The Baltimore Ravens have wrapped up their first seven days of training camp on Thursday. With enough practices in the bag, we’re seeing the team more likely as they actually are at this point, though they’re steadily improving in a number of areas. The initial rust has started to wear away as players settle down and take in more of the playbook.
For a number of players, they’re really beginning to set themselves apart from the rest with multiple big practices. For some others, they’re going the opposite direction and losing ground in their competitions and attempts to make the 53-man roster. Here are the biggest winners and losers from training camp thus far.
Winner: WR Miles Boykin
Boykin has been on fire early in training camp. In spite of being the second wide receiver taken by Baltimore in the 2019 NFL draft, Boykin has been the most impressive wide receiver on the roster thus far in training camp.
He’s made big plays routinely. He’s managed to get separation through his speed, battled on contested catches with his size and has generally shown good hands. His biggest day of camp came in front of the home crowd at M&T Bank Stadium, where he just kept catching big completion and big completion from quarterback Lamar Jackson.
Perhaps the most impressive part is just how quickly he’s developed chemistry and trust with Jackson. That doesn’t come easily and it could make a huge difference in live games when Jackson looks his way. Right now, Boykin is making a serious case to start in Week 1.
Loser: RB Kenneth Dixon
Dixon drew the ire of Jackson by lining up in the wrong spot a couple of times, causing the quarterback to yell at him in practice. Dixon has little room for mistakes, finding himself on the roster bubble to start training camp. Adding to the problem for Dixon is how impressive rookie Justice Hill has looked already.
Dixon needed to have a stellar training camp to warrant Baltimore keeping him as a fourth running back. He hasn’t done that yet and might have actually tanked his chances. He’ll have to bounce back and quickly if he doesn’t want to be outright cut before the roster gets trimmed down.
Dixon can likely make the best case for his roster spot in preseason action. But if he keeps messing up, even good production in games isn’t going to be enough to save him.
Winner: QB Lamar Jackson
It seems like Jackson is the never-ending storyline for the Ravens and it’s for good reason. He’s the guy that will touch the ball most often on offense and where everything funnels from. If Jackson doesn’t have a great season, it’s likely the rest of the offense struggled as well.
Coming into training camp, all eyes were on Jackson’s fundamentals. He had to engrain his mechanics into his muscle memory to become more accurate and consistent with his passes. After seven practices, Jackson seems to have done exactly that.
In most videos of training camp, Jackson has been doing a much better job planting his feet, keeping a compact arm motion and following through on his throws. The result has been better spirals, passes more on target and a deep ball that has gotten dramatically better from last season. It’s turned into big play after big play on the practice field and big showings from guys like Boykin.
Loser: QB Robert Griffin III and 2nd-string offense
Really, I should make the loser just the second-string offense here. Griffin is almost assuredly going to make the 53-man roster barring something either ridiculously impressive or something awful happening. Even though he’s not in any real danger to lose his job, his fractured thumb really hurts for a guy that looked to be on the comeback path.
But the guys who end up getting hurt the most are actually the rest of the second-string offense. While rookie quarterback Trace McSorley hasn’t been awful, he’s naturally going to be less refined than Griffin. With that inexperience and less refined skillset, the wide receivers and running backs find themselves getting fewer opportunities to showcase their abilities and a diminished chance to develop as players.
The backup quarterback’s most important role at this stage is actually working with the young skill-position players. They, of course, act as the primary backup to the starter. But realistically, a guy like Griffin comes with a lot of experience to teach the younger players how to improve in little ways. By giving them better passes, teaching them little tips and tricks, and being a good resource to call upon, backup quarterbacks can not only help second- and third-string players improve but gives the coaching staff a real view at how these players are performing.
It’s not the end of the world but those players sitting on the roster bubble are going to have a tougher job with Griffin on the sideline.
Winner: LB Chris Board
Board has been getting most of the first-team reps in training camp. While that might not mean a ton in the grand scheme of things, the consistency that’s been happening shows where he stands in the competition for the starting job. It’s also giving Board the best chance to learn from the experienced starters around him on individual plays, where he’ll be more likely to take an even steeper climb up in play.
Board will still have to prove he can handle the responsibilities in preseason action. We’ll also get a better look at how defensive coordinator Don Martindale plans to use Board and Kenny Young together at linebacker at that point. But for now, Board has to feel pretty good about his chances to lock up the starting job early on.
Winner: WR Seth Roberts
In my 53-man roster prediction to start training camp, I left Roberts off the list. But if the first week of training camp has taught me anything, it’s that he seems to have a pretty firm hold not only on a roster spot but is eyeing up a major role as well.
Roberts has been one of the more consistent players in training camp. He’s gotten open plenty and has been targeted a bunch along the way. He’s had a few drops that he’ll have to work on but he’s impressed early and often.
With Jordan Lasley cut and with Roberts performing well, he should get even more opportunities to prove himself.
Loser: OL Jermaine Eluemunor
Eluemunor failed to start training camp with the rest of the team thanks to a failed conditioning test. Though he passed it, he’s since dealt with muscle issues, according to Harbaugh.
For a player who was far from a lock to make the team, likely finding his way into Harbaugh’s doghouse and missing practices due to injury aren’t going to help him out. Though he still remains in the wide-open competition at left guard, his window there is closing rapidly.
Winner: TE Mark Andrews
Andrews had a pretty outstanding rookie season, catching 34 passes for 552 yards and three touchdowns. But the best thing about his rookie season was how quickly he developed chemistry with Jackson once he took over for Joe Flacco. Now just a week into training camp, Jackson and Andrews seem to have built on that chemistry as they’ve combined for some big plays.
Nearly every day at practice, Jackson has found Andrews for a big completion. It already has plenty of fans and analysts predicting an even bigger second season for Andrews and it’s hard to argue with that notion right now.
If Andrews continues to make big plays in practice, it should translate over to the regular season. As it stands now, he’ll be a handful for defenses to try and corral, if they even can.
Loser: Offensive line
The entire offensive line has been pretty sloppy early in training camp. Simple things like snapping the football too high and false starts were common in the first few days of practice. It got to the point where players were forced to run laps like they were in high school after messing up.
It appears as though the mistakes have been limited over the last day or two but it’s still not a good sign for an offensive line that will see plenty of top defenders this season. You’d like to see the offensive line be sorted out already since so much of their performance revolves around their chemistry together but as Harbaugh noted following Thursday’s practice, they aren’t quite there yet.
Look for this unit to either tighten up their play quickly or see other players get swapped in until it happens.
Winner: OLB Pernell McPhee
McPhee was brought in this offseason after some major losses to Terrell Suggs and Za’Darius Smith. As the most experienced player at outside linebacker on the roster, it was figured McPhee was here to bring in some leadership and set the tone for the young players more than anything. But a week into training camp and McPhee actually seems to be winning the starting job.
He’s regularly been running with the first-team defense and has been performing well on the field.
Partially because no one else has really shown up consistently yet, McPhee is in the driver’s seat right now. If he can continue to stack together positive practices like this, the coaching staff will have little choice but to hand him the starting role this season, regardless of how well anyone else performs.
