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Ravens minicamp sets a new tone

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This is a different era in Ravens football, make no mistake about it. Though there was a cold steady rain on Friday coach Harbaugh had his team out in the elements. And on top of that he had his team endure 2 a day practices, something unheard of for a minicamp in the Brian Billick era.

You can see that John Harbaugh is living up to his promises. This is going to be a tougher team, and if you can’t cut it, you won’t be here for long. I’d say it is long overdue!

The fact that the Ravens are headed in a new direction has me psyched . Harbaugh seems to be addressing the problems I’ve seen with this team for the past 4 or 5 years. Yes, there is a God. Gone are the ways of Camp Creampuff, and they have been replaced with the ways of Camp Hardball! I always thought that Billick’s proclivity to give the veterans special privileges, and going easy in training camp for what he claimed led to a team that wasn’t worn out come November, made for a team that showed no discipline. If nothing else, John Harbaugh’s team will know discipline.

There have been a few players in this minicamp that made an impression, and a whole lot more who have been cast into roles that are foreign to them. Marshall Yanda has been put at guard and center, along with Chris Chester and Jason Brown. It seems Harbaugh wants to see who has what , so as to narrow it down before training camp begins. That makes a whole lot of sense to me. Get a grip on what your players can do and prepare to put them in the spot where they can best help the team. Once again, common sense, though I don’t know why they call it that as it’s far from common. Billick didn’t seem to have much when it came to calling plays, or keeping locker room cohesion.

There have been a couple of brawls, rookie offensive tackle Oneil Cousins got after rookie defensive lineman Arnon Gordon when running back Allen Patrick was taken down to the ground during a non contact drill. It somehow turned into a team brawl that had to be broke up by Harbaugh himself among others. While that may have been a distraction from what the team was trying to accomplish you have to respect Cousins for trying to let the coaches see he’s taking his opportunities seriously. It shows he has the right mentality in trying to make this team, and if he can continue to show that level of dedication his chances will improve.

And according to defensive tackle Trevor Pryce, Harbaugh got into the action a bit as well. “There was a fight and he shoved somebody in the face so hard to get them out of the pile it was unreal,” Pryce said. “I said, ‘You back away from this crazy little man.’ He is strong and he is nuts. I told him that, too.”

Another brawl involved Cory Ivy and newly signed cornerback Frank Walker. Do you think that Ivy may be fighting more for his job, seeing that he couldn’t cover anyone last season. He’d be wise to save his energy for training camp, where the two will battle it out in front of the coaches. After all they will decide who stays and who goes. Ivy’s play has to speak for itself if he’s going to remain a Raven.

The quarterbacks drew mixed results. Troy Smith seemed to struggle a bit, overthrowing his receivers and seeming to force things a bit. Kyle Boller had his troubles playing in the elements and after staring down a receiver was picked off by Ray Lewis, who took it to the house for a score. That has been a sore spot with Boller for his entire career. Joe Flacco may have had the best performance of the trio, throwing the ball with a tight spiral, and hitting Mark Clayton in stride for a 60 yard touchdown strike.

Antwan Barnes has looked good so far as well. He gained 15 additional pounds, but lost none of his 4.5 speed. With Terrel Suggs still refusing to sign his franchise tender, waiting for the outcome of his arbitration hearing as to whether he should be compensated as a defensive end or a linebacker, Barnes will get more opportunities to show the coaches what he can do. He may wind up splitting time with Suggs on a regular basis if he keeps showing the grit and determination he’s exhibited so far.

Hey, it’s only a minicamp. You can’t draw conclusions just yet. There are going to be times when every player looks like a star, and other times when he’s the goat. The thing is to see how many times any given player makes that tough catch, defends that sure touchdown, makes that clean block that sets a runner free for 15 plus yards. There’s a long way to go before those questions will be answered, but every player now knows that he’s going to have to earn his spot. There are no positions carved in stone, and with the Harbaugh regime the best player will win out regardless of tenure. This is how it should be, and the approach is hard to argue against.

You’ll get no argument from me.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 2:36 pm and is filed under Ravens pre season evaluation, Raven player evaluation, Ravens Roost Writer Articles / Opinions, Mike Brown. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.