With the Ravens practicing in full pads on Tuesday morning and counting down to Saturday’s preseason finale, I’ve offered a dozen thoughts, each in 50 words or less:
1. Fourteen of the 15 offensive linemen on the roster practiced with injured offensive tackle Ja’Wuan James being the exception. Ronnie Stanley is now practicing fully and says he’s still building up the flexibility in his ankle, but he believes he’ll be “full-go” by Week 1. The offense really needs that.
2. Stanley expressed gratitude after acknowledging the game was “really close to being all taken away” from him. He’s determined to put such a serious injury behind him. “A big thing for me is not just coming back to football but coming back at an elite level.”
3. The wide receiver picture looked even worse with James Proche (back) joining Marquise Brown, Sammy Watkins, Rashod Bateman, Miles Boykin, and Deon Cain as non-participants. For what it’s worth, Brown has been working out on the side for over two weeks now. The Ravens are clearly being very cautious.
4. The play of the day was a beautiful connection down the left sideline from Lamar Jackson to J.K. Dobbins, who did a good job keeping his feet inbounds. Patrick Queen had very tight coverage on Dobbins, but there was simply no defending a throw like that from Jackson.
5. With the wide receiver group decimated, running backs had a chance to shine out of the backfield with Jackson hitting Ty’Son Williams for a touchdown and then scrambling to find Gus Edwards in the end zone on back-to-back reps during an 11-on-11 red-zone period. Silver linings, right?
6. As the only practicing wide receiver with an NFL catch, Devin Duvernay was a popular target and made a sliding touchdown catch on a pass from Tyler Huntley in a seven-on-seven red-zone drill. Duvernay also caught a deep ball from Jackson earlier in the practice. Some good opportunities for him.
7. Jackson said all the right things about building sufficient chemistry despite the wide receivers missing so much practice time, but the clock is ticking louder with the season opener less than three weeks away. This passing game is going to be a work in progress even when the receivers return.
8. Though it was encouraging seeing Ben Cleveland take full-team reps, you wonder if he has time to make up ground as Ben Powers has been the most available of the starting left guard candidates. That’s not to say the Week 1 starter will be the same come October and November.
9. Tyre Phillips was back at practice after missing the second preseason game with an ankle injury. With the left guard and swing tackle jobs still up for grabs, this next week is critical for the 2020 third-round pick aiming for a more meaningful role.
10. With former Calvert Hall star and Baltimore native Kenji Bahar being waived on Tuesday, the Ravens have just two healthy quarterbacks on the current roster. That would seem to be a pretty good indication that Jackson will see some action against Washington, but we shall see.
11. Harbaugh was unhappy with an inordinate number of pre-snap penalties from his offense midway through practice. Afterward, the head coach said, “Legs are tired, so that’s when you ramp up the focus, paying attention to detail [and] working on your technique.” These are the dog days.
12. You could forgive an uneven speed and rhythm to practice with over 20 percent of the roster absent on Tuesday. Their list of absences is receiving some national attention, but Bateman and L.J. Fort remain the only longer-term injuries of significant note. Not ideal, but hardly worthy of panic.
Talked about the walking -wounded Ravens today on the podcast. Maybe the most beat-up team in the NFL. From -5.5 to -4 in Vegas … https://t.co/KFOUSB7lyY— Jason McIntyre (@jasonrmcintyre) August 24, 2021
