With one preseason game under their belt, the Ravens are expanding the body of work available to them to make some very difficult roster decisions.
Ninety players will are eligible for consideration and it will stay that way until the team has to trim the roster to 75 players following their third preseason game against the Carolina Panthers.
It’s important to note that the coaches, scouts and front office personnel not only take into consideration what they see in preseason games, but also what they’ve observed on the practice field and in the classroom during training camp.
Based upon the practices open to the media and Thursday night’s game in Tampa here’s the second 53 man projection.
NOTE: The actual total of “IN’s” doesn’t equal 53 due to positional battles that are far from decided. The numbers shown next to the position represent the number of players typically retained by the Ravens at that position.
QUARTERBACK (2)
IN (2): Joe Flacco; Tyrod Taylor
OUT: Caleb Hanie is Curtis Painter 2.0. He’ll be cut and he’ll quit his job at the grocery store if and when the Ravens or some other desperate team comes calling. Seriously, if you need Hanie, you are desperate!
RUNNING BACK (4)
IN (4): Ray Rice; Bernard Pierce; Vonta Leach; Anthony Allen
OUT: Damien Berry
PRACTICE SQUAD: Bobby Rainey’s contributions in the return game could save him UNLESS the Ravens go out and get another receiver, effectively demoting Jacoby Jones on the depth chart as a receiver but promoting him as a returner. Another development that could elevate Rainey to the final 53 is if the team gets very good special teams play from a rookie that allows them to part ways with Allen, essentially a defender in a RB’s body.
WIDE RECEIVER (6)
IN (5): Torrey Smith; Jacoby Jones; Tandon Doss; Deonte Thompson; LaQuan Williams
BUBBLE: David Reed; Marlon Brown; Aaron Mellette
OUT: Tommy Streeter
PRACTICE SQUAD: Brown and Mellette could land here.
UPSET SPECIAL: If Bobby Rainey and Deonte Thompson can assert themselves as good return options for Jerry Rosburg and Jacoby Jones continues to struggle in the passing game, suddenly Jones’ $4.9M cap figure (the team’s 8th highest) could be difficult to ignore. The team could save $4M by releasing Jones or they could re-negotiate to a smaller cap number.
TIGHT END (3)
IN (3): Ed Dickson; Visanthe Shiancoe; Kyle Juszczyk
BUBBLE: Matt Furstenburg
OUT: Billy Bajema
OFFENSIVE LINE (9)
IN (8): Bryant McKinnie; Kelechi Osemele; Gino Gradkowski; Marshal Yanda; Michael Oher; Jah Reid; A.Q. Shipley; Ricky Wagner.
BUBBLE: Ramon Harewood, Ryan Jensen; Jack Cornell
PRACTICE SQUAD: David Mims; Roger Gaines
DEFENSIVE LINE (8)
IN (7): Haloti Ngata; Art Jones; Pernell McPhee; Chris Canty; Marcus Spears; Brandon Williams; DeAngelo Tyson;
BUBBLE: Terrence Cody
LINEBACKER (9)
IN (9): Terrell Suggs; Elvis Dumervil; Arthur Brown; Daryl Smith; Adrian Hamilton; Courtney Upshaw; John Simon; Albert McClellan; Josh Bynes;
BUBBLE: Bryan Hall
PRACTICE SQUAD: Brandon Copeland
IR: Jameel McClain
SAFETY (3)
IN (3): Michael Huff; Matt Elam; James Ihedigbo
BUBBLE: Christian Thompson; Omar Brown; Brynden Trawick
CORNERBACK (6)
IN (4): Lardarius Webb; Jimmy Smith; Corey Graham; Asa Jackson (suspension); Chykie Brown;
BUBBLE: Marc Anthony; Moe Lee
SPECIALISTS (3)
IN (3): Sam Koch; Justin Tucker; Morgan Cox
