Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Jerry Rosburg
On how he sees the kicking situation shape up:"I think we've got two good young kickers. I don't think they're ready to play today in the National Football League, but we don't have to play today. The thing I'm encouraged about is I think Steven Hauschka has improved since I saw him on the field last in January. That's a real positive thing. Sam Koch demonstrated last year how you can take an offseason and improve before the next season starts. And I think that Steven has done that. He's studied himself, he's studied others, he's learned a lot about kicking, I think in the last few months. And he's out here doing some things different than he did in January, and I think it's going to help him a lot. Graham [Gano] is a very talented young guy that I've been very impressed with in the brief time that I've been around him, because he's a really good athlete, and I think he demonstrated that in college by doing both [kicker and punter]. When you're able to punt and kick, it's hard enough to do one or the other, and he was able to do both. And you can see him out here, he's got a strong leg, he's athletic, he's flexible, and he's a very willing student as well. I think that bodes well for him. It's going to be an interesting battle. It'll be fun to be around. I'm excited about it."
On how Gano shanked a few kicks at the beginning, but then started making them after Rosburg coached him:"Yeah, that's good coaching isn't it (laughing)? Well, a lot of guys when they come from college, he's not unlike a lot of young players, he's had a guy who's advised him before, but he's very much self-taught. He's accomplished, don't get me wrong. He's an accomplished kicker – he won the Lou Groza Award. You don't do that by accident. But at the same time, there were some things that we watched him kick the first practice, and we talked to him about it, we showed it to him. And the thing is, as I mentioned, he's a very good student, he adapted well. He came out here, and I think he's excited about what he saw, too."
On how not having a veteran, reliable K Matt Stover, but having young unknown kickers changes his job:"I think probably the biggest change is that these guys are getting coached about every minute of the day. You're monitoring everything, you're filming everything, you're watching everything afterwards. And with Matt Stover, I mean, Matt knew Matt better than I could ever know Matt, and he knew a lot more about kicking than I'll ever know about kicking. In that regard, Matt and I would watch the kicks and he'd tell me what was going on, and I'd be another set of eyes for Matt, and I'd try to help him that way. But, these young kickers are a completely different situation. These guys need a lot more feedback. Matt knew what happened once the ball came off his foot. That's not the case yet for these guys. So it's been interesting, it's been fun."
On if he has a guy to replace S Jim Leonhard:"Well, that's why we're out here. We're trying to find those guys. One thing that we've said since we've been here is that we like football players, and I think, credit to Jimmy, he was all of that. He came in here and did so many things for us. Do we have another one? We're still looking. We're finding out. I think we do. I think we've got some real good young prospects, and I think the way we operate around here, we're giving guys a lot of different chances to do a lot of things during this time of the year. I think somebody's going to show up. Somebody needs to show up. So yeah, I'm encouraged by what I've seen thus far."
Offensive Coordinator Cam Cameron
On QB John Beck:"John, he's getting a lot of work with our second or third group, and he probably knows about 75 percent of what we're doing. He's, like all the rest of the guys, got a lot of work to do."
On if this is the time of year when coordinators can really get creative with the game plan:"It depends. The question is, basically, how creative can you be? And you're really starting over. We're trying to reinvent ourselves. We've got new guys, we've got some rookies, we've got some free agents, we've got some guys in on tryouts, so you've really got to go back to basics and fundamentals and techniques. Now, we'll do that over the course of the next two months, but right now we've gone back. We started yesterday like we have for the last 25 years with '20 fullback belly' and we work from there to the stuff that we're going to do in the season. So we're back to square one."
On QB Joe Flacco's improvements from his first year:"It's just a lot of technique work, a lot of fundamentals. We've been working on some things for those two months just like you would any other player. Just continually grasping and understanding the offense, getting more familiar with the guys he's throwing to – we've got a lot of new faces. And then we'll just let it evolve depending on the guys that he's around."
On how Flacco has made strides as a leader in his second year:"Joe, he really hasn't changed a whole lot. He's led since the day he got here, in his own way. Until we're in game situations, we're probably not going to see some of that leadership grow as much, because right now we're all working on fundamentals and techniques. If you go in the locker room, the players may tell you something different. I just sense that the guy who's a year more mature, a year more familiar with what he's doing, guys know what he's about. I think he understands that you've got to let your leadership flow naturally, not force it."
On if his offense is based on the same framework or if it has evolved with the personnel:"It evolves with the personnel. And we've got some new faces already, and there are some guys who aren't going to be here that were here a year ago. We've gained some guys, and we've lost some guys. And we'll look and see how we can fit them in the equation. We're not going to go out and run the exact same offense we ran this past year. Some of the defenses we play are going to be different. And we play two different divisions, and those defenses are significantly different than the ones we just faced. Our offense, pretty much, is designed to attack the defense we play that week. It's almost a week-to-week offense and then based on the personnel we have."
On initial impressions of T Michael Oher:"Just positive. I think he comes to work. He was prepared. He's probably one of the first rookies I've seen in a while that came in and for the most part knew the installs ahead of time. I guess he called in, and we got him a playbook and some of the installs, and you can tell he spent some time on it. He got ahead of the game, and I think he's going to try to stay ahead of the game. And I like that. We like everybody to be that way, and it's nice to see."
On if T Adam Terry is still in the mix for a starting spot:"Absolutely. We've just got to get Adam Terry healthy and get him on the field. We'd like to see Adam Terry come back and be dominant. That's what he's capable of doing. That's why they drafted him here, that's why they moved up in the Draft to get him. We expect him to get healthy, come in here and be a dominant tackle and help us win. He's a veteran player at this point. He's a veteran football player who needs to help us win a championship."
On how he decided what aspects of the offense to enhance in the offseason to take the Ravens from an AFC Championship game team to a Super Bowl team:"That is the process, [but] I don't know that that's because… You do that every year no matter what situation you ended in – whether it be the championship game, the playoffs, or you didn't make the playoffs – you need to get better. People are going to spend more time on you, people are going to do summer studies on you. I don't think there's an offensive coach in this league that has more respect for the defensive coordinators in this league than me. We're playing chess here – this isn't checkers – and I understand that. I think our coaching staff understands that. We have to be better coaches, we have to be better players. We have to give our players more tools, scheme-wise, to work with. And then we've got to master the fundamentals of those plays. That started yesterday. And again, it goes back a little bit to your opponents, who you're going to play. We'll start building this thing based on the 16 defenses now that we know we're going to play."
On what it would take to get T Willie Anderson back on the field:"That's a good question. And we had some good time together in this offseason. What Willie Anderson has done for our offense last year, his leadership, the way he played, it was critical to our success. And we'll just let that play out. He's a veteran player. He knows his body. We'll let him rattle those things through this mind. He's a guy that's helped us tremendously."
On not having FB Lorenzo Neal this season and if his replacement is on the field:"He was part of our running back by committee, and we'll see. Le'Ron [McClain] has improved tremendously. I don't know how much you got to see today, or how much you've seen, but he's not the same player he was a year ago. He's a different guy right now, already. I see a lot of Lorenzo Neal just in Le'Ron, in my mind, as if he's here. And he's had a huge impact on this group. So, we'll have to do that collectively, but I think that's the case any time you lose a great player like that. Is there a Hall of Fame fullback? If there is one, in my mind, we had a Hall of Fame fullback."
On how the relationship between Flacco and C Matt Birk is developing:"We had three quarterback-center exchanges on the ground [Friday], and none of us were pleased with that. Did we expect that? No. But that's something we got corrected today. We had zero today, and I think that's critical. That'll be easy for those guys to do. I think it's more about Matt with the other guys up front, with our protection unit and our blocking unit, and what a great leader he is. Obviously, his play speaks for itself, but until you work with somebody, you really don't understand why they've been in that many Pro Bowls, and now we know."
On having TEs Todd Heap and L.J. Smith to fill in for each other if one's not healthy:"Right, and I think that's the important thing – we need depth. Last year, and I mentioned this in our meeting either yesterday or this morning, what we were able to do at tight end last year was nothing short of a miracle. To ask Todd to play 70 plays a game, that's hard to do in this system, especially once you get past six or seven years in the league. Now we're trying to build some depth. We're getting some guys back, not as many guys are practicing right now as we would like, but we're getting some work done. I think that's the important thing. As long as we can get some work done in these OTAs, get our tight end group full speed by training camp… Or otherwise we'll be playing tackles at tight end again, or be going four or five wide receivers, which we'll do. What I would say, overall, our best 11 [players] are going to be out there, one way or another, and then we'll build from there."
On if RB Ray Rice is also taking a big step in his second year:"Yes, and he has. Obviously, he has to do it on game day. But, he's taking the next step in terms of the preparation and the work that he needs to do in the weight room and in our conditioning program and the way he practices. You saw, our backs today did a tremendous job today in finishing runs, and some of them were 70-, 60-, 50-yard runs. We had a major emphasis on finishing runs, and Ray is a guy who can be a finisher for us."
On if he gave himself a chance to enjoy what happened last year:"That's a good question, because I'm probably somewhere in between. I had a coach in college that always said, 'Nothing's older than yesterday's success.' And that just, boom, hit me. We had just won the championship, and it was like, 'OK, there's that championship, let's go get another one.' And you really, you have to find a way, because your family is a part of this, your wife is a part of this, and I've got no interest in being the guy that's just miserable all the time, because I want everybody to perceive me as a guy who's not complacent. John [Harbaugh] is not a complacent guy. I'm not a complacent guy. We don't have those guys around here, so just because we look like we enjoyed last year and have good memories of last year doesn't mean that we haven't put that behind us. We've got a tough season ahead of us and a lot of work to be done between now and then. But if you couldn't enjoy this thing, then why would you do it?"
Defensive Coordinator Greg Mattison
On the experimentation and planning made to the defense in camps like this:"I don't know how much experimenting there is. I think you know what you want to do ahead of time just by knowing your players. There might be a few changes you do, but I don't know if it's experimenting. If you say experimenting, you're kind of saying half the time it isn't going to work. I think our staff and everybody has done enough research and knows our players well enough that we know what we want to do. Now we've just got to tweak it the way we want to do it."
On his impression of rookie LB/DE Paul Kruger today: "I had him yesterday, and my impression yesterday was that that poor son of a gun, he flew overnight, he got here at 6 o'clock, he missed the 24 defense installation, and I'm out there yelling at him because he doesn't know the defenses. And then when I tried to catch him up at noon… Had it been anybody else I probably would have gotten upset, but my god he couldn't keep his head up. The poor guy was [nodding off], and I'm asking him every question, 'OK, what about this?' and he's giving me the answer. Today he came out and had gotten his sleep. I am really excited about him. I think our scouting staff and Ozzie [Newsome] and those guys, when we looked at him, he was just what we thought he would be. He's a Raven that plays with a high motor. Tough kid, and he's going to fit right in with what we want to do."
On the progress of ILB Jameel McClain: "We moved him from SAM. We talked about that months ago. We felt in that watching him last year, he did a great job for us being a SAM. We felt his feet and his athleticism and his body build would be much more suited to be a MIKE linebacker. He's picked it up right away. He's done a really good job."
On McClain making the move from DE to ILB: "He wasn't a D-end. He was a SAM 'backer, so he was always a stand-up guy. He just happened to rush like we do with all of our SAMs. We try to make our SAMs be that extra rusher in nickel and sub-personnel."
On the competitive nature and newness of Mattison being defensive coordinator now: "I'd probably be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I'd rather use the word excitement. I don't know if I've ever been more excited than when I walked in that [meeting] room the first time, that very first meeting where you're really the defensive coordinator. And I told the players, the thing that got me so excited is the players in that room. It doesn't really matter who is standing up in front of you. I held up the playbook and said, 'It doesn't really matter what this playbook has,' because as long as we have the attitude and the players that we have in that defensive room we're going to be successful. And the next thing [I said] was that all we're going to do as coaches is try to make them the best in the NFL. I was excited and I am excited. Every day I come out here I'm excited because you have an obligation, and your obligation is to try to get these players to be as good as they can be. I've always felt that way, in that's your job. If you don't do your job like that, you fail a lot of good players. I never want to do that."
On his impressions of ILB Tavares Gooden: "I see a stallion. I see a guy who looks like he's been to the Kentucky Derby that's been tied up for a year and is bigger and stronger. He came out the first day and was like a wild horse. But he gotten better and better. And I'll tell you what, it's just the same attitude he had last year, which got you to love him last year. Stay healthy and keep improving. Vic Fangio is doing a great job with those 'backers. I was teasing him in a meeting yesterday, 'Coach, last year they didn't get coached at all, because they sure have improved.'* (laughing) *I think really good things are coming up from there."
On having NT Kelly Gregg back: "It's great. When I saw him go through practice that first day and asked him how did it feel, he was like a young kid. He was so excited. Kelly is as good a nose guard as there is in the NFL. He adds so much – not just physical playing ability – but his attitude and his excitement and enthusiasm. So, that helps us right away."
