Perhaps the best indication that football is nearly back has come on Wednesday, as the Ravens trotted out on the field for Day 1 of Training Camp at 2:30 yesterday afternoon.
It’s the start of Ravens training camp:
🗓 Day 1
🏰 Under Armour Performance Center
🕰 2:35 PM practice
⛅️ 86 degrees (20% rain)
🎤 John Harbaugh, Rashod Bateman, Marlon Humphrey & Kevin Zeitler talk after practice2️⃣3️⃣This marks the start of my 23rd season covering the Ravens pic.twitter.com/8Qt6pVPhaj
— Jamison Hensley (@jamisonhensley) July 27, 2022
First and foremost, I do want to congratulate Jamison Hensley on his 23rd season covering Baltimore! It’s Hensley’s Jordan year in Ravens media, and that’s something to hang his hat on. Here’s to year 23 being the best.
The return of Training Camp did get Kevin Oestreicher thinking back on the following season ending quote from Chuck Clark:
Ravens veterans report for 2022 training camp today, so it feels like a great time to bring back this video of Chuck Clark immediately after Baltimore’s 2021 season ended
“Just watch how we bounce back. That’s all I gotta say” pic.twitter.com/1WAk9Nc5lP
— Kevin Oestreicher (@koestreicher34) July 26, 2022
There’s no doubt that Baltimore’s season ended in disaster, with the team crumbling from an AFC-leading 8-3 record to 8-9 at the end of the year. Of course, an obvious reason for that was injury, but Clark – and likely the rest of the team – felt they could have done more to make the postseason.
There’s no doubt they’re coming into camp hungry this year.
To get the rest of the fanbase riled up, the Ravens media team posted a fantastic pump-up video to signal the start of Training Camp:
Run through a wall in 3… 2… 1… pic.twitter.com/hKDGRBdLgy
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) July 27, 2022
Yeah, Ravens media did it again. As they said, I’m ready to run through a brick wall for this team.
After the first day of Training Camp, there were some notable callouts from Jeff Zrebiec:
Ravens just finished a relatively uneventful first practice. Lamar Jackson was 8 for 14 in 7-on-7 and full-team work. Play of the day was deep back-shoulder completion to Duvernay with Kevon Seymour in tight coverage.
— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) July 27, 2022
Zrebiec is always a great follow for all things Ravens, but look out for some more updates throughout TC from the rest of the RSR team. We’ll have writers at Training Camp throughout the entire process, giving you the many valuable updates you’ll be looking for.
After practice, there was an interesting quote from Marlon Humphrey’s Press Conference, check it out:
"I'm really excited to get some good battles in with @R_bateman2 ." @marlon_humphrey pic.twitter.com/og6aBDpuqY
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) July 27, 2022
Ultimately, this is Humphrey speaking highly of his teammate, but it did remind me of an interesting aspect of this year’s training camp. As usual, all eyes will be on the receiver corps. What’s different about this year’s positional battle, however, is that we must always keep in mind that the WRs will be going up against one of the best secondaries in the NFL this offseason.
That is, it’s one of the best secondaries when healthy. Earlier this week, Justin aptly compared the entire Ravens team to the Avengers’ triumphant return in the thrilling Marvel movie, but that’s an especially astute comparison for Baltimore’s secondary:
all the injured ravens players coming back this season pic.twitter.com/2bZzfjkqzR
— 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯 🦦™ (@justinbtw_) July 23, 2022
With Humphrey and Peters both returning from massive injuries, the outside corners will be back to best-in-class. Add on numerous offseason additions including Marcus Williams, Kyle Hamilton, and Kyle Fuller, and Baltimore’s young receivers will have a major challenge throughout Training Camp.
All competition will be fun to watch, but the WR/CB battle is going to be particularly exciting.
