I know it’s just one day in the books, but this year’s Ravens Training Camp kickoff at Under Armour Performance Center just felt different.
There was simply an air of excitement. Of hope. A fanfare in July that felt like September had arrived. The fans in the stands were so alive today that their cheers for players walking onto the practice field actually set off my “Loud Environment” alert on my watch. Multiple times. Fans clamoring for the attention of the stars seemed louder than ever, including a ten-minute window early on in which I heard “OBJ!” no less than a hundred times — from adults and kids alike!
Fortunately for the fans, the Ravens gave them a show today… albeit one in non-contact helmets playing patty-cake on the line, which resulted in the expected “offense won the day” showing for the Ravens during the intra-squad scrimmages.
The standouts were clearly the obvious ones- Lamar Jackson, Mark Andrews, Zay Flowers and Odell Beckham Jr, but a few others stood out on offense as well. Notably, we saw James Proche becoming a target monster today, as he found the ball sprayed all over the field from several different quarterbacks. I couldn’t pinpoint anything overly flashy that he did with any of his catches, but he was consistent at least.
Similarly, there were plenty of Charlie Kolar sightings today… although his results were a mixed bag, with a beautiful back-shoulder catch following a pass break-up where he couldn’t generate separation, and a bad drop mixed in there somewhere.
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A few other notably noteworthy notes
–Odafe Oweh continues to show flashes of improvement, generating pressures from both sides of the line. I can’t pinpoint a ‘signature move’ but he seems to be approaching pressure with more confidence in his plan, and speed to go with it.
-Odell Beckham Jr had a crowd-pleasing catch in the face of Rock Ya-Sin that… I mean it was pretty, but it was a weird series of events that started with a mistimed jump by OBJ causing RYS to anticipate the ball, and what appeared to be a push-off to separate. If he can get away with it? That’s fantastic… but it looked like a Sunday OPI for me.
-Sala Aumavae-Laulu spent the day with the first unit at Left Guard, as John Harbaugh noted during his presser, and it was absolutely well deserved as he held his own in the aforementioned trench patty-cake games (it’s not like the defense wasn’t pushing to get through them, just no collisions). I’m excited to see if the rookie can earn the starting spot.
-Really tough day for the backend wideouts on the roster. Shemar Bridges had multiple drops, and former Terp Dontay Demus, Jr had a tough one as well. In a battle to unseat Proche or Wallace for the final WR spots, nobody did enough to warrant any chatter just yet.
-The only questionable ball Lamar Jackson threw today was a deep shot to Nelson Agholor into double coverage (RYS and Hamilton), leaving Agholor with zero chance to reel it in. Play resulted in a Kyle Hamilton leaping interception. Great hands.
–Justin Madubuike, Broderick Washington and David Ojabo all forced pressures on the quarterbacks during scrimmaging, and forced the signal callers to run numerous times.
–Melvin Gordon caught a pass cleanly. I don’t know what everyone is so worried about…
PLAY OF THE DAY: Air Hamilton INT
MVP OF THE DAY: OBJ based solely on the amount of people screaming his name for 90 solid minutes
