Admittedly NFL rules can be ridiculous, particularly those tied to the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Some say “rules are rules” while others say “rules are meant to be broken”. Perhaps that’s what the Ravens thought when they broke a pretty obvious one during their rookie minicamp and now it has cost them a week of OTA’s.
Press play to hear why this will now place the Ravens behind the 8 ball and their competitors or read the transcript below…
Many have defended the Ravens and their most recent CBA violation by dismissing the broken rule (wearing full pads during rookie minicamp) as a silly one. After all, isn’t this supposed to be football? And pads actually protect the players, right?
However silly the rules may be, they ARE the rules and the Ravens violated one of them. And now they’ll pay the consequences.
You do have to wonder what the Ravens were attempting to achieve with the fully padded special teams drill. Then contrast any achievement resulting from the drill with 40+ rookies, most of which won’t even be on the team, to the associated risk.
It really was a bad decision and it’s only natural to question the decision making process.
What choices will this coaching staff make when faced with more critical decisions?
But back to the Ravens apologists for a moment, many of which will argue that OTA’s are just glorified walk-throughs in shorts. And while that may be true to a certain extent, the OTA’s do serve a purpose. They allow the team to implement procedures, particularly for the newcomers, which pave the way to more productive minicamps, and of course training camp.
The CBA limits on-the-field time so it is essential to be as efficient as possible during each practice in order to get in the prerequisite work during training camp and the preseason. OTA’s help enable that and now that the Ravens will lose a set of OTA’s due to their brain fart, they will fall behind their competitors and be forced to make up ground.
That’s not a good start for a team coming off a 5-11 season.
