The bye week serves several critical purposes for the Ravens this season.
For starters, it gives an opportunity for the team’s “walking wounded” to heal, get caught up on some practice time and generally start to get themselves right for the final 10 games of the regular season.
It also gives the coaching staff the chance to look at some film, do a little self-scouting, and get an early start on preparing for the Minnesota Vikings when they get back on the field.
And, in terms of outside noise, the extra week will probably allow the airwaves and Internet to clear itself of some of the rancor being tossed around since the team’s disappointing loss to the Bengals at home last weekend.
For myself, well, I decided to take a look back this week. No, not to that steaming pile of Bengals game. A bit further. All the way to training camp this summer, and some of the observations I had made watching practice, and how those little nuggets might have translated into the regular season.
Umm, some were not so good. Be warned.
- We all like to find those diamonds in the rough — unheralded players who weren’t getting a lot of noise before camp started. I had three “camp crushes” who filled that bill this summer: Ty’Son Williams, Chris Westry and Broderick Washington.
Regarding Williams, I wrote at one point, “he shows patience and an abrupt jump cut in the pile of humanity that forms each run play, and has a way of finding a crease to get out into fresh air.”
Williams has indeed shown some of these flashes, but he hasn’t grabbed hold of a position that has certainly been grabable. (Up for grabs? Grabalicious?) Regardless, early fumbles seemed to put him in the proverbial Harbaugh doghouse, and some apparent assignment confusion and a strange decision to jump out of bounds short of the sticks on fourth down last week haven’t helped. I still like his juice.
Westry also showed some promise, but he has jumped on the injury train like so many others. We’ll reserve judgement there.
Washington, well, he hasn’t really shined yet. I still have hope, especially for a defensive line that needs to ease snap counts for some of their veterans. He’s not there yet, though, and I think we can all agree on that.
- As for draft picks, I was impressed by Daelin Hayes, who started out injured and has yet to make a mark, and Odafe Oweh. I didn’t get to see much of Rashod Bateman because of his own injury woes, and offensive linemen, like Ben Cleveland, don’t get to show a lot in camp because there just isn’t as much live hitting as there used to be. I did love undrafted free agent Ar’Darius Washington’s energy and smarts, and he might still stand out before all is said and done. I’m holding on to that with all my might.
Let’s get back to Oweh for a minute, if you’ll indulge me. Fellow RSR writer Adam Bonaccorsi and I were standing together along the sidelines one practice this summer and just started laughing because Oweh was absolutely destroying the Ravens’ offense play after play. Here is one of my entries from this summer:
“I counted two plays where Odafe Oweh was there to make a sack, two more where he blew up a run play for no gain and another where he seemingly appeared out of nowhere to chase down an outside run on the other side of the field. … Oweh seems to have a high floor from what I’ve seen. Absurd physical abilities that mix with an engine that doesn’t seem to go cold leads me to believe he will make plays this season simply based on the fact that he’s a better athlete than most everyone else on the field. In terms of athleticism, he does remind me of a defensive version of (Lamar) Jackson — sometimes he’s just too strong and fast for the other guy to stop.”
I’d like to take credit for “discovering” Oweh this summer, but, you know, he was a first-rounder and everyone with eyes could see his skills. He’s a physical freak, and an incredibly hard worker. The future looks bright.
- Two other players I thought were really standing out to me this summer, and I expected big steps forward for this season, were Patrick Queen and Malik Harrison.
(I’m just going to wait here while you laugh, yell obscenities at me and marvel that you wasted your valuable time reading the likes of me when I thought these two would have big years.)
- Three more second-year players also looked like they had hit the offseason hard: Justin Madubuike, Devin Duvernay and, possibly the summer’s biggest star, James Proche.
I feel both Duvernay and Proche have indeed shown improved play this year when given chances, and Duvernay is on the short list now of best returners in the league. Given extra snaps this year because of Derek Wolfe’s injury, Madubuike just hasn’t popped as much as I’d hoped. Maybe Wolfe’s expected return soon can ease some of his burden, as Josh Bynes’ signing might have helped with Queen. Still a lot of season left.
- Tight end Mark Andrews, already an established top-10 tight end coming into this season, looked ready to take another step this year:
“Mark Andrews only had a few catches (that day), but he does look leaner and faster this season. It will be interesting to see how he looks when Lamar Jackson gets back on the field and starts targeting Andrews with regularity.”
Jackson did come back from his summer bout with Covid, and has indeed connected well with Andrews thus far.
- As for my biggest concern coming out of training camp, it was undoubtedly the offensive line. No doubt? Undoubtalicious?
Whatever. The line was consistently overwhelmed in camp, and it probably led to many of us who were observing practice to believe two things — the Ravens were going to have a tough time with blocking this season, and the defense looked ready to absolutely terrorize the league.
One was true. And it’s only gotten worse with attrition.
- As for a general “feel” of the team during camp, I predicted they’d be 5-2, having beaten the Chiefs, getting another win in a thrilling comeback over the Colts and losing at home to the division-leading Bengals by 24 points.
Huh, just can’t find that published article to prove it. Trust me… totally saw all this coming.
