The Ravens are in the second week of organized team activities and more players were on the field (though not yet Lamar Jackson).
Here are 13 takeaways from practice:
- The play of the day was a bomb from Tyler Huntley to Rashod Bateman. There are questions about the Ravens' ability to open up the deep passing game after trading Marquise "Hollywood" Brown, but Bateman showed he's fast enough. Bateman got behind the Ravens defense, including new safety Marcus Williams, to haul in a 50+-yard pass over his shoulder.
- Huntley had another sweet pass shortly after with a lob to wide-open tight end Josh Oliver down the middle that went for another long touchdown. Taking the first-team reps, Huntley had a bunch of very fine throws with some misses sprinkled in too.
- After drops were an issue in last Wednesday's practice, Bateman, Devin Duvernay, James Proche II and Tylan Wallace held onto the ball better this time around. Bateman also made an impressive catch going to the turf on a quick slant. He did have one wide-open drop on a short crosser and heard about it from Marcus Peters, who was in a T-shirt on the sideline.
- Speaking of Peters, he watched much of the practice from the sideline and was later joined by running back J.K. Dobbins and rookie outside linebacker David Ojabo. Dobbins also caught passes off the Jugs machine.
- Other than Jackson, Ravens who did not practice Wednesday included cornerback Kyle Fuller, guard Ben Cleveland, offensive tackles Ja'Wuan James and Morgan Moses (he's been at other OTA practices), defensive tackle Michael Pierce and other Ravens coming back from injuries/surgeries.
- Tight end Nick Boyle was back on the field after not practicing last Wednesday and he is moving significantly better than he was at any point last year. Boyle had a tough time returning from his major knee injury, but he put in a lot of work this offseason and it shows. A newborn baby didn't stop Boyle from getting his work in.
- It's clear that getting more interceptions is a focus. The defensive backs did a new drill in which two players cross each other to simulate traffic/interference when trying to make an interception. It makes sense because it's rarely a totally clean pick. Rookie Kyle Hamilton made it look easy and Tony Jefferson had some nice grabs too. In another drill, defensive backs had to break on the ball and make the split-second decision of whether to go for the pick or just break it up.
- Second-year outside linebacker Daelin Hayes is off to a strong start. He had a couple would-be sacks with explosiveness and nice bend around the edge. Hayes also sniffed out and broke up a pass intended to be a wide receiver screen. Coming off a rookie season in which he hardly played and considering the lack of depth right now at outside linebacker, Hayes is making a statement that he could be a key role player.
- Fullback Pat Ricard showed, once again, that he's more than just a blocker. He hauled in a pass that was deflected at the line of scrimmage with one hand before turning up-field.
- Rookie cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis picked off an Anthony Brown pass that was a little behind wide receiver Binjimen Victor and popped off his hands. Armour-Davis took off down the sideline for a potential pick-six.
- The Ravens' running backs had a busy day catching passes out of the backfield and Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman said he wants that to be a bigger part of the offense. Rookie sixth-round pick Tyler Badie had several snags, including a nifty touchdown in 7-on-7 red-zone drills when he kept his heels barely inbounds while falling. Undrafted rookies Shemar Bridges and Slade Bolden also had touchdowns during that session. Bridges wrestled the ball away from a cornerback and Bolden found an opening in the back middle of the end zone.
- After not being able to haul in a low pass with a sliding play, Bridges came back on the next rep to make a long catch while working against Marlon Humphrey. It looked like Bridges got away with a push-off, but Humphrey was still studying the play on a tablet afterwards.
- Justin Tucker uncharacteristically missed back-to-back field goals from inside 50 yards. After practice, Special Teams Coordinator Chris Horton said he and rookie punter/holder Jordan Stout are working on their chemistry.
