SB Nation - Bryan Mattison

Ravens Training Camp: Wednesday PM Edition

Bruce Raffel — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:34:57 -0000

The afternoon session in Westminster was a bit more subdued than the morning one. As the day moved towards the end, some of the veterans began to trickle in to say hello to the coaches and other players. We saw LB Jarret Johnson, safeties Ed Reed and Haruki Nakamura, WR Marcus Smith and DT Justin Bannan on the field in shorts. Veteran CB Samari Rolle made an appearance in uniform, but just seemed to be stretching and not participating.

I overheard one of the defensive line coaches laughing, saying he heard that DT Haloti Ngata has brought his own bed with him to the team hotel!

Believe it or not, OL teammates Robby Felix and Bryan Mattison were STILL going at it, one-on-one!

The offense was practicing a wide variety of sets, including multiple wideout and triple option plays with different players at every position.

In 7-on-7 drills, the offense had a good series of plays. QB John Beck hit newcomer WR Jayson Foster, Troy Smith hit Justin Harper and Joe Flacco completed a good one to Demetrius Williams, who outjumped a shorter Lardarius Webb. Beck then hit Mark Clayton with Fabian Washington hanging all over him. Another fingertip grab by Clayton, once again over Washington, would have been a catch-and-run 50 yard TD in a game situation.

In field goal drills, rookie Graham Gano drilled a bunch with different holders, including successfully with Joe Flacco holding. Fortunately, CB Chris Carr will not be a holder, as when he did put one down for Gano, Graham drilled his offensive linemen in the back, causing them to yell, "Carr, get out of here!"

As I said earlier in this piece, DT Justin Bannan was there in shorts and a sleeveless top, showing off his incredibly huge "guns" which are apparently notorious amongst the players.

CB Derrick Martin, due partly to the absence of enough safeties (although it is runored that due to CB depth, he is moving to the safety position), played with confidence and was very talkative, directing the rookies playing alongside him on defense.

Fabian Washington and Lardarius Webb broke up consecutive passes with nice defensive moves.

WR Isaiah Williams (Maryland Terrapins) was cut after yesterday's session to make room on the roster for newly signed WR/KR Jayson Foster.

Photos after the "Jump."

Ravens Training Camp - Wednesday AM Edition

Bruce Raffel — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:20:30 -0000

The Ravens started off their second day of Training Camp this morning with a couple of additions and some deletions. With overcast skies and an occasional drizzle, I set up in the end zone, watching the QB's throwing deep passes to the corners of the end zone, each one pretty much putting it dead on every time, although Flacco's longer arm looks stronger than than the other two. In Special Teams' "Gunner" drills. Rookie CB Lardarius Webb went up against both Fabian Washington and Chris Carr - now that's some of our best speed on the field! Webb split the two of them and went up the middle rather than trying to beat them outside.

More notes and photos after the "Jump."

Center Robby Felix and OL Bryan Mattison were still going at it, squaring off in one-on-one drills as they were last seen doing yesterday afternoon. Perhaps they were out here all night long?

Rookie TE Davon Drew participated in non-contact offensive drills, while L.J. Smith reportedly tweaked a hamstring yesterday and was just a observer this morning. I saw him limping off the field yesterday afternoon and thought something was up, although Harbaugh said it was not anything to worry about. Flacco's "1st team" receiving corp included Drew, D-Will, Clayton, FB Jason Cook and both RB's, Cedric Peerman and Matt Lawrence. Peerman fumbled a handoff from John Beck, prompting yells from the coaches. The QB's took turns practicing the "kneel-down" play. Here's hoping we have reason to run it often at the end of the game!

The practice seemed to be run at a much slower pace today than yesterday, which was boring from a fan's perspective with gaps of time between drills and reps.

Later in the practice session the tempo was upped and Flacco's long pass completion to Justin Harper earned applause and cheers from the fans in attendance. In 11-on-11 drills, Harper was knocked to the ground by CB Frank Walker, perhaps the first real hit of the camp. LB Prescott Burgess also put FB Jason Cook on the turf after he caught a short pass over the middle.

J. Harper faked Frank Walker off his feet for a completion on the sideline from Smith. Flacco rolled right then threw long left to D. Will, but the pass and Williams were knocked down by a leaping Lardarius Webb. Troy Smith hit Justin Harper on a bullet pass on a crossing pattern that Harper took to the house, outrunning Dawan Landry. Harper also made the best play of the morning when he grabbbed a pass out of Webb's hands at the last second and outran DB K.J. Gerard to the end zone amid the loudest cheers and applause from those in attendance, prompting Smith to run upfield to congratulate him on the play. When I spoke to Harper after practice, talking about that play, he said, "all we can do as receivers is go out and make plays," referring to negative comments being made about the so-called weakness of our receiving corps.

John Beck overthrew D. Will and just does not look anywhere as sharp as even Troy, much less Joe.

Fourth round draft pick, LB Jason Phillips was doing conditioning drills while Willis McGahee was seen running lengths of the other field over and over.

Tavares Gooden was overheard during an interview saying, "...Friday will be fun to put the pads on and get it done."

Podium interviews with Coach Harbaugh, Paul Kruger and Lardarius Webb were held and their comments will be posted shortly.

Baltimore Ravens Training Camp: Tuesday's PM Practice

Bruce Raffel — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:00:31 -0000

After a spirited practice at Training Camp in the morning, the team was back out there at 3:30pm Tuesday afternnoon. Here are some notes on my observations:

The QB's took turns throwing nice passes to WR's Mark Clayton, Demetrius Williams, Justin Harper, Eron Riley, Isaiah Williams and TE L.J. Smith. Flacco's passes to Clayton look sharp as he catches everything with the glue-like hands that a #1 wide receiver should have. D. Williams looks confident and J. Harper also looks good. L.J. Smith looks every bit the receiver we were looking for when we signed him. He looks like a wide receiver in a tight end's body.

Flacco was zipping passes all over the field. There is no question who the starter is in his mind this year, as well as everyone else's mind, including both other QB's Troy Smith and John Beck.

There is a new receiver in camp, already wearing what was supposed to be Drew Bennett's number 18, although his name is not even stitched onto his jersey yet. He is little known Jayson Foster, whom we will know slightly more about at Wednesday's practice other than that he is only around 5'7" tall, but very quick after the catch.

Troy Smith threw a nice deep ball to WR Eron Riley. D-Will is running like he has something to prove to both himself and everyone else - which he does - stay healthy all season!

Offensive linemen Robby Felix and Bryan Mattison were seen bustin' butt in one-on-one drills over and over again. Felix was the undrafted free agent center who suffered a stroke but was looking to be one of the top centers coming out of college, while Mattison is the son of Defensive Coordinater, Greg Mattison.

7-on-7 Drills:

CB Derrick Martin read QB John Beck's eyes, rushed in to pick one off his shoetops and took it to the house. Seldom used RB Matt Lawrence is contantly hustling, but seems like a longshot although he plays with versatility, running and catching well. Flacco hits J. Harper in traffic with a bullet. A small but significant play had Flacco looking the entire defense to his right then threw left to RB Cedric Peerman underneath for a nice gain.

Flacco to Harper is a common occurrence. Clayton has a nice fingertip grab on a curl-in completion from Flacco. D. Williams snatched a rope from Troy Smith right in front of L. Webb.

Click on the "Jump" for some photos from the afternoon session.

Check out these photos form Tuesday, July 28th afternoon practice:

Flacco up at the line of scrimmage:

TE L.J. Smith makes a nice grab:

WR Justin Harper about to catch a long one:

RB Willis McGahee does some rope drills:

Ravens' Strongest Player?

Bruce Raffel — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:58:47 -0000

Mike Duffy of BaltimoreRavens.com put up a cool story of the Baltimore Ravens second annual competition to find out which player on their roster deserves the title as "Ravens' Strongest Player." The "strongman-style" competition, breaks down the players by offense and defense, then again by weight group. The linemen are in one group, then the linebackers, running backs and tight ends, followed by the defensive backs, wide receivers and quarterbacks.

The results were surprising, and while last year's winner did indeed repeat overall on his side of the ball, he was actually upset in his own weight class by a much smaller and lesser known Raven. Linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo won the overall competition for the defense, although he was beaten out in his weight group by running back Jalen Parmele! Bryan Mattison, son of Ravens' Defensive Coordinator Greg Mattison, took top honors on the offense. In the three individual weight groups, while Parmale won the "middleweight" category, with Ayanbadejo finishing second, tight end Isaac Smolko came in third. Among the "heavyweights," Mattison won, followed by LB Paul Kruger and DE Will Johnson. In the "lightweight" category, Baltimore Beatdown favorite, safety Haruki Nakamura took top honors, trailed closely by fellow safety Tom Zbikowski and former Maryland Terrapin WR Isaiah Williams. There were six specific drills they competed in to gauge the results in the weight classes.

Clcik here to get the link to Duffy's interesting story with full results on the Ravens' team site.