Ravens training camp All eyes on Lamar J

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Ravens training camp All eyes on Lamar J

OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- There is no quarterback controversy in Baltimore. Certainly not now. Not yet.Of course, in a city so starved for Caris LeVert Jersey anything resembling an NFL pa sing game, that didn't stop a smattering of fans from shouting: "We want " after rookie completed his first rudimentary pa s of training camp. But the reality is, they are going to have to wait a while to see Jackson in anything other than a complementary role on Sundays. The were the first team to take the field for camp last week, and, taking in their first few practice se sions, it's obvious that all eyes are on the player selected with the final pick of the first round.With coach John Harbaugh being very judicious with his veterans -- the Ravens have an extra week of practice to work with by virtue of their participation in the Hall of Fame Game -- and with most of the team's recognizable pieces being off the field midway through the practices to slowly "ramp them up," as Harbaugh put it, there wasn't much to see outside of how Jackson looked compared to third-string quarterback . Oh, and there is no quarterback controversy there, either, as Jackson is unequivocally the No. 2 quarterback on the depth chart and I suspect Griffin is not even on the roster when the season begins (he could, in my estimation, be a 54th man of sorts, with no outside interest in him on the open market and Baltimore likely able to shuffle him on and off the roster on a weekly basis if need be depending on injuries). More NFL So, for now (and probably forever), it's all about Jackson. Any decent throw he produced and there were many produced an audible reaction from the crowd and you can certainly see flashes of what might be to come. He unleashed a few perfect deep balls, including a bomb to receiver down the right sideline that the Ravens' social media team was quick to get on Twitter. He looked strong and dynamic running to the left sideline at times, then rifling the ball back the other way acro s his body on a line to the hashmarks. Sometimes it appeared his long ball wobbled just a bit -- perhaps it's part of the adjustment to the NFL football, a bit different from college -- but overall he certainly looked James Harden Jersey the part. And, without a doubt, the most interesting parts of what were largely mundane practices with ample special teams work and no one in pads and not a collision yet to take pace, were when Baltimore utilized multiple quarterbacks. There were times when Jackson pitched the ball to Griffin on an end around and times where Flacco and Jackson shared the same backfield. Those plays and formations will be the earliest conduit to Jackson taking the field in games that actually count in the standings, though we will undoubtedly see plenty of him running the entire offense in the preseason games."It can go a couple ways," Flacco said of the multi-quarterback looks. "Right now, when we do it, I think it's like a big red flag to the defense, like, 'Hey, they're probably doing something.' But Lamar is a heck of an athlete, and he can throw the football, so the opportunities are definitely endle s." Saturday night was to be the big public unveiling of Jackson, with the Ravens set for the annual first padded practice under the lights at MT Bank Stadium (camp se sions at the team facility are limited to only a few thousand spectators and can be tough to come by). Alas, that was washed away by rain, but with five exhibition games Rodions Kurucs Jersey to play around with, and with the Ravens focused on getting Flacco, who has battled significant back and knee injuries in recent years, into Week 1 as healthy as po sible, there are ample opportunities to still deploy their newest weapon on an offense frankly starved for them since Flacco led them to the Super Bowl six years ago.With so many in this area eager to embrace change, given the constraints and woes of this pa sing game and coming off a year where Flacco somehow managed to gain only 5.3 yards per attempt and with him not averaging over 7.0 yards per throw since 2014, the dynamic between Flacco and Jackson will be under intense scrutiny here. Flacco has handled the situation with aplomb and will be a great teammate and largely say all the right things, but if the offense is tepid and the Ravens not looking the part of a playoff club, Jackson could end up seeing much more of the field in the second half of the season. Frankly, no one knows precisely how all of this will play (Flacco wasn't expected to play much his rookie season and ended up taking every snap) and the former Super Bowl D'Angelo Russell Jersey MVP is showing respect for the Heisman Trophy winner but also making it clear this is still his team.It's widely understood that owner Steve Bisciotti -- at a time when unused tickets were at all-time highs and with general fan interest in his team hitting all-time lows -- was very much on board with securing Jackson in the first round. So even if Flacco flourishes under pre sure as he has in the past, he very well might be elsewhere in 2019, regardle s, with a return to form perhaps a trigger to a trade in the way it was for in Kansas City a year ago with waiting on the sidelines. "I think everybody has thoughts and feelings when that initially happens," Flacco said of the Ravens trading up to take Jackson in the first round, "and then when all that goes down and what that really means. As far as me going out on the field and the things that actually matter, I'm taking it as I always take it. I'm working hard."I come into this building and I work, and I try to push the other guys and I try to make relationships with them and really do everything I can to make this team better. And I'm not changing that in any way. But obviously, I think everybody, whether they felt good or bad about it, when Lamar got drafted, there was a certain feeling. Can't hide that."Will that feeling eventually including annoyance at having to answer questions about an unproven back-up quarterback so often? "No, I don't believe they will , because I think we're going to win, and we're not going to hear about it."Fair enough. We'll certainly see. In the meantime, this is still his team and with what should be a much-improved group of pa s catchers (receivers , and are all new, as are tight ends and ), there is nowhere to Derrick Coleman Jersey go but up for this offense. Whether it reaches heights sufficient to keep Jackson in the wings in 2018 will be all the talk in Baltimore along the way."I've been seeing them all offseason. I love everything about Joe. We have to be better for him. He'll say it to them that he needs to be better. But having a healthy offseason for him and getting the new additions and then working every day in the offseason and the break that they had time off, and they worked and then seeing them now I expect Joe to have a career year this year and him to lead our team to the playoffs." A year ago, even that wasn't enough to keep Smith with the , despite a near MVP campaign. Stay tuned.ObservationsBaltimore migh
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