The road to the NFL hasn’t been without incident for Ravens second-round draft pick Tyus Bowser.
While playing what was described as the best football of his collegiate career in 2016, Bowser suffered a huge set back after an altercation with a fellow University of Houston teammate. That situation likely cost him a first-round draft pick status.
The outside linebacker appeared humbled by the consequences of the unfortunate incident and took responsibility in his pre-draft meetings with perspective NFL teams. a huge deciding factor for Ozzie and company to spend their 47th overall pick on him.
“Every single team asked me about it, of course,” stated Bowser following his first minicamp practice. “When you have something like that come up, whether it is anybody … If something comes up that is negative, they are always going to pull it up.
“I just manned up about it, told them the truth, and a lot of them just want to see from your perspective what happened. Because, everyone has their own story, especially in the media. So, anything is possible. Coaches like to ask us personally what happened, and I told them.
“We are grown men about it; we are 21 years old. We are still young, we still got more life to live; we learned from it. We are still good friends, and we just moved on and are doing what we have to do.”
Since moving on, Bowser’s efforts have been concentrated on rookie camp before the onset of the upcoming OTA’s.
“Right now, I am just focused on minicamp,” stated Bowser when asked about studying film. “Coaches are just putting in the install, and I am getting accustomed to all the plays and getting all the new terminology down.
“I’m just pretty much focused on what the coaches have me doing here in minicamp.”
The organization is hoping Bowser, along with third-round pick Tim Williams, will bring a much needed pass rush to Dean Pees’ defense, which totaled 31 sacks last season.
“I got the chance to watch Tim’s tape, and we worked out at Michael Johnson Performance [in Texas], so I got the chance to know him real well. Me and him are just going to go out there and do what we have to do, and that is rush the passer and get back there and create plays.
“Just having him right beside me is going to be a huge advantage for us going through the season if we make it there.”
It won’t just be fellow rookies helping Bowser, of course. He is excited to play with is veteran Terrell Suggs, who is returning for his 15th NFL season.
“It feels great,” said Bowser about playing alongside Suggs. “Just to have a great role model and a great player like him and to be under his wing and teach me the ropes around here in Baltimore and how the organization works [will be great].
“Being around him is going to help me excel and get better throughout my career.”
If Bowser can become half the defender Suggs has been throughout his career, the Ravens will be more than happy. Will it be enough to quiet those who so badly wanted the Ravens to focus on offense with their second round pick? Only time will tell.
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