had still felt as empty as a 0-16 team in the bowels of Gillette Stadium that night. They did everything they needed to do last year except finish the last detail.
Finish everything.
Simple. Direct. Said it all.
It caught on until an even better mantra came organically from a practice that Harbaugh stole from his brother’s coaching manual when Jim was at Stanford.
Harbaugh instituted a post-practice routine that he called “Wise Words.” Any player on the team could address the whole team at the end of practice with a message or share a thought at any point. A few times a week, a player would let Harbaugh know they wanted to sign up.
The idea was for players to inspire or sometimes share wisdom, hence the “wise” part. Some players, most notably Joe Flacco, saw it more as a levity exercise and he was a well-known wise ass regarding “Wise Words.” But, some messages stuck and many guys did bring poignant thoughts, especially given the bond with the team and the ups and downs of a long season. It was also a chance for any visiting guest speakers to contribute to the ongoing philosophical wiki.
Harbaugh makes sure they’re all recorded and transcribed, and he distributes the most inspirational quotes each week as part of the game plan package they send to the player’s iPads.
During training camp, veteran Pro Bowl guard Marshal Yanda wanted his turn on “Wise Words” and took his role seriously. Yanda, who is from Iowa, brought some of the spirit of the American Heartland and words of legendary Iowa Hawkeyes wrestling coach Dan Gable, who used the phrase “Embrace The Grind” with his team. Yanda stood before the team and asked whether they wanted to just endure all of the sweat and hard work or embrace it and get the most out of training camp?
“The minute I heard that speech, I said ‘That’s a T-shirt,’” Harbaugh said. And two days later, the official first team slogan shirt arrived: “EMBRACE THE GRIND.” It was especially apropos because the Ravens had four games in 18 days to begin the 2012 schedule. It was definitely going to be a grind.
“Wise Words” had it’s first catch phrase but it also claimed victims. Poor Ed Dickson got toasted for his attempt. Chris Johnson spoke later in the year very poignantly about his sister being shot. Matt Birk, the Harvard statesmen of the offensive line, followed Yanda’s speech up with his own message during the first week of the season.
“We live in a world of instant gratification,” Birk told his teammates. “Football is not like that. It never has been, and it never will be. Football is delayed gratification. The payoff comes later. You work 12 months a year to accomplish the goal – the ultimate goal – of winning the Super Bowl. You lift weights, you run sprints, you have OTAs, you have mini-camp, you have training camp, and you play 16 games. You do all that so you can have a chance, only a chance, to get to the Super Bowl. There are no guarantees. Your efforts may be for naught. For the guys that have been with The Ravens before, we have been working on The Goal for multiple years, each year building on the ones before. We have to remember why we work so hard and so long. It’s for The Goal. And it’s worth it.”
