SB Nation - Jalen Parmele

Bret Lockett Claimed by Patriots, Scouting Cedric Peerman, and Shaun Rogers Returns to Practice

Chris Pokorny — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:40:29 -0000

by Tony Dejak - AP

Browns DT Shaun Rogers returned to practice. Hopefully he'll be ready for the Minnesota Vikings this Sunday.

Say 'Bye Bye' to Bret Lockett; Benard Next?

For those of you who really wanted to see S Bret Lockett make the Browns' practice squad, you can forget about it. The undrafted free agent was claimed off waivers by the New England Patriots today. The Patriots wanted him so much that they waived WR Greg Lewis in the process. Back in March, the Patriots traded a fifth-round draft choice to Philadelphia for Lewis. Lockett had a good camp and seemed to make some nice tackles in one-on-one situations. Hopefully Mangini really likes the players we claimed off waivers to lose Lockett in the first place. [Visit Pats Pulpit for their take]

Next up, we'll see if LB Marcus Benard clears waivers and makes the Browns' practice squad.

Here are some other headlines today:

Beatdown's Take on Cedric Peerman

One of the players the Browns claimed off waivers yesterday was Baltimore Ravens running back Cedric Peerman. I asked Baltimore Beatdown's Bruce Raffel how Peerman's camp had gone for the Ravens:

"Cedric Peerman was the Baltimore Ravens 6th round draft pick, out of University of Virginia. He is an ordained minister and was fighting for a spot behind the Ravens "3-headed monster," comprised of Willis McGahee, Ray Rice and Le'Ron McClain. His competition was both Jalen Parmele and Matt Lawrence. While the team was expected to only keep one of the three between Peerman, Parmele and Lawrence, they decided to keep both Parmele and Lawrence, leaving Peeman as the odd man out. Parmele had some good gains during the preseason and Lawrence also proved his value with solid work on special teams."

"While Peerman had a decent outing in the final preseason game, it was not enough to land him on the team's roster, although they might have signed him to the practice squad had he not be gobbled up by the Ravens AFC North division foes, the Cleveland Browns."

"Good luck with Peerman, he's a good guy and will make a decent backup."

-Bruce Raffel, Baltimore Beatdown

Rogers, Harrison, Bowens, and Pool Return to Practice

After missing what ended up being most of the second half of training camp, DT Shaun Rogers returned to practice, at least for individual drills. Mangini would not comment on whether he would play this Sunday, but it's probably safe to assume he'll be ready to go.

Other players returning to practice or practicing included LB David Bowens, S Brodney Pool, and RB Jerome Harrison.

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 Training Camp: Thursday Edition

Bruce Raffel — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:08:52 -0000

Back out to the sweltering heat after an emotionally fueled Wednesday afternoon practice hightlighted by the team's salute to our troops as part of Media Appreciation Day. After today's practice session, I interviewed reserve linebacker, Tony Fein, who was in the military prior to joining the Ravens. My interview with him will post later today as a FanPost.

Today is another "plus-30 day, giving some of the backups a better chance of getting additional reps on the depth chart. The offensive and defensive lines start out working on the blocking sleds. Watch out that you don't get run over as they move it backwards like it weighs next to nothing!

On double-team drills, rookie LB Paul Kruger fights off a pair of blockers, drawing loud praise from Defensive Coordinator Greg Mattison. Next it looks like the offensive line is having their way with blocking. However, newcomer defensive tackle Nader Abdullah fights off a double-team from Jared Gaither and Oniel Cousins to make the tackle, earning praise and a hug from Defensive Line Coach, Clarence Brooks. On goal line drills, Fabian Washington goes to the sideline, saying, " that ain't me!" D-Line Coach Brooks says, "you never know, we might have to put you in there," to which Washington responds, "don't know what I'd do." Brooks deadpans right back at him, "lie down, maybe they'll trip over you!" to laughs from the players gathered around.

11-on-11 Drills: Flacco's quick dump pass goes right into the outstretched hands of a leaping Jarret Johnson for the interception. Flacco comes right back and hits Kelley Washington on a quick slant with Ray Rice, who lined up as a wideout, blocking for him.

Former Raven and soon-to-be Pro Football Hall of Famer Jonathan Ogden shows up to sit in the crowd with his family holding his son on his lap to watch practice.

Goal line offense: Flacco fakes a dive to Rice then lofts a TD pass to a wide open L.J. Smith., Next, Rice bursts up the middle for a touchdown. Jalen Parmele beats Derrick Martin to the pylon for a TD but then Cedric Peerman is stuffed by the defensive line and thrown back by Haloti Ngata.

FG Time: Steven Hauschka takes all the kicks today just like Graham Gano took them all yesterday. Hauschka is good from extra point range, 39, 48, and 53 yards, but misses wide left from 42 and 53 yards. Later he hits consecutively from 46, 43, 39 and 30 yards to finish seven of nine, not including the XP.

Back to 11-on-11 drills: Flacco fakes and rolls out to his right but rookie LB Paul Kruger is not fooled as he gets right into Flacco's face. Paul is getting valuable reps with the first team defense in Terrell Suggs' absence.

Ngata puts up a huge paw to bat down another Flacco pass. The heat is really getting to the players, no to mention us media. I'm sweating like crazy and wondering what it must be like for the players. Just then, I look down the line and see OT Joe Reitz on one knee yakking out his guts. He wipes off, gets up and heads right back into the mix.

Practice ends and I grab reserve LB Tony Fein for a quick interview and then wait to speak with DT Haloti Ngata about his Defensive Line Coach, Clarence Brooks, whom I've scheduled for a sit-down interview Friday after the morning practice.

Ravens Training Camp: Friday AM Edition

Bruce Raffel — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:57:07 -0000

It's good to see previously injured Jared Gaither and Demetrius Williams in uniform, although Gaither is only walking through drills without any contact. In his absence, Michael Oher is playing left tackle. Willis McGahee is in front of me, getting prepared for the morning by taking out his diamond earrings. The wide receivers are running through the "gauntlet," complaining how much the tips hurt their arms

As reported yesterday, Mark Clayton's injury to his hamstring is serious enough to keep him out at least the first two pre season games, but Coach Harbaugh expects him to be ready for the regular season. In his absence, Kelly Washington moves up to be the third receiver along with Derrick Mason and Demetrius Williams.

In 11-on-11 drills, Joe Flacco hits D-Will, who fumbles and the defense recovers. The 1st team offense is going against the 2nd team defense and vice versa. Jalen Parmele is stuffed by Ray Lewis and Antwan Barnes, both of whom get up and dance like it was a real game.

On 3rd and one, LeRon McClain bullies for a first down, then walks off the field saying, "no one's stopping me on third and one!"

The defenses are having their way with the offenses. Flacco scrambles for a gain but is run out of bounds. Next play the pocket collapses for a "sack." On the third play, Flacco's long pass to Mason falls incomplete, prompting Ray to yell, "we'll take it!" Another coverage sack of Flacco ends that stretch of plays as Troy Smith and the 2nd team offense comes in. The defenses, be it the 1st or 2nd teams are looking tough! Troy's first pass is batted down at the line but then he hits Justin Harper down the sideline for a 70 yard TD pass that Harper reels in one-handed beating Tom Zbikowski into the end zone as Troy and the other wideouts run down to congratulate him.

Joe throws incomplete to Kelly Washington, covered by Domonique Foxworth, as Ed Reed covers Mason. After the play, Reed yells, "we know you like a book!"

Field goal team comes on and both Graham Gano and Steven Hauschka hit their attempts from 41, 45 and then 53 yards.

A Flacco pass to Heap glances off his fingertips and into the opportunistic hands of Ed Reed, who then weaves his way down field into the end zone. Gee, sound familiar?

Meanwhile, I notice that Willis McGahee's left knee is getting wrapped on the sidelines, although towards the end of practice I don't see it wrapped anymore.

On the other field I see the offensive and defensive lines going at it one-on-one, with some nice matchups between our 2009 1st and 2nd round draft picks, Michael Oher vs. Paul Kruger.

Back to the main field, the QB's are finding the RB's out of the backfield but virtually nothing downfield to the wideouts against both defenses.

Graham Gano wanders by and says to me, "Hey, how's it going?"

Troy Smith throws three straight times to what is looking to be his favorite target, Justin Harper. He overthrows long, then a perfect pass over the middle hits Harper in the hands before he drops it and finally another incompletion along the sideline. Harper is beginning to get the reputation of a wide receiver who makes the tough grabs but not the routine ones.

Uh oh, OL Oniel Cousins just went down on a running play, holding his knee. He finally gets up but limps real badly over to the sideline where he gets on a cart. With the loss of Adam Terry for the year, Cousins was thought to be a valuable backup so this does not bode well for what is looking to be a thin offensive line.

Long snapper Matt Katula is practicing snaps to punter and kickholder Sam Koch right in front of me. Koch is built like a linebacker! Next to them, I see L.J. Smith standing along the sidelines, showing off his tatooed "guns!" Gano hits twice, from 39 then 35 yards.

Here's the highlight of my day: A meaningless long incomplete pass to WR Ernie Wheelwright falls incomplete, with Frank Walker holding him all the way down the field. Derrick Mason is standing on the sideline yelling at Frank, "they'll call that every time, practice good habits, Frank!" The jawing between the two continues until the next snap. Harper then catches a tough over the middle pass closely guarded by Walker and then another completion on the sideline near us. Mason turns to me and another guy standing next to me and says, "fellas, how ya' doing?" I reply, "perfect weather out here," to which he respoinds, "not to us." Mason and Walker continue to go at it, verbally. Mason: "I sat out two weeks and I still got it! You couldn't do it. I can play this game for another 20 years abnd you still don't have a spot!" Frank retorts something hard to hear and Derrick comes back with "Don't get me started. I got more money than you can count!" Walker says, "That don't matter," with Mason repeating over and over, "scrape your pennies, Frank, scrape your pennies." Willis McGahee gets in on it, saying, "Frank, Frank." Walker brushes him off, "stay out of it, McGahee!" Walker to Mason: "I've been on three teams!" Mason finally laughs and relents, "Frank, I'm walking away, I'm done." As Derrick walks away, Walker yells after him, "I stuck that 85 today!" That was one of the best exchanges I heard all of camp! I caught up with Mason as he was walking to the locker room and asked him, "What was upwith Frank Walker back there? He said, "Ah nothing, Frank likes talking every once in a while so you got to oblige him now and then."

When Mason had his first press conference the day he returned to the Ravens, he said he was a little disappointed the team didn't have a marching band and some Girl Scouts out to greet him. So today a Girl Scout Troop came on the field after practice and they all played little flutes for him, and were mobbed by the press. Afterwards, Derrick signed autographs for every one of them and was real friendly.

I had planned to interview Oniel Cousins after practice but his injury settled that. Check back later for my interview with WR Kelly Washington, whose role will definitely expand due to the injury to Mark Clayton.

Ravens Training Camp: Monday Edition

Bruce Raffel — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:46:57 -0000

Injury Status Updates: Terrell Suggs is wearing a boot on his foot and should be okay in a few days or so. Mark Clayton tweaked his hamstring and the coaching staff just want to take it easy on him as he has been prone to those injuries. Davon Drew’s right ankle is wrapped and he is not participating, courtesy of a solid hit by LB Prescott Burgess in yesterday’s one-on-one blocking drills. Antwan Barnes suffered a mild concussion yesterday but is on the field today.

In today’s early action, in passing drills Joe Flacco looked right and threw left to Edgar Jones in the flat, who then after hesitating, ran down the sideline for a long gain. I could have sworn Jones was looking to see if LB Prescott Burgess was going to cream him like he did yesterday morning on a similar play. Next Flacco hit LeRon McClain on a swing pass for a good gain. Troy Smith hit Marcus Smith over the middle, as it was good to see Marcus out there after having issues with his fluids and cramping up the past day or so.

The 1^st team defense is collapsing the 3^rd team offensive line’s pocket and would have easily had a sack if it was allowed. Flacco then threw long to Demetrius Williams over Chris Carr, which drew the loudest cheers and applause from the fans in attendance.

Wth Flacco throwing to his hreceivers in one-on-one drills with the defensive backs, he connected twice with Derrick Mason for TD passes. Ray Rice made a sweet one-handed grab in the end zone, which the crowd loved. When Domonique Foxworth intercepted a pass, he yelled to the crowd, "what we make an interception, don’t we get no love? He threw the ball into the ground as the fans cheered. Todd Heap got into the action, getting by Dawan Landry for an over the shoulder TD catch. Derrick Mason and Frank Walker were jawing with each other and laughing.

Walker got up on the line against Kelly Washington but the coaches backed him off. Walker said, "he’s scared," to which Washington responded by telling him to "get back up here." The two fought for the ball in the end zone and as it fell incomplete they went helmet-to-helmet pushing and jawing to the delight of the fans as well as the players around them. The defense is starting to step it up.

Flacco hit Demetrius Williams with a nice TD pass. To celebrate, Williams ran to the goal posts, jumped on the padding and then saluting before dropping off to the laughs and cheers of the fans.

11-on-11 Drills:

1^st defense vs. 3^rd offense has LB Tavares Gooden bearhugging RB Matt Lawrence then slamming him to the ground. On the next play, QB John Beck rolled right and threw right into LB Jarret Johnson’s hands for an interception.

On goal line drills, Willis McGahee ran around the right side for a TD, then proceeded to bull his way around the left side for another. Ray Rice ran up the middle but did not get in the end zone as the defense swarmed to push him back. Rice finally went airborne and over the top for the TD.

Jalen Parmele ran left but was stopped just short of the goal line and then again caught from behind.

The offense is on the sidelines yelling, "run at Ray," while Lewis yells right back, "please do it. I live for that!"

Placekicker Graham Gano lined up for field goals and hit consecutively from 20, 29, 47, 33, 45 and also 53 yards. Meanwhile LeRon McClain just squirted me with the water hose, making me wonder if it was an accident or was he just playing with me?

Back to passing drills. Justin Harper beats Lardarius Webb for a long 30 yard TD pass in the corner of the end zone. Marcus Smith comes over for the jump-bump to celebrate. Webb then knocks down a similar pass for D-Will. Meanwhile, Kelly Washington is very talkative, animated and enthusiastic with his teammates. Webb breaks up another pass from John Beck in the end zone, this time knocking the ball away from 6’3" Eron Riley..

McGahee just dropped a short easy pass from Flacco crossing over the middle. Perhaps he thought that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ safety Ryan Clark was there, as he was on that thunderous collision in last season’s AFC Championship Game.

Troy to Harper for a 20 yard TD pass over the middle and then Flacco to D-Will from the same distance in front of Ed Reed at the goal line. Troy hits Parmele, who is then horse-collared by Fabian Washington, although the referee on site said Parmele’s knees were already on the ground so the penalty would not have been called.

Flacco to Derrick Mason for a 10 yard TD pass but the ref ruled Mason out of bounds, drawing a cold stare from Derrick and Marcus Smith to yell at the ref, "you’re fired!" Finally, Flacco made agreat play when he couldn’t find anyone open, rolled left then right and left again before hitting a sliding D-Will for an 8 yard TD pass who had slipped away from Dawan Landry.

Back to 11-on-11 drills, where Mason catches a short sideline pass from Flacco but breaks away from Frank Walker for a long TD. Ray Rice was running a pattern away from the ball and was shoved hard by rookie LB Jason Phillips in his first action after coming off the PUP List today. On that play, Flacco rolled right and threw an interception to Haruki Nakamura, his second pick of camp. John Beck hit a nice long pass after a pump fake that was caught between Fabian Washington and Ed Reed for a 30 yard gain. Beck again, this time to Harper for 10 yards more. Then Troy came in and hit a sliding Kelly Washington on the ground, which was nice to see him involved with the offense.

A short pass to TE Isaac Smolko was popped up into the air due to a big hit by undrafted free agent LB Dannell Ellerbe, who then snatched the ball out of the air for an interception. Ed Reed was leading the cheers of "Let’s go defense!"

The afternoon session was limited to Special Teams' drills and the other players had a well deserved break from the heat.

See the sidebar FanPost for my interviews with Marcus Smith, Tavares Gooden and Prescott Burgess, which should be up shortly.

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.

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.