SB Nation - Kelly Gregg

Shallow Thoughts & Nearsighted Observations

Ted Bartlett — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:30:25 -0000

about 1 month ago: Baltimore Ravens cornerback Lardarius Webb, left, carries the ball for a touchdown as Denver Broncos safety David Bruton pursues during the third quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

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Happy Tuesday, friends, if you can manage one. Welcome to another edition of Shallow Thoughts & Nearsighted Observations. Well, this was bound to happen, right? Since Sunday afternoon, I have been thinking about what the right tone is to take with this week's ST&NO. I still haven't decided, and it's Monday at 5 PM as I write this paragraph. I guess I am just going to go with it, and play it like it feels. We had an ugly loss, and to top it off, there were only 4 late games, and no Sunday night game, so I didn't see a lot of live football, at all. We'll make do, because that's all we can do. Out of the echo chamber, and into the fire y'all. Ready.... BEGIN!!!!

1. The two plays which set the tone for yesterday's game happened at the beginning of each half. On the Broncos' first play from scrimmage, Jarret Johnson came in untouched and unrecognized off the defense's left side, and creamed Kyle Orton for a big loss. As I watched the play happen, I couldn't help but think that the Broncos may not be well-prepared if they weren't expecting a lot of blitzing.

As the second half got underway, Lardarius Webb took the opening kickoff back 95 yards for a TD. That took a manageable 6-0 halftime deficit to 13-0, and essentially dictated that the Broncos start playing come-from-behind football. You see the picture of this play, and I used it because it sticks in my craw (whatever a craw is), and I want it stick in yours, too. I guarantee it bothers the coaches and players. You can't have that happen and expect to win.

The final score, 30-7, sounds like a blowout, but this game wasn't really that. This game swung on field position, and third-down performance, which was directly driven by down-and-distance situations. The Ravens made key plays on 3rd down, and the Broncos missed opportunities to make those plays.

There's an offensive concept called staying on schedule, and it means that from first and 10, you get to 2nd and 6, and then to 3rd and 2. All your down-and-distance situations are manageable if you stay on schedule. It's a really good thing to do every game, but it's absolutely imperative against a team like Baltimore, which can bring a bunch of overload pressure and force a QB to either throw way short of the first down or eat the ball.

Actually, the Broncos did a great job throughout the game with first-down defense, and getting Baltimore off schedule themselves. The Ravens, though, led by Joe Flacco, made enough plays to negate those early-down advantages.

The world didn't end, and all we can hope is that some lessons are learned from the experience by the players and coaches, and that those lessons are applied to future situations. Sometimes a loss is a growth opportunity, and I think that there is a solid reson to think that this loss was one of those.

2. Information From My Eyes. Denver Broncos at Baltimore Ravens:

a. I thought Mitch Berger was awul on Sunday, despite Josh McDaniels' charitable comments about his performance. Hang time is fine, but I want changes in field position. The Broncos lost the field position game the whole first half, in large part because of bad punting.

b. I disliked the offensive game plan and the play calling. The 3rd-and-5 sweep for Correll Buckhalter on the second series is an example. I thought there were too many screens against a team which clearly came to stop the screen. I wanted to see more use of Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal agains the Baltimore CBs, and I am perplexed as to why we didn't get more of that.

c. I was really pleased with the way that Mario Haggan was consistently setting the edge in this game. He has a physical style of play which is perfect for the position he plays. It's pretty shocking that he was basically a special teamer only in Buffalo, because he's a top-notch 3-4 OLB.

d. I don't blame Knowshon Moreno very much for the fumble (this time). That play was doomed from the start, with Jarret Johnson forcing a high throw and tough catch, and Moreno turning right into a thumping from Ed Reed.

e. Andra Davis is playing at a Pro Bowl level this season, when he is on the field. He plays downhill all the time and has a great sense of timing with the snap count. The great thing about him is that he seems to be cool with coming off the field on 3rd downs, and letting Wesley Woodyard play the long-yardage situations, which Woodyard's much better suited for.

f. There was a lot of dancing by Brandon Marshall on his four catches. I'd like to see him get upfield quicker after the catch. I'd also like to see him use his physicality to get open on some downfield stuff.

g. I was tired by 10:30 Monday night, when I re-watched this game, so I didn't tally anything, but anecdotally, the screen game was a complete disaster on offense for the Broncos.

h. Kyle Orton had two easy interceptions dropped in this game. One was on a play where he got crushed and the ball came out weakly, and the other was a terrible decision, with Jarret Johnson sitting in an underneath zone, and Dawan Landry right behind him. Orton needs to play better than he did Sunday, like the rest of the offense.

i. With the score 16-7 early in the 4th quarter, the Broncos had Baltimore in a 3rd and 12 near midfield. On consecutive plays, Elvis Dumervil and Darrell Reid jumped offsides. On the resulting 3rd and 2, Flacco escaped pressure and made a downfield throw to Derrick Mason. This basically ended the game, because soon after, Mason scored to make the score 23-7.

j. Renaldo Hill looked out of position on the aforementioned Mason TD. Andre' Goodman had outside leverage on the play, with good coverage, really, but Hill never got over the top to help him. He may have seen something that kept him in the shallow middle; but it was a bust, clear as day, because Brian Dawkins played the coverage like he had a deep half on the other side. Credit Flacco for seeing the blown coverage and making a perfect throw.

k. From the Ravens' side, I liked their use of the no-huddle stuff, and their attempts to vary tempo. The Broncos substitute very liberally, and are one of the most package-intensive defenses in the NFL. By having to hesitate on substituting at times, they assumed a disadvantaged position against the Ravens. Really, I think that the lack of freshness of some players, who had larger than usual workloads, is a lot of what got them in the 4th quarter.

3. Information From My Eyes, Other Games:

a. As I mentioned, I didn't see a lot of other live games, since most ran at the same time as the Broncos game. To make up for that, I recorded some Short Cuts Sunday night, and hurried home from Day 1 of month-end close Monday to watch them. I started with the Jets and Dolphins, and my first (Nearsighted) Observation is that the Jets played a dominant game on defense, which surprised me a little. I thought they'd miss Kris Jenkins a lot more than they seemed to, especially with all the Wildcat stuff going on. The Jets held the Dolphins to 104 total yards, 52 each passing and rushing.

b. It's really something to score 30 points with 104 yards of offense. Jason Taylor got a fumble recovery for a TD and Ted Ginn returned two kickoffs. I have highlighted Ginn's lack of suddenness before - but let me tell you, when he gets going, he's as fast as anybody in the NFL. He outran players who had good angles on both TD returns. He may never be a top WR, but he's elite as a kickoff returner.

c. I think Thomas Jones is the most underrated player in the NFL. He started slow in the NFL, largely due to his being drafted by a horrible Arizona Cardinals team, but once he got it going in Tampa Bay, he's been a consistently productive player. He's on pace for 1,400 yards and 14 TDs this season, and is a big part of the Jets' success on offense.

d. The most overrated player has to be Jason Peters, just ahead of Alan Faneca and Flozell Adams. The bloom is mostly off the Faneca and Adams roses, at this point, but Peters still gets a lot of love from the MSM. I have just seen him get beat too many times the last two years, and the jury is in for me. He looks like he'd make a good Right Tackle, but on the left side, he gets beaten constantly by quick pass rushers. Osi Umenyiora owned him several times on Sunday.

e. DeSean Jackson is already a great player, and he's improving. He needs to be played physically, because if you let him run free through a defense, he's going to shred you. He's not really a true number-one receiver, who's going to defeat double coverage, but he's a dynamic outside guy.

f. The Eagles have a pretty fearsome passing game, when their line isn't getting Donovan McNabb sacked. Jeremy Maclin is having a solid rookie year, but I'm especially impressed with Brent Celek, who does a great job of catching the ball in traffic. He's now on pace for over 1,000 receiving yards this season. Celek isn't much of a blocker, really, but he even had a good hold that didn't get called on Sunday, helping spring Leonard Weaver's long TD run.

g. ST&NO favorite Alex Smith had a pretty nice game on Sunday against Indianapolis. He looks really comfortable in the shotgun, and led a great hurry-up TD drive at the end of the first half. For his part, Smith looked good for most of the game. The 49ers offense just repeatedly found ways to take bad penalties or give up sacks, (especially in the second half, after Joe Staley got hurt), which kept stopping the offense. Smith is showing a good rapport with Vernon Davis and Michael Crabtree, who looks like the real deal, already, two weeks into his career.

h. Peyton Manning was a little off on Sunday with his deep ball. That happens so infrequently that I thought it was worth highlighting.

i. I still can't figure out why the Colts cut Ed Johnson a couple weeks ago. They're very vulnerable to the inside running game without him. The Colts brass said the release was performance-related, but I don't buy that for a second. Johnson was definitely their best DT.

j. Very interesting news Monday evening that the Chargers had released Chris Chambers. He has been struggling to get the separation he used to get, but waiving him seems like a pretty extreme measure. You can't tell me that he couldn't beat nickel or dime CBs against most teams. I'd be very surprised if he isn't on a new team very quickly.

k. The Raiders had a legitimate shot to drive to a tying TD and 2-point conversion in the final minutes of Sunday's game against the Chargers. Then, something completely emblematic of the Raiders happened. Louis Murphy and Darrius Heyward-Bey lined up on the offense's right side, and both ran vertical routes against man coverage. The inside receiver released outside of the DB covering him, and the outside receiver released inside. They bumped into each other, and both fell down. JaMarcus Russell had nowhere to throw the ball and got sacked, despite a 7-step drop and max protection on the play. The game was functionally over at that point.

l. Aaron Rodgers got beaten up mercilessly again on Sunday, particularly early in the game. I actually thought T.J. Lang was generally pretty solid at LT, but Jared Allen still got 3 sacks. He now has 7.5 sacks in 2 games against Green Bay this year, which is like giving him a handicap in the sack race with Elvis Dumervil.

m. I really thought that Arizona had gotten their act together, but they got hammered by Carolina on Sunday. They went into the game with the number-one run defense in the NFL, and then got run over by DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart. I think it was an aberration, but that remains to be seen.

n. I've never liked Matt Ryan's arm much, and Monday night reinforced that feeling for me. Because the Falcons have a below-average line in pass protection, they max-protect a lot, leaving few receivers in the pattern. If the coverage is tight, as it was Monday, Ryan always seems to struggle to make throws to beat the coverage. He's really not too dissimilar to Kyle Orton in that way, though Orton throws the ball with more velocity. Ryan needs to have a lot of options, where he can pick a guy who is open. For that reason, Atlanta needs to focus on building their offensive line. Sam Baker, particularly, isn't good enough at LT, and would make a better LG. Baker got annihilated by Will Smith throughout Monday night's game.

o. My man Thomas DeCoud was at it again for the Falcons on Monday night. He had a sack that forced a TD in the first quarter. This guy is a big-time young player.

p. Jeff Triplette is the worst referee in the NFL, and it's not even close. He just couldn't figure out the clock on Monday night, and he has no command with the crowd. It always seems like he lets them rattle him. When you're a referee, a sheepish smile is a bad thing. You need to command the stadium, like Ed Hochuli and Mike Carey do. Gene Steratore is a good younger referee, too.

r. Marques Colston is having a fantastic year for the Saints. Prior to this year, I've always thought of him as a fairly-average starting WR who has benfitted from strong QB play, and a friendly system. I really see him winning a lot of one-on-one battles with his physicality now. He was targeted 6 times Monday night, and made 6 catches for 85 yards and a TD. He really battled for the ball on a few of those catches, including the TD.

4. Between The Lines, Denver Broncos at Baltimore Ravens

a. The Broncos had a very bad day in protection, and there's no way to sugarcoat that. The Ravens blitzed more often than what it seemed the Broncos were prepared for. Ryan Clady got beaten twice, which is twice more than usual, and got Orton hit. He was otherwise his normal self. The rag-doll was Ben Hamilton. I am getting tired of writing that every week, but if he's going to get his butt kicked, I'll keep writing it. Old friend Trevor Pryce destroyed Hamilton all game. Casey Wiegmann had his worst game of the year too, with Kelly Gregg beating him more often than not. I was pleased with Chris Kuper's play against Haloti Ngata, and I thought Tyler Polumbus did a very nice job filling in for Ryan Harris. The Broncos got Orton sacked twice (once by a DB) and pressured many more times than that. The passing game was a clear win for the Ravens defensive line.

b. The running aspect was actually better for the Broncos. They picked up a couple of 3rd and shorts, which was nice for a change, and generally held the line of scrimmage, and got a bit of surge against an excellent group for Baltimore. The only notable running play which was blown up was the 3rd-and-5 sweep. I liked the work of Clady and Kuper, and everybody was actually pretty solid in the running game. The Broncos only ran for 3.5 yards per carry - but against Baltimore, that's pretty solid. This was a draw, but one the Broncos would have been happy with if they'd protected better.

c. The Broncos did a good job pressuring Flacco throughout the game, and were beaten by some great throws and poise. These things happen. Jared Gaither held Elvis Dumervil repeatedly, but he didn't get penalized, so kudos to him, if he likes granola bars. Ben Grubbs and Michael Oher, the two best players on the Baltimore line, had good days, and the two weakest, Matt Birk and Chris Chester, didn't so much. A lot of the Broncos' pressure came from the Back 8, which is typical of them. The Ravens allowed a lot of pressure, but much like Ben Roethlisberger, Flacco showed a really good ability to evade the pressure, and make plays in spite of it.

d. The Broncos defense won big in the running game, until the last 10 minutes of the game, when it seemed like they wore down. The Broncos had 10 tackles for loss, which is the kind of performance that typically wins games. Unfortunately, Flacco's big plays negated a lot of this good work. When you consider it separately though, the Broncos won this battle for most of the game. Notable Broncos were Ronald Fields, Kenny Peterson, and Marcus Thomas. Ryan McBean got some penetration too, and Le Kevin Smith made a good play, also.

e. Overall, you have to give an edge to Baltimore, for how well they pressured Kyle Orton. It was the primary reason the Broncos never got untracked on offense. The Broncos did a more-than-respectable job in the other phases, though.

5. Word broke on Monday that the Browns had fired General Manager George Kokinis. I really can't imagine why they'd want to do that. Reportedly, Randy Lerner is displeased that Kokinis didn't take an active role in speaking to the media and communicating to the outside world. If that's really the problem, then I think it's clear that Lerner doesn't get professional football. During the season, the GM needs to be quiet and let the Head Coach be the voice of the team. This is the way it works everywhere, even a place like Baltimore, where GM Ozzie Newsome is the top football guy in the organization. That's where Kokinis came from.

Here in Cleveland, the Browns organization is really far too worried about public opinion. Remember how the Broncos organization ignored the DP message boards all offseason, and then the booing at the scrimmage? You have to do that, or you'll never get going in a coherent direction. I don't know if the Mangini plan is the right one, but it seems that Randy Lerner just canceled it before it even had half a season to work. Rumor has it that Lerner is trying to bring in Ernie Accorsi to join Bernie Kosar as a consultant. As respected as Accorsi is, this sounds like Lerner already blew the situation.

Phil Savage, who is still being paid for the next 3 1/2 years, had some interesting comments this past week. He said that the previous regime left this one with two quarterbacks, and that both of them look ruined at this point. The Browns will almost certainly be in the drafting-a-QB business again this coming spring, and that typically signals another full deep dive into rebuilding. While they're at it, they need a right side of the offensive line, two RBs, a WR, and a TE. Then they can turn their attention to the defense, which is currently solid enough to be part of a .500 team.

The team, led by Lerner, needs to definitively figure out what they want to be. They need to then formulate a plan to become that, and start executing the plan. Most importantly, though, they have to try to clearly articulate that plan to their stakeholders, and then prepare to stick to that plan, no matter what Joe in Berea, or Stanislaus in West Park have to say on the radio. You have to build your program, and winning will follow. As we all know, winning is the great deodorant.

More month-end closing activities are ahead for me this week. It seems like just last week I was closing September and complaining here about how busy I am. Now, it returns. The good news is that I will have a full Sunday of game-watching and channel-flipping next weekend, so expect a more-robust set of games which I'll be commenting on. Have a great week, friends, and remember to visit MileHighReport.com every day, for all your Broncos news and analysis.

Ravens 53 Man Roster: My Picks

Bruce Raffel — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:00:24 -0000

Here are my picks for what the Ravens will end up doing later today when they announce the 53 man roster that they will be trimming down to when they release 22 guys to get down to the NFL max.

Offense

QB: Joe Flacco, Troy Smith, John Beck

WR: Derrick Mason, Mark Clayton, Demetrius Williams, Kelley Washington, Justin Harper

RB: Ray Rice, Willis McGahee, LeRon McClain, Jalen Parmele

TE: Todd Heap, L.J. Smith, Davon Drew, Edgar Jones

OL: Matt Birk, Ben Grubbs, Jared Gaither, Chris Chester, Marshal Yanda, Michael Oher, David Hale, Oniel Cousins

Defense

DB: Ed Reed, Dawan Landry, Fabian Washington, Domonique Foxworth, Haruki Nakamura, Tom Zbikowski, Chris Carr, Lardarius Webb, Frank Walker, Derrick Martin

LB: Ray Lewis, Terrell Suggs, Jarret Johnson, Tavares Gooden, Jameel McClain, Brendon Ayanbadejo, Paul Kruger, Prescott Burgess, Antwan Barnes

DL: Haloti Ngata, Trevor Pryce, Justin Bannan, Kelly Gregg, Dwan Edwards, Brandon McKinney

Specialists

P: Sam Koch

PK: Steven Hauschka

LS: Matt Katula

That’s only 52 guys and my final spot is a tough one to decide upon. I am looking at one of the following guys:

Yamon Figurs, Jason Cook, Jason Phillips, Joe Reitz, Kelly Talavou

Figurs still has the speed and with Webb looking a bit shaky on returns, Yamon gives us another option behind Chris Carr. Jason Cook gives us another fullback along with LeRon McClain. Jason Phillips was a 4^th round draft pick in 2009 and Ozzie doesn’t like to release draft picks. Perhaps Phillips will be IR’d to keep our hands on him (I expect the Ravens to IR undrafted rookie LB Dannell Ellerbe as well). Joe Reitz gives us more depth on the offensive line as well as Kelly Tavalou does the same for the defensive line.

I don’t want to take the easy way out by only selecting 52 players, so I will have to go out on a limb and make my selection and therefore the 53^rd spot on the Baltimore Ravens roster goes to Yamon Figurs.

The other players I was undecided about go onto our Practice Squad, where we can have up to eight players. Of course, I would expect the team to peruse other teams’ cuts to add a player or two to either our roster or Practice Squad, and vice versa for the rest of the league. However, in advance of that info, my Practice Squad would look like this:

Cook, Reitz, Talavou, Foster, Riley, Peerman, Smolko, Stallings

Additionally, as I stated earlier, the team would place both Dannell Ellerbe and Jason Phillips on Injured Reserve (IR), which would end their 2009 seasons, but ensure the team retains their rights while giving the players their full 2009 salaries, which do count against the team’s salary cap. However, being rookies, that should not be much of an issue.

Your thoughts and comments on those last few slots?

Ravens Recent Injuries Create Opportunities

Bruce Raffel — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:25:01 -0000

The Baltimore Ravens are not unlike most any other NFL teams in that they've had their share of injuries in Training Camp as well as pre-season. Luckily, other than Adam Terry and Marcus Smith, both looked at being reserves anyway, the team has escaped the devastating loss that could drastically affect a team's season.

After the game Monday night against the New York Jets, a couple of other injuries came out to the public. Tight end L.J. Smith has a bum hamstring and DT Kelly Gregg injured his shoulder. There is every reason to believe that both guys will return by the time the regular season begins in a little over two weeks. We've already been informed that wide receiver Mark Clayton has returned to the practice field and will be ready for the home opener on September 13th against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Clayton's absence in practice and the exhibition games has opened the doors for Kelley Washington and Justin Harper, both who have had their share of success. Washington looks to be the guy willing to go over the middle and his enthusiastic approach to the game is contagious and refreshing. Harper, who looks to be the guy who will make the deep acrobatic catch one moment and then miss a pass that hits him in the numbers the next one, has made great strides this year compared to last year when he was ignored on the Practice Squad.

With Clayton's return, the depth chart just got a little deeper and it may be hard to find significant playing time for all of the receivers, which is a nice problem to have for this team, since it has been widely criticized for the lack of a star receiver. Derrick Mason is still the go-to guy for QB Joe Flacco and this team will remain a run-first offense no matter who is playing wideout here. However, if teams decide to stack the box to stop the run and force us to pass, then they will be quickly burned by the strong arm of our second year QB, who has the cunning Offensive Coordinator Cam Cameron in his helmet radio not afraid to light it up if the opportunity arises.

L.J. Smith's injury leaves Todd Heap as the only other proven tight end on the roster. Rookie Davon Drew has had a great opportunity the entire camp and pre-season but just hasn't earned the right to get the chances he could have. The team also has converted linebacker Edgar Jones, but his pass catching abilities have been less than promising and Isaac Smolko, from Penn State on the roster. Smolko has actually looked good but was so far down the depth chart that he might have been forgotten up until now. Many radio callers are saying that the team should bring back former Raven Daniel Wilcox, who was a fan favorite but couldn't stay healthy last year. I say put both Drew and Smolko in there for a majority of the last two pre-season games after Heap gets his reps and let's see if they sink or swim.

Kelly Gregg's injury is no big deal to the defensive line, as he missed a huge portion of last season and we didn't miss a beat with Justin Bannan in his place. We now have a healthy Dwan Edwards as well as a plethora of others to man the d-line in so many combinations. Brandon McKinney and Kelly Talavou are just two names who contributed last year but are not exactly household names on this star-studded defense. However, both could probably start on many other NFL teams.

All in all, the injuries are just a part of the game. The team's mantra has always been "next man up," and will continue to be that way, as this team is deeper at most positions than it has ever seemed to be. While they are thin on the offensive line, their starters are as good as any other team and should be a major strength, providing they stay healthy. So for now, the team will reload and play out the final two exhibition games, giving some of the reserves the chance they need to earn a roster spot before the final cuts are announced over the next two weeks.

Meet Clarence Brooks: Ravens Defensive Line Coach

Bruce Raffel — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:00:18 -0000

Clarence Brooks, or as the players affectionately call him, "CB," the heart and soul behind the team's perrenial success on the defensive line. Brooks has been with the team since 2005 and was retained by Head Coach John Harbaugh, after being hired by former Head Coach Brian Billick. That is a true tribute to Brooks' success and especially the unique relationship he has with his players.

Every morning I walked into practice during Training Camp in Westminster, I'd see him with his linemen in the end zone stretching out and warming up prior to practice officially beginning for the day. He always seems to be laughing, teasing or getting teased by his players and it was heartwarming to see such huge men acting almost like his own children when they were relaxed and just hanging out. Therefore, I decided to see if I could get an opportunity to sit down with Coach Brooks to find out more about what makes him so endearing to those players that he is charged with preparing for the season. In addition, I got a chance to ask some of the linemen plus Coach Harbaugh about what it's like working for the man and how much of their success is a reflection back onto him.

After this past Saturday's morning session, we met back at the team hotel to sit in the lobby for a few minutes so I could ask him some questions. Earlier in the week, I asked DT Haloti Ngata how what he thought about his line coach:

Beatdown: Haloti, I’m doing a sit down with Coach Brooks tomorrow and I just wanted to know what it’s like playing for the guy?

Ngata: It’s awesome, he’s such a great coach. It’s great, I didn’t know what to expect coming into the league, what kind of coach Clarence was. Now that I’m here, been here a while, I’m just thankful he’s the coach. He just such a great technician coach, taught me a lot, made me a lot better. I’m just happy he’s our coach.

BB: With all the skills he’s able to teach, it seems that he’s almost different from the other coaches in that he has such a laid back good sense of humor, always busting your chops. That doesn’t necessarily translate to the field because you seem to really take it seriously.

Ngata: Oh definitely. He knows when to turn it on and off. He’s such a great coach that he doesn’t need to get on us to make plays. We’re gonna make plays for him, not only for us but for him too. It’s just amazing how he can coach us and still get on us when he needs to.

I also asked DE Trevor Pryce the same question and he gave Brooks what I think is the ultimate compliment in his answer:

BB: Trevor, Bruce Raffel, Baltimore Beatdown. I’m doing a story on Clarence Brooks and I just wanted…

Pryce: Ha, C-Bizzle!?

BB: …want to know what’s it like playing for the guy?

Pryce: Man, I would have retired if it wasn’t for having a coach like CB. That’s the best comment, the best thing I could say about him. He’s a great coach, there’s a lot of great coaches, but he’s a better person.

Kelly Gregg thinks the same way:

BB: Kelly, just a quick question. I’m doing an article on Clarence Brooks today and I just wanted to know what’s it like playing for the guy?

Gregg: Aw, it’s great, man. He’s been around a long time, knows the game. It’s great working with him every day. You know, he’s always on you, he’s good for us.

However, even with all the accolades about what a great coach he is, they all seem to go back to the man as a person more than the coach:

BB: It seems like he has that down-to-earth special relationship…

Pryce: We love him to death, I mean honestly we love him to death. And it’s like we always had this thing where the guys are always messing around, players messing with the coaches, and we can go grab the quarterbacks coach, but nobody comes to his rescue. You grab our coach and Bannan and them boys sweep down on you like the wrath of God. I’m telling you, don’t mess with CB. He takes care of us and we take care of him.

BB: But he seems like a real laid back, fun guy too.

Gregg: Oh yeah, we have our good times but we get out there and work too. He’s great, got a great personality but when it’s time to work he turns it on.

I asked Coach Brooks about that:

BB: You seem to have a really unique relationship with your players. On one hand you can get in their face and get real serious and on the other hand you’re laughing like one of the kids. The best quote I got was from Trevor. Trevor ‘s comment when I asked him about you was "I would have retired if it weren’t for CB." So talk about what I see the difference between when I see you sitting with your players versus the other coaches. It seems like there’s not just a football relationship there.

Brooks: First of all I think all the guys on this staff do a great job in their areas with their people. Every team I’ve been on, defensive linemen are always a little bit different kind of a group. This group here is very close, they really are a close knit group. They really care for and about each other. I like being around them. Now the thing I like about them is that sometimes, when I have to get after them, I get after them and they know when I’m serious and they know when I’m not. They respect me and I respect them. That’s another thing we have, we don’t try to embarrass our players, when we put them out there we challenge them all the time.

Clarence Brooks has been in the league for a long time, but when he played the game, he was on the offensive side of the ball. I asked him about the switch for the coaching side of his career, as well as how he uses his college education to help him as a coach:

BB: So this is your 17^th season. You came to the Ravens, I think, in 2005. How does it feel that you came here under one coach and you were retained by John Harbaugh?

Brooks: Well, I’ll tell you what. At the time I came here, we just got let go at Miami, and I got a chance to come here under Brian Billick and that was great. I was here for three seasons under him and had a chance to stay when John came he wanted to retain me. I thought that was fantastic because I love this organization. It’s a heck of an organization, great people here, good players and I just really wanted to be able to stay here and go on with these guys because it’s something I was enjoying at the time and still am.

BB: According to your bio, you’ve been coaching since 1975 and you’ve been coaching defense all that time. But yet, apparently you played offensive line in college, so why defense?

Brooks: Yeah, (laughs). You know what, I don’t know. I was an offensive lineman in high school, was a lineman in college and when I first started out coaching I was working on the offensive side of the ball, working as an assistant offensive line coach at the University of Massachusetts. Then a position came open on the defense and it sounded good to me and I got on defense and been there ever since.

BB: College degree in Sociology, right? How does it help, do you get into the players’ minds?

Brooks: (laughs) I try, I’ll tell you what, I try not to. In this job, you have to be a coach, a teacher, a little bit of a psychologist, ..,

BB: …a parent?

Brooks: Yeah, a little bit of a parent sometimes, you know there are different times, different stages with different guys, so things come up that they might need, but I tell you it’s all enjoyable. I love what I’m doing and couldn’t see myself doing anything else.

Coach Brooks has been blessed with great players to work with. However, he still has to know how to differentiate between what he does for the vetrans as opposed to the younger guys:

BB: With people like Kelly and Trevor being such experienced veterans, what is you r role in working with them as opposed to some of the younger guys?

Brooks: The thing with our veteran players here, they really take ownership of what the young guys are doing. I might say something to one of the young guys as a correction and the older guys might see there’s still a little bit of confusion in the young guys’ eyes and they’ll sort of interpret it for me. If it wasn’t for the older guys, guys like Kelly and Trevor, who’ve been around for ten, twelve, fourteen years, the other guys wouldn’t follow suit. Everybody who comes into this program, comes into this position group, they kind of, "oh, okay this is the way it’s done here."

BB: So they get it from a players’ perspective?

Brooks: Yeah, they understand there’s an order to things and they understand how hard we work and they understand that when they’re on the field and we challenge them all the time, it’s to make them and us better and it’s never ever personal and it’s all about playing the game and winning the game.

This season, it appears that the depth on the defensive line is better than it has been in years. Trevor seems to think so and even Head Coach John Harbaugh agrees, giving a lot of credit to their line coach:

BB: Coach, Trevor Pryce said this is the deepest group of defensive linemen you’ve had in years. What do you think about that and how does that reflect on Coach Brooks?

Harbaugh: I think it’s the deepest group we’ve had since I’ve been here. Now, I know that’s not very long, but for Trevor [Pryce] to say that is really high praise. And it says a lot about Clarence Brooks. He develops defensive lineman. We have guys on our roster right now that other teams gave up on and have come in here with Clarence. We’ve seen it. They’re good players, and they’re going to be really good players. So, that’s a tribute to the coach.

Here's Coach Brooks' take on this subject:

BB: Trevor said today that this is the deepest group of guys on the defensive line since he’s been here and when I mentioned that to Coach Harbaugh he said that he’s only been here one year but it’s definitely deeper than it was last year.

Brooks: Yeah, it is and we need to thank God for that because we manage to stay healthy and as long as that continues, we’ve got a very nice mix of guys who’ve been around, battling for positions and we’ve got some guys who can play and have played in the NFL and have played a lot of years, so we feel pretty good about that.

As an example of the sense of humor shared between the players and their line coach, there was a little incident last week when Haloti Ngata lined up as the fullback on goal line offense, took the handoff and scored. Here's what happened next along with both Ngata's and Brooks' take on it:

BB: I saw you take a handoff on the goal line offense and after you scored you went over to him and gave him a playful tap and sat him on his butt. What happened there?

Ngata: I think I caught him when he was on that one leg and it was just perfect timing. He clicked his ankles and fell over, but I didn’t mean to do that. He definitely got on me the next day about hitting him down.

BB: Haloti, earlier this week, took a handoff at the goal line and came through and scored. He was so excited he came over to you, tapped you and knocked you off balance. I asked him about that and he said he caught you off balance, you clicked your heels and fell. He said you got on him about it.

Brooks: (laughing) Yeah he got me. I was kind of halfway paying attention to him. I was looking at something else, he got me and over I went. We have fun like that as a group, we have fun like that together and I just love being around these guys and how they play. You never have to worry about them going out on the field and not playing hard. I mean these guys work tremendously hard for us and I feel good about that.

I also asked Haloti for any "secrets" I should know about Coach Brooks and here's what obth of them had to say:

BB: Any little secret I should know about him, when I sit down, that I could bust his chops about?

Ngata: Uhhh…he cusses too much.

BB: I asked Haloti to tell me something that nobody else knows about CB. So he thought for a while and says, "he curses way too much."

Brooks: (laughs loudly) Yeah, I do, and my wife’s over there and she’ll tell you the same thing. But you know what? I try to clean it up around here but there can be times that my language gets a bit colorful. I’ve been working on it for a long time, haven’t mastered it yet but I’m trying.

Before we finished, I asked him about his son, who is part of the Ravens coaching staff, his future plans and what it will be like coaching against his former Defensive Coordinator in tonight's exhibition game:

BB: It’s also nice that you have your son working on the staff. I know he doesn’t work with you, but how does it feel knowing that day in and day out, he’s right there?

Brooks: It’s outstanding. I mean that I never would have dreamt that this would happen. When the situation came up and he got into the process and John hired him, I’m ever grateful to John for that. So he’s just getting his first step into this business and it’s been an eye opener for him, this is hard work and a lot of time, but I feel blown away that he’s here with us and it’s great to have him. He just got married a couple of months ago, he’s starting off as a newlywed in this business, but it’s just fantastic.

BB: What’s next for Clarence Brooks? Any future aspirations, do you see yourself DC-ing or head coaching?

Brooks: You know, this job is everything rolled up into one. It’s very demanding, it’s very challenging but it’s also extremely rewarding. I don’t think I’m as good a defensive line coach as I wanna be or gonna be. So there’s a lot more for me to do. Anything else that comes down the line, it comes, but I’ll tell you what, I love what I’m doing, I love the people I’m doing it with. At this point in time I’m just jacked up to still be out here and working with these young guys. It really lifts me a lot and who knows what happens down the road. Whatever happens down the road happens I don’t look at the crystal ball, I never have. I just keep my head down, grind, work and good things will happen.

BB: Monday night, looking across the field, you’re going to see a familiar face on the opposite sideline. What’s it gonna feel like?

Brooks: First of all, we’re extremely happy for Rex. He’s a guy that warranted getting one of these jobs. He got one, he was prepared for it. He’s a friend and was great to work with for four years I was here. It’s gonna be a little weird seeing him at first, but as the game starts now we’re going to wish him luck at the beginning and we’re gonna wish him luck at the end, and try to kick his butt in the middle.

BB: That’s it, I really appreciate it. Thanks.

Brooks: Okay, thank you.

Ravens Training Camp: Tuesday AM Edition

Bruce Raffel — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:13:32 -0000

No afternoon practice today, nor will there be any morning practice on Wednesday as well. However, the offense turned up the heat today and made some real nice progress in the air game, with QB Joe Flacco seeming real interested in developing a connection with veteran wide receiver Kelley Washington.

Flacco throws a bomb that traveled over 50 yards in the air before Washington ran under it and reached out before falling to the ground to haul in the deep pass amid cheers from another huge crown in attendance. Joe also hit Todd Heap over the middle for a 20 yard TD and even Troy Smith got in on the TD action with a 20 yarder down the sidelines to a wide open Justin Harper.

It was nice to see safety Ed Reed in full pads and without the red (no contact) jersey. Tavares Gooden and Paul Kruger were running with Reed, Ray Lewis and the first team defense. Gooden looks like he'll be taking Bart Scott's position and Kruger is filling in for the injured Terrell Suggs.

In 11-on-11 drills today, Ray Rice looks explosive as he burst up the middle, while DT Justin Bannan collapsed the 2nd team offensive line to meet the running back in the backfield for a loss.

One of the funnier plays of the morning had Flacco rolling out looking for someone to throw it to before winging it out of bounds, but into a kneeling Ray Lewis' arms on the sidelines, drawing laughter from the players as well as the fans!

After an incomplete pass to L.J. Smith, DT Kelly Gregg rags on him, saying "way to go, LJ, stop thinking about Kendra," referring to Smith's former teammate on the Philadelphia Eagles, Hank Baskett, who is married to the former Playboy Playmate and Hugh Hefner's old girlfriend, Kendra Wilkinson.

Gee, have you seen this before? Troy Smith's overthrown pass was picked off by centerfielder Ed Reed and taken down the left sideline for a TD!

Flacco throws a bullet over the middle complete to Kelley Washington in traffic - again! On a simple screen play, it's interesting how the two lead blockers both blocked Ray Lewis, leaving T-Gooden and Dawan Landry unblocked to tackle the running back.

Field goal time: Steven Hauschka hit consecutively from 47, 34 and 36 yards, but missed from 47 and hit the crossbar (no good) from 51 yards. Similarly, Graham Gano hit from 46, 38, 36, but also missed from 47 and 51 yards. No clear cut difference between the two today, although Gano's leg has more distance on his kicks.

Flacco hits L.J. Smith in the corner of the end zone over Dawan Landry for a TD, with Smith tiptoeing to stay in bounds and then leaping over the rope and into the crowd of fans. He then hit LJ again over the middle for another 15 yard TD pass. The Ravens next surprisingly lined up four wide with Derrick Mason, Kelley Washington and Justin Harper on one side and Ray Rice on the other, before Joe hits Kelley for a nice five yard TD pass over the middle - again!

Finally the defense gets some revenge as Domonique Foxworth jumps in front of a Flacco pass to Harper and then fakes a lateral to Ed Reed, prompting Reed to jokingly yell, "you should have given it to me!"

LeRon McClain is on the sidelines, first on his knees and then laying on his back, complaining of a hard shot to his stomach. Later, Willis McGahee, Ray Rice and Derrick Mason gather around and give him a raft of stuff, teasing him.

Defensive lineman William VanDeSteeg (who?) drops back into coverage against RB Matt Lawrence and picks off a Troy Smith pass. Later, during punt coverage drills, Head Coach John Harbaugh is giving pointers to the players, including Special Teams' ace Kelley Washington.

The heat is oppressive and the players are glad when practice ends, as they head over to the throng of fans to sign autographs before getting a well deserved afternoon off.

Training Camp 7/31

Mr MaLoR — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:56:53 -0000

Today was the first day that all veterans and rookies had to participate in training camp. Held in Westminster, MD and McDaniel College which it has been since the days of the Baltimore Colts, it was a mad house today of fans and fun. 98 Rock was there early to have a pre-game show complete with a free breakfast and even ice cold beer served at 7:45 in the morning!

I have been going to the Ravens training camps since I was very young, and this was by far the most intense day of practice that I have ever been a part of. There had to have been around 10,000 fans and I even heard one gentleman sitting next to me say "There are more people here than there was at the Orioles game last night." Here is what I thought of today's practice after the jump.

Kickers Grahmn Gano and Steven Hauschka were neck and neck all day today in the kicking competition, but it seemed like Gano got the best of Hauschka. Gano was 4 for 4 on a field goal kicking drill and Hauschka missed one. But a drill that I found rather interesting involved both kickers standing along side the goal post. Here, they each got 3 chances and were trying to hit the posts from about 20 yards away on purpose. Gano was the first to get it and it took Hauschka about 6-7 tries to finally hit his first post. Gano looks to have the stronger leg, as Hauschka badly came up short on what looked to be at the most a 60 yard field goal. Gano also looked to have an extremely strong leg on kick offs.
In the beginning of the practice, the WR were lining up and practicing getting acceleration as if the ball was snapped. They stood in two lines, but what got me thinking was the order by which the players lined up. It was Clayton and Williams to go first, followed by Smith and Harper. I thought that the way this drill was set up is telling us that a possible line-up as of right now is Clayton, Williams, Smith, Harper. But it is still early. However, WR's such as Biren Ealy and Eron Riley showed some serious skill today, particularly Ealy. He made many catches on the tips of his toes and was burning our CB's on multiple routes
The 3 Quaterbacks that are currently on the roster, Joe Flacco, Troy Smith and John Beck, all impressed me today. Each one of these guys can really get the ball out of their hand quickly and with some force behind it. There were multiple passes put on the money by these 3, including a one handed grab by Ray Rice and a ball threaded through the defense into Heap's hands. The QB's also seemed to be able to throw the deep ball very well.
Based on physical image, there are a few players that stand out immensly. WR Marcus Smith is huge. He looks like a linebacker playing WR. Huge legs and enormous arms. His footwork looks very solid and he is definitely not afraid of going across the middle. Kelly Gregg has a body type that you will not see anywhere else. He seems to have lost a little bit of his belly, but he looks like one solid muscle, sort of like a rhino. As most of us know, Dawan Landry is ripped. Well, he is ripped! I cannot believe that he is only 208 pounds, because his arms and neck make him look close to 240. If Landry put on 20 pounds, he could be a middle linebacker in this league.
Our secondary may be the best this team has ever seen, definitely the fastest. Some had their struggles, such as Frank Walker who got beat on a few passes, but players like Dominique Foxworth and Lardarius Webb blankted their Wideout all day. Webb looks to have the most fluid hip motion and best ability to change direction of any of the CB's. He stuck with Justin Harper very well on one pass that looked to be an easy catch. But Webb used his speed to get in front of Harper, creating an incomplete pass on a long ball. I was very impressed with the physicality of Foxworth also. On a pass to Demetrius Williams on the sideline, Foxworth was with D-Will the whole way there, but Williams seemed to create space at the last moment. As Williams went up for the ball, Foxworth got in Williams' face and forced D-Will to catch the ball out of bounds. He looks to have very good press coverage for being a man to man DB his whole career.
The first string Offensive Line looks incredible. They are big, strong, fast and maybe the most athletic in the league. With Matt Birk at Center, you can really tell why he has been a pro-bowl selection so many times. His fundamentals are perfect and having such a great veteran on this extremely young O-Line will only help everyone else. Oher looked great today as well. He is a physical freak and for someone who weighs 300 pounds, it really does not look like he has too much body fat. At one point in a 11 on 11 drill, Gaither was lined up at Right Tackle and Oher was at Right Gaurd. This move had Heap back on the O-Line at the LT position.
On the other hand, the 2nd string of O-Lineman was extremely sloppy this morning. On one particular drive, they had 3 false starts in about 5 snaps. They missed multiple blocks and the QB taking the snaps would have gotten destroyed had the defensive players had the chance. Their run blocking was not on point and these guys really need some work.

Well, unlike Bruce who has a great position to take great photos 6 inches away from the players, I was in the bleachers with the rest of barbaian fans snapping away. Here are a few photos from my spot in the corner of the endzone.

Quarterbacks John Beck, Joe Flacco and Troy Smith right before practice starts

Bruce's prom date, Haruki Nakamura tending to a cut on his elbow and Tom Zbikowskit taking in the 10,000+ fans' cheers.

Strong Safety Dawan Landry

The Dreads, KJ Gerard and Lardarius Webb

Linebacker Tavares Gooden doing drills

Wide Receivers Marcus Smith and Justin Harper

Thanks for reading and I look forward to reporting more training camps throughout the next 3 weeks for those who are not as fortunate to make a trip to McDaniel College.

More Notes From Ravens Friday AM Practice

Bruce Raffel — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:11:47 -0000

Troy Smith was QB-ing with a trio of tall wideouts on either side of him, Ernie Wheelwright, Justin Harper and Eron Riley, all over 6'3" in height. Ray Rice made a nice one handed grab of a Troy Smith sideline pass. Joe Flacco had a long completion to recently signed wideout Biren Ealy while Demetrius Williams caught a 17 yarder from Flacco just afterwards. Willis McGahee ran up the middle into a group of defenders, and you could hear the thuds of full contact on the sidelines.

Mark Clayton pushed off CB Frank Walker to make a sideline grab and then was taken down on a hard tackle by Dawan Landry. The referees called Clayton for interference, as even the zebras need Training Camp.. A misdirection running play had RT Michael Oher knocking DT Justin Bannan to the ground.

Troy threw a bullet to WR Justin Harper, who stiff armed the helmet off of cornerback Chris Carr's head. Mark Clayton went up to grab a high pass from Flacco and was unceremoniously slammed to the ground by rookie CB Lardarius Webb.

I notice that while most of the other players trot on and off the field, Kelly Gregg sprints out every time like a kid who is just happy to be playing the game.

Webb's good defense got kudos on the sidelines from Ray. Troy Smith rolls out and throws a short crossing pass to rookie TE Davon Drew that goes off his fingertips on a pass that he should have caught.

Last part of practice is the kickoff drill, with Graham Gano booming shots into the end zone.

My new "buudy," Haruki Nakamura came off the field in front of me, sees me and give me the cool nod of acknowledgement. Justin Harper fist-bumped me after practice on his way tot he locker room. There's former Baltimore Colt great Lenny Moore, talking football technique on the side.

As the players head to either the locker room or do to interviews, I see one little girl up front against the fence. She can't be much older than six, wearing a pink #9 Steve McNair jersey. She has casts on both arms due to two broken wrists. Hopefully, she'll get to be first in line and receive whatever autographs she wants.

Lots of players head over to sign autographs for the fans, which was impressive. See my FanPost for my one-on-ones that I had.

Ravens Rookies & Select Veterans Take The Field

Bruce Raffel — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:37:08 -0000

The Baltimore Ravens got off to a great start as their rookies and more than a few veterans took the field this morning at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. Veteran QB's Joe Flacco (sounds sort of strange to be calling him a veteran now), Troy Smith and John Beck wore the red jerseys as other veterans such as Mark Clayton, Demetrius Williams, Justin Harper, L.J. Smith took part on the offensive side of the ball. They joined rookie draft picks Cedric Peerman (RB), Jason Cook (FB) and Eron Riley (WR). Defensively, veterans Kelly Gregg (DT), Tavares Gooden (LB), Fabian Washington (CB), Frank Walker (CB), Dawan Landry (SS), Chris Carr (CB), Prescott Burgess (LB) were dressed to show rookie defensive players such as 2nd round pick Paul Kruger (LB), Dannell Ellerbe (LB), Lardarius Webb (CB), K.J. Gerard (CB), Robbie Felix (C), and the NFL Bench Press Champion from Michigan,Will Johnson (DE). who put up 47 reps of 225 pounds.

First Looks:

DT Kelly Gregg looks like a fire hydrant and if healthy, will be a welcome addition to last year's ferocious defense.

Rookie CB K.J. Gerard looks taller than the 6'1" that he is listed at. So do WR's Justin Harper and Eron Riley, both listed at 6'3".

QB Joe Flacco (6'6") stands head and shoulders above both Troy Smith (6') and John Beck (6'2") and walks with a swagger not normally seen in a second year player. L.J. Smith seen working hard on the blocking sled and looks bigger than I expected, plus he is catching every high pass on his fingertips every time.

Demetrius Williams is running and catching without any apparent hitch in his step. In a post practice interview, Williams said he's 100% and when I asked him if he was ready for some hitting, he replied, "I feel I am ready for all of that and I think I'm in the best physical shape in a long time. I'm not worried about anything as far as physical right now."

Willis McGahee, as noted earlier is in camp but is not participating in drills. In post-practice interviews, McGahee said, "...nobody wants to sit on the sideline. I just want to make sure I'm completely healthy." When asked about his offseason training regimen, he jokingly refused to give up his secrets, only stating, "I feel more leaner."According to head coach John Harbaugh, a number of players were place on the 'Physically Unable to Perform" (PUP) List, which included McGahee, along with Davon Drew, Ben Grubbs, Yamon Figurs, Marshall Yanda, Adam Terry and Samari Rolle. Although none of these injuries other than Yanda's continuing recovery, Coach Harbaugh says they just want to be careful at the start of camp.

Click on the "Jump" to read more notes from the morning practice session.

Rookie placekicker Graham Gano was at practice, kicking for the first time today since we saw him last at the end of the off season OTA's in June. He actually missed a short 30 yarder in drills, but had a rotating group of holders that included Joe Flacco, Troy Smith, Mark Clayton and even a couple of coaches. His regular holder, punter Sam Koch, was not in camp. His response when I took him aside after practice was that there were a couple of "interesting" snaps, but as a kicker "it's my job to put the ball through whether the ball's flat on the ground or perfect holds."

Once practice was over for the morning session, both Joe Flacco and Coach Harbaugh took the podium. In the bombardment of questions to Flacco, I was able to ask him how the game has "slowed" down for him now compared to last year. Flacco replied, "... by the end of the year, the game was at a good speed for me. I've always said that as I grow with the offense, the defense will get slower." He also said that he tihnks the team will go a long way. "We came close last year and plan on going further this year," stated Flacco. When questioned about his recent Reebok commercial for the NFL.com's Fantasy Files, including how long it took to make and were there any special effects, he replied, "It took about an hour to make it, and do you think I need special effects to do that?"

Coach Harbaugh took the podium next and started off saying that he thought practice was "crisp" but it would be sharper on Friday. He said he thought Demetrius Williams looked good and "his goal is to become a more durable football player." Asked about the constant debate of the team needing a #1 wide receiver, Harbaugh shot back that "whoever is out there catching the ball will be real happy Joe's throwing to them." He went on to acknowledge that they have discussed Michael Vick and Matt Jones among others including Amani Toomer and Justin McCareins to decide "what they can or cannot do for us." However, he said that someone in camp will step up, be it a "Marcus Smith, Justin Harper or someone else."

I was able to ask a question to WR Mark Clayton about knowing he has the confideence t step up, but what about the younger guys at wide receiver? Clayton replied, "We got some guys really hungry, ready to make plays to do what they can to help this team."

More notes and photos will be posted later today after the second pracdtice session this afternoon.

Baltimore Ravens Mini-Camp (OTA/Passing Camp) Notes

Bruce Raffel — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:49:19 -0000

In addition to the great Ravens Front Office people I had the pleasure of being introduced to yesterday at their final OTA/Passing Camp, I also introduced myself to Aaron Wilson, Sportswriter for the Carroll County Times. Aaron covers the Ravens and his writing and radio time has always been fair, balanced, honest and accurate in my opinion. He is easily approachable and is always willing to discuss all things Ravens. We discussed my interviewing him, as he has so much depth of knowledge of the Ravens and his opinions would be very interesting to the readers here on the Beatdown.

In future posts, I will be detailing the locker room interviews I had with placekicker Graham Gano, wide receiver Marcus Smith, safety Haruki Nakamura and a short one with cornerback Fabian Washington. I took a ton of photos, many that you will see in the related posts, but if you are looking for a specific photo of a player, let me know and I’ll try to post it as well if you don’t see it in one of the stories to follow. I also wrote down a lot of notes, detailing what I saw and my impressions of the player’s efforts, progress and health.

To give you an example of the whirlwind of action I witnessed, here is an timeline of my first forty minutes on the sidelines:

10:20am: Dawan Landry looks HUGE!

10:30am: Le’Ron McClain looks big and stocky.

10:40am: After Sam Koch, Graham Gano took his turn punting on punt return drills.

10:44am: Saw Baltimore Colts great and Pro Football Hall of Famer Lenny Moore observing practice.

10:45am: Introduced myself to head coach John Harbaugh, who made eye contact and repeated my name!

10:50am: Tavares Gooden looks fit and athletic.

10:55am: CB’s Domonique Foxworth and Fabian Washington look to be going at full speed.

11:00am: LB Jarret Johnson seen explaining defensive formations to other LB’s T. Gooden and Brendon Ayanbadejo.

You can only imagine the scope of different things going on at different locations on two adjoining fields in such a short time, when the entire practice lasted just over two hours. My head was spinning, my writing hand cramping and I took over 100 photos. I was as worn out as the players….uh…not really.

Some other random notes from observations:

Dawan Landry and Haruki Nakamura were running tandem as first team safeties, followed by Tom Zbikowski and Lardarius Webb. Webb’s dreadlocks were down to his jersey numbers and while he is just a bit shorter than the other safeties, he is lighter and thinner. Interestingly, while Landry is listed a 6’ and 220 pounds in the roster handout, according to Patrick Gleason, Landry is in such great shape that he is down to around 212 pounds, built solid as a rock with incredible definition in his shoulders and neck. I also noted that Landry is lefthanded, not that it matters.

Trevor Pryce, at almost 34 years old, already seems quick off the snap even in drills. Kelly Gregg watched the drills in uniform and looks so stocky and deserving of his "Buddy Lee" nickname. No Ray Lewis to be seen, although he has been at some of the other mini-camps. Willis McGahee was seen earlier in the practice but did not participate in most of the drills. Unheralded RB Matt Lawrence (FA 2008, UMass) seemed to be in a lot of the drills, as much as either reserve RB Cedric Peerman or Jalen Parmele.

11 on 11 Drills: Flacco just barely overthrew Marcus Smith on a long pass. Troy Smith then hit Smith on a similar pass. Le’Ron McClain took a handoff up the middle and I thought "pity the poor fool that gets in his way!" Troy then hit on another solid sideline pass. Both QB’s were looking sharp and confident. Wide receiver Marcus Smith seems to be an integral part of the offense and one of the first options for both QB’s. While Derrick Mason took part in later drills, he wasn’t part of the earlier ones. Mark Clayton was not there, and Demetrius Williams had a green jersey on, which we were talking about on the sidelines. We knew the red ones meant avoid contact, but guessed the green ones meant something between that and full speed (limited?). Even with that green jersey, D-Will still looked to be running at full speed, which is encouraging. Kelley Washington made a tough grab in traffic and looked solid and comfortable. With John Beck at QB, he was rushed hard by LB Jarret Johnson and threw incomplete under pressure. I noticed they ran their drills with the 40 second playclock running at all times.

Both kickers, Steven Hauschka and Graham Gano, took turns in field goal drills, looking solid on their long kicks, although Gano’s leg seemed to have a bit more distance today. I’ve heard that this competition is the closest one in all of training Camp and surely will go down to the wire through preseason.

First round draft pick OT Michael Oher is tall and fit, especially for an offensive lineman, with no belly! Jared Gaither is just a massive human being, listed at 6’9" and 334 pounds! Having those two as bookends on our offensive line, with veteran Matt Birk between guards Ben Grubbs and Marshall Yanda, should give every Ravens fan confidence that QB Joe Flacco will be well protected and the RB’s will have gaping holes to burst through all season in 2009 and beyond. We now also have the needed depth on the offensive line with Adam Terry, Chris Chester, David Hale and Oneil Cousins.

The defense seemed to outperform the offense in drills, with Lardarious Webb breaking up a pass and catching a tipped ball for an interception and Tom Zbikowski getting two interceptions, including one by outleaping a group jumping for the ball. Fabian Washington celebrated his birthday by breaking up a pass, and while he is one of the smaller guys in the secondary, he doesn’t shy away from the contact for a second. Reserve QB John Beck hit TE Isaac Smolko over the middle. You might not hear too much about Smolko, but he is a huge target at 6’5" and 260 pounds.

In Red Zone drills, the offense began to click, with Flacco hitting Mason (twice), Washington and even the tall and lanky Ernie Wheelwright with sharp scoring passes. However, Nakamura made his classic edge blitz to sack Beck once and the defense shut down the over the middle goal line passes time and time again.

Unfortunately for me, the final horn sounded, signaling the end of practice. The players slowly made their way to the locker room while Coach Harbaugh prepared to come to the podium to answer questions. After a short session, I made my way to the locker room to conduct one-on-one interviews and observe the major media ones. These interviews will follow in future stories. I could have easily stayed at "The Castle" all day and would love the opportunity to come back and follow the team to Westminster for Training Camp beginning in late July. Hopefully, the Ravens will continue to grant me credentials and access. Keep tuned in for more.

What's Going On In Baltimore?

Mr MaLoR — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:28:31 -0000

More photos » by Gail Burton - AP

Baltimore Ravens Offensive Coordinator, Cam Cameron.

Browse more photos »

With summer finally starting up, we get closer and closer to the beginning of the 2009-2010 NFL season. This time can sometimes be a rather "dead" period for the NFL because there is not too much to talk about. But as many of us have been debating who some of the greatest all-time Ravens are or the most exciting player in the NFL, there have been some rather important news flowing right under our noses. Here are a few of the more interesting events that have unfolded recently.

Sporting News has recently come out with a list of the top 20 offensive coordinators in the NFL. When I first saw the headline for this story, I expected to see the Colts', Patriots', Saints', etc. offensive coordinators in the top 5. Those are some of the most dangerous offenses in the league, yet not one of those teams were even in the top 20! What I was not surprised about was that our very own, Cam Cameron, received the number 1 spot. Sporting News had this to say about Cam. "Being innovative is only part of the job. Putting your best players in a position to be successful is another. Cameron, despite his reputation taking a beating in his one year in Miami, is a great coach who took a Division I-AA quarterback and turned him into a productive NFL starter as a rookie."
In addition to this, there have been other stories out there regarding the ranks of people within the Raven's organization such as thescore's breakdown of the offensive and defensive players of the decade, where lead writer Brad Gagon selected Ray Lewis as the defensive player of the decade.
Wide Receiver has been the hottest topic of the offseason so far for Baltimore. So, would it surprise anyone that Quarterback, Troy Smith, has lined up at WR recently?
Outside Linebacker, Terrell Suggs, is still absent from team workouts this week, but this has allowed second round pick, Paul Kruger step up in the spot of "hybrid" defensive player. Kruger has shown glimpses of flash during his time in the position, but it has been said that he is having a rough time trying to get by left tackle, Jared Gaither.
With Haloti missing OTA's, starting nose tackle Kelly Gregg has come back to being his old "Buddy Lee" self. At one point last season, there was talk that Gregg may not even be able to play football again because of his knee injury. Now, Gregg says that he is at 100% and is a frequent pressence at team headquarters in Owings Mills. Ngata has returned officially to practice though after going back to school to earn his degree.
It is looking that come August, we will not be seeing some of the familiar faces we usually see in the secondary. With the Ravens signing Free Agents Dominique Foxworth and Chris Carr while retaining Samari Rolle for the primary back-up role, we may see a few guys leave before opening day against the Chiefs. At this point it is most likely safe to say that besides the starters, Rolle, Carr, Walker and 3rd round pick Lardarious Webb will make the squad. The battle looks like it falls between guys like Evan Oglesby, Anwar Phillips and Derrick Martin. Since many of our main guys have been out with injuries through this period of the offseason, this should give these guys all the opportunities to show the coaches that they can be a part of this great defense. However, it is a business and keeping 9 Cornerbacks on the 53 man roster does not happen in this league.
6th round pick Tight End, Davon Drew, signed a three year contract. As glad as I am to have Drew be the first draft pick to sign a contract, does it seem a little strange with us having Heap, Smith, Sypnewski and Jones still at the position? First round draft pick Michael Oher and the Ravens are still in negotiation process.

The offseason may be a little slow, but we should be sure that right now the Front Office, Players and Coaches are all doing their parts to ensure that we put together the best 53 man roster possible.