SB Nation - Jayson Foster

Ravens Roster Cuts + Other Moves

Bruce Raffel — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 21:03:25 -0000

Keep it here for the list of players being released or moved in other ways by the Baltimore Ravens as the team gets down to the maximum of 53 players by this afternoon's deadlines. So far, this is what we have heard:

Waived: Graham Gano, Justin Harper, Yamon Figurs, Evan Olglesby, Will Johnson, Jayson Foster, Jason Cook, Robby Felix, William VanDeSteeg have been waived.

Also waived with the announcement of the 53 man roster were: Nader Abdallah, Ernie Wheelwright, Eron Riley, K.J. Gerard, Tony Fein, Isaac Smolko, Tre Stallings, Stefan Rodgers, Cedric Peerman AND Devon Drew!

LB Jason Phillips has been placed on Injured Reserve, thereby ending his 2009 season but allows the Ravens to keep his rights and gives him his full salary. This is what I predicted in my earlier posting today.

Derrick Martin has been traded to the Green Bay Packers for what was thought be an undisclosed late round 2010 draft pick, but turned out to be offensive guard/tackle Tony Moll, who was added to the 53 man roster.

We will add more names as they are released by the team or when they list their final 53 players.

(See the first comment below for the full list of the 53 players on the Ravens roster, as posted, thank you very much, by Mr MaLoR.)

Reportedly, the tem is interested in adding a player or two and the names that have come up are former Jacksonville Jaguars (and Ravens) OT Tony Pashos and recently released NY Giant WR David Tyree.

See the entire story and recently updated roster on by clicking on BaltimoreRavens.com.

Ravens Dominate Again: Finish Pre-Season 4-0

Bruce Raffel — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:14:41 -0000

More photos » by John Amis - AP

3 months ago: Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh greets quarterback John Beck (12) as he comes back to the sideline after a first half touchdown against the Atlanta Falcons during their exhibition NFL football game Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Amis)

Browse more photos »

The Baltimore Ravens completed their 2009 exhibition season 4-0, by dominating the Atlanta Falcons with their reserves most of the game 20-3. Last time the Ravens went undefeated in pre-season was before the 2000 Super Bowl season.

To many of the fans, this was an incredibly meaningless and boring game. However, to the knowledgable fan, this was as important a game as there was for the team as a whole. While most of the starters were on the sidelines, the reserves were fighting for their NFL careers, hoping to make that one last impression that would convince the team's Front Office that they deserve a spot on the Ravens roster.

The Ravens must cut 22 of their 75 players to get down to the NFL maximum of 53 players by tomorrow afternoon. Almost one-third of this roster will be looking for either new teams or new jobs by late Saturday. Can you imagine the stress and fear going through some of the players on the so-called "bubble?" One moment, they are on the world's stage, being treated like royalty with a big salary, great benefits and teammates and the next moment they are returning to the factories and local supermarkets in their hometowns looking for a full time job that many of them are not even qualified to do.

This is the toughest time of the year for the Front Office personnel. Telling a player that his dream job is being ripped from his heart has to be one depressing deed to complete, much less 22 times in one afternoon. I feel for Head Coach John Harbugh and his staff on the tough decisions, much less the notification of the unlucky players. On the other hand, there will be a few surprises so the fear and disappointment of one player could be muted by the joy and aspirations of another who gets told he did indeed make the squad.

However, that's all happening tomorrow. Today is a time to exalt the efforts that the team made in their victory over the Atlanta Falcons. Our second team offense moved down the field and scored on its first possession against the Falcons' first team defense. Our deeper reserves bullied and pushed the Falcons' reserves all over the field and while it was not exactly pretty nor efficient at times, the final score showed the complete domination on both sides of the ball.

Third string QB John Beck played his most minutes and best of the pre-season, with the time to get into a rhythm, hitting on 16 of 28 passes for 232 yards, two TD's and no interceptions, with a 108.0 QB rating. The running backs did their part and there is going to be a tough decision as it appears that only one out of Jalen Parmale, Cedric Peerman and FB Jason Cook is going to make the squad.

At wide receiver, Justin Harper continues to frustrate both the team and himself, dropping two long balls after getting open on deep routes. At the same time, Eron Riley caught the passes thrown in his direction, a long ball plus a TD reception, but even that might not be enough to secure a spot for him. Little guys Jayson Foster and Yamon Figurs didn't do anything to help their causes either.

At linebacker, there are so many decisions to make and to me theyare all easy as the entire group deserves to stay on the team. That won't happen and while Jameel McClain and Tavares Gooden are locks, Antwan Barnes, Prescott Burgess, Danell Ellerbe, Jason Phillips and William VanDeSteeg are probably fighting for just two remaining spots between them. Since we didn't see the rookie Ellerbe in the game, I am hoping the team retains their rights to him by placing him on Injured Reserve to secure him for next year.

The defensive backs did relatively nothing to change the coaches opinions about their roles on the team. Evan Oglesby had a nice hit but still figures to be a long shot, and Frank Walker was,..well Frank Walker. Two penalties on one play epitomizes his style of play, which is grab and hold and hope the refs don't flag him, which they usually do. For wahtever reason, the team seems to like him but he has done nothing to prove his value to the fans this pre-season.

Once again, another great win despite the meaningless part of pre-season being wins and losses. The coaches now have to seclude themselves in the headquarters to make their final decisions by tomorrow afternoon. Post your thoughts here on what you saw and what you think will happen tomorrow when roster cuts are announced.

Until then, bring on the Kansas City Chiefs!

Ravens Training Camp: Monday PM Edition

Bruce Raffel — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:41:48 -0000

The Baltimore Ravens were right back out in the oppressive heat this afternoon after a spirited morning session. With temperatures in the '90's, the team kept a close eye on the players' hydration, with water boys everywhere and frequent breaks.

Special Teams were part of the afternoon drills, with even TE L.J. Smith taking part on the return team, along with outside blockers, safeties and roommates Haruki Nakamura and Tom Zbikowski. I notice that on all the kickoffs, placekicker Graham Gano runs hard down the field and then back upfield to do it again and again. He is making the hard effort to impress the coaches any way he can.

The linebackers and defensive backs are practicing in separate areas dropping back into coverage then intercepting passes thrown by the coaches. In 11-on-11 non-contact drills, the offensive line shows a powerful overloaded line with Michael Oher at left tackle and Jared Gaither at right guard and then they reverse positions. Either way, that's a massive force to run behind.

The offense runs drills up the field in five yard increments, practicing their running game against the defense. Once they reach the goal line they go back and do it all again, this time with the short passing game. Lots of reps for everyone, especially in this heat.

In their goal line offense, they come out in a variety of sets, including one with Haloti Ngata in the backfield. He got a chance to carry the rock and scored, but then raced over to his defensive line coach, Clarence Brooks, and in his excitement accidently pushed him to the ground! In another goal line drill, he led LeRon McClain into the end zone. who needs Lorenzo Neal when you have a 340 pound fullback? When faced with Ngata running at him as a blocker, defensive back, Derrick Martin backed off yelling in jest, "whoa, whoa!"

WR Jayson Foster took a few snaps in the Wildcat formation, either handing off or running the ball, with reserve QB Drew Willy split out as a wide receiver.

Practice lasted about 90 minutes and due to the morning session in this heat, that was long enough for the players to be drenched in sweat and they headed right to the locker room as quick as I had ever seen them clear the fields.

Ravens Training Camp: Wednesday PM Edition

Bruce Raffel — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:32:55 -0000

Since the day was designated as a "plus-30" day and the older veterans had the day off, the afternoon session was only for Special Teams' practice. As I got on the fields, I saw the teams in groups, doing drills such as blocking punts, picking up loose ballls and diving for the ball, as seen below with Tavares Gooden as the example.

On the stairs leading to the locker room, Ray Lewis was holding court.

He was in uniform, but without pads and was joined by Todd Heap and Ravens' Media Relations Director, Chad Steele. They were surrounded by about five or six othe rmedia, so I went up to see what was going one. Ray was leading the debate on what sports were considered "athletic" and the participants as true athletes. When asked if golf''s Tiger Woods was an athlete, Ray shook his head no. He really didn't think Baltimore's own Michael Phelps was an athlete either, at least not compared to football and even basketball players, who he said were the best athletes in all of sport. So I piped in, sarcastically asking, "are you telling me that NASCAR drivers are not athletes?" to hear his response. He made a face and said, "I don't consider anything that does the work for you to be a sport." The debate then centered on how good of athletes are lacrosse and soccer players and could both football and basketball players make the switch to other sports better than vice versa. Former NFL great Jim Brown was an All-American lacrosse player at Syracuse University and reportedly once said that lacrosse was his favorite sport. However, this debate could have gone on for hours had Ray and Todd not left to go to the locker room.

Meanwhile, back on the field, punter Sam Koch was booming punts, including one from his own end zone that returner Jayson Foster let fall and it bounced all the way to the other end of the field, coming to rest on the three yard line!

As practice ended, Ray Rice was trading verbal jabs with Chad Steele, saying he wasn't afraid of Chad's last name and it should be changed to "Paper" instead.

Frank Walker and Lardarius Webb remained on the field to practice techniques on punt coverage. Evan Olglesby did not practice due to a reported mild concussion. Dawan Landry, Derrrick Martin and Antwan Barnes stayed late to sign autographs for the fans. Biron Ealy, who did not practice, was catching passes off the "pitching" machine to stay sharp.

That's it for today.

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."

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:

Broncos add FB Andrew Pinnock to roster

John Bena — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:52:23 -0000

WR Also Added To Practice Squad

Pinnock (5-foot-10, 250 pounds) is a sixth-year fullback who spent the last five seasons with San Diego, which released him on Sept. 1. He entered the NFL with the Chargers as a seventh-round pick (229th overall) in the 2003 NFL Draft from the University of South Carolina.

In 42 career games (3 starts), Pinnock has totaled 18 rushes for 56 yards (3.1 avg.) along with four receptions for 31 yards (7.8 avg.). He also has returned three kickoffs for 74 yards (24.7 avg.).

Pinnock saw time in 10 regular-season games and made the first three starts of his career for the Chargers last season, helping San Diego advance to the AFC Championship Game. He appeared in 12 games with San Diego in 2005 and played all 16 games with the club as a rookie in 2003.

During four years at South Carolina, Pinnock registered 422 career rushes for 1,852 yards (4.4 avg.) with 27 touchdowns. Named Mr. Football for the state of Connecticut at Bloomfield High School in Bloomfield, Conn., Pinnock was born on March 12, 1980.

Jayson Foster (5-foot-7, 175 pounds) is a rookie wide receiver who joins the Broncos after a stint with Pittsburgh, which released him from its practice squad on Nov. 6. He entered the NFL with Miami on May 1 as a college free agent from Georgia Southern University but was released by the Dolphins on Sept. 2 before signing with the Steelers on Oct. 14.

At Georgia Southern, Foster played wide receiver as a freshman and junior while competing as a quarterback during his sophomore and senior campaigns. He received the Walter Payton Award (best offensive player in Football Championship Subdivision) as a senior, throwing for 1,203 yards and 15 touchdowns in addition to rushing for 1,844 yards and 24 scores.

An all-state selection at Cherokee County High School in Canton, Ga., Foster was born on July 22, 1985.