RAVENS TRAINING CAMP
Head Coach John Harbaugh
Opening statement:"OK, good to see everybody. Nice, cool morning helped us, and guys worked hard."
On the return of T Oniel Cousins: "It's good to see him back. We'll ease him in and see if we can build him up each practice to do a little bit more."
On QB Marc Bulger: "Well, he took a snap on the finger, so it's nothing major. It's not broken and should be fine."
On his dialogue with the first-team defense during practice: "We don't talk about what we talk about with our team in the huddle."
On rarely seeing his animated side: "You don't see a lot of things. That's part of coaching a football team. We've got a lot of guys working hard, and we're a tight-knit group. That's the way it's got to be. So, you don't need to know everything."
On WR David Reed: "I think he's doing a real good job. He's going to be a really good player. He's got great hands. He's a good route runner. [He] needs to learn the offense. Things are moving fast, but I think he's going to be a good player."
On if Reed is a contender to return punts: "No, not for punt returns. That's not something he's done. Kick returns, yes."
On Saturday's practice at M&T Bank Stadium: "Well, I think it's going to be a great opportunity on Saturday for fans that don't normally have a chance, maybe, to see the Ravens up close and get a chance to do that. And, [it will be good] even [for] fans who get a chance to come all the time. It's especially, I guess, targeted for people that can't get up to Westminster, maybe as often, or don't have a chance to go to games for whatever reason. [They'll] get a chance to be in that stadium and experience the experience a little bit. I can remember… We were talking out here yesterday about the first experience we ever had as kids when you went to a baseball game or a football game for the first time, right? And, you walk through the tunnel, and you see that green – just the greenest grass you ever saw in your life, and those bright white uniforms. That's a memory that you never forget, and we want to make sure everybody has a chance to experience [that] – every kid has a chance to experience that, who wants to, in Baltimore. Then the other side of it is we have a chance to practice the young guys in the stadium and get used to the new turf."
On TE Todd Heap's influence helps the development of the young tight ends:"Well, I think Todd is a leader, and he's a mentor. But Todd's got his hands full, too. He's working hard to have a good camp, and he's playing very well. Those guys are talented guys and they're keeping up quite well, so we're happy with those guys."
On TE Ed Dickson doing more than expected: "You try not to put an expectation on a guy because it's usually limiting. So, you say, 'Boy, this guy's better than we thought he was going to be.' Well, gosh, we hoped he was going to be great. Ed's played really well, but he's got to sustain it, and it's tough. We're just starting camp, basically, so he's got a lot of work to do."
On former Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich attending practice: "Governor Ehrlich and his family are great people, and it was great to have them here. Roger Goodell yesterday and John Madden – you know, that's a thrill."
On whether they are doing anything differently this year to combat some of last year's penalty issues:"I would say it's a big emphasis for us. It's always been a big emphasis, we think, but probably more so than it has been ever before. We try to have the best officials we can possibly find. Obviously, we had Ron Winter and his group out here early, and now we have some college guys out here that are candidates to become NFL officials, and we've told them to call it tight. And our coaches are instructed to coach the penalties – not argue about them – coach them. And we've always tried to do that, but I think more so this year than ever probably."
On whether he's seeing any differences on the field to this point:"Oh, we'll find out. When the games start, we'll find out. I think guys have been very conscious about technique. There are very few holding calls out here and very few holds. There are very few [defensive pass interference penalties]. I've seen improvement in the technique with regard to those things."
On what kind of comeback WR Marcus Smith has made from last year's injury:"Marcus looks like he hasn't missed a step. He looks maybe stronger. He's playing better than he ever did before, so he looks really good."
On whether he has seen a difference or put more emphasis on the pass rush with the additions of LBs coach Dean Pees and OLBs coach Ted Monachino:"The emphasis is definitely there. I think we've got great coaches. We always have. Guys know how to teach pass rush, but [in] Greg's [Mattison] defense, there's an emphasis on beating a guy one-on-one, as well as an emphasis of freeing up a free runner. So, we're trying to do both as well as we can."
K Billy Cundiff
On how he feels the kicking competition is going so far:"I think the competition is going really well. If you take away today, I thought so far I've had a really good training camp. And then the thing to keep in mind is that it's a marathon, not a sprint for us. So, we've got to come out day in and day out and string together a couple of weeks and lay it all out there and see who's the best."
On whether the rain before practice affected him at all today:"No, it's training camp. We've kicked seven out of the last eight days. So, you've just got to string things together, and sometimes you just have an off day."
On whether there is a difference when kicking with different long snappers in Matt Katula and Morgan Cox:"No, I think both of them do a good job. I think for me, as long as they put the ball to where I can see it and don't back-shoulder it, then I feel like I can make it."
On whether he thinks about the competition a lot, or if it's just going out and kicking:"Yeah, I think… Actually, I don't think. That's a better way of putting it; I don't think. I haven't been in training camp since 2007, so for me, I'm more appreciative of being here than anything else. I know that this time is really precious, so being at home isn't fun this time of year. There's really nothing worse if you're a football player than watching other training camps go on, other preseason games go on, other regular season games go on, and you're not part of it. So for me, I look at it as a chance to prove myself and kind of just take it for what it is."
K Shayne Graham
On how he feels he is doing in the kicker competition:"I feel for the most part I've been hitting the ball well. I think I've had one day where I wasn't happy with the way things ended up. That's going to happen. Do I expect it to happen? No. Am I happy with it? I'm completely unsatisfied with it. But my only thing I can do now is continue to be confident and not let that bother me and think ahead and think about what opportunities I've been given at this point and keep kicking and capitalize on the opportunities I'm given."
On his impression of the way training camp is run:"I really like the way we do a lot of game situations here, and every situation when we're kicking here in practice is more like a game situation, and more, a little bit more going on along with it. So as far as other camps I've been in, we get a lot more opportunities, and I really like it. I like the way it's run here."
On how he and K Billy Cundiff deal with competing against each other:"We both do the exact same thing. We have a lot of respect for each other is what we do, because we've been through it, and our day-to-day [mind set] is [to] work on our own things. We work on how we hit the ball, how we're striking the ball, keeping ourselves [fresh by] controlling the number of reps we take to make sure we're fresh and ready for the periods when the time comes. And when we're not kicking, we get along great. It's just a good situation to be in."
On the biggest difference between the Bengals' and the Ravens' training camps: "It's really hard to say. It's really hard to say. There, everything's in… You're in dormitories, and everything's really central. It's not a bad setup. Here, we're in a hotel, we've got great food, and there's really no inconvenience that you can really speak of, except for the guys that are out there beating themselves up every day, putting their bodies on the line in this heat is the one thing. I have a lot of respect for the players. But, training camp is training camp almost anywhere you are. They're all going to be different, but we're lucky to be in this job, in this profession, so there's really nothing you can complain about."
