Head Coach John Harbaugh
Opening statement:"Good to see everybody. We had the rookies here, and it was a good practice, better than yesterday. I think they picked up the pace, and it was a little bit of a learning experience for them without the [veterans] here, and they did a heck of a job. So, it was a good teaching day."
On how the atmosphere and tempo differs without the veteran players around:"Well, it's obviously a different atmosphere and tempo because the vets aren't here. It's a little slow; we take a little more time between reps. I don't want to say it was more teaching, because there is a lot of teaching when the vets are here, too. But it was a little more fundamentally-oriented, a little simpler with the calls – but they did a good job."
On how much time will be spent evaluating which rookies move forward to training camp: "Well, you know it's become more important to evaluate who you take to training camp now, because the limit is 80 players. Not like when you used to have the NFL Europe guys and a few extra guys, so spots become really premium spots. We have to make some decisions as far as who we take to camp, so we'll be doing that this week and really for the next four weeks or so."
On how beneficial the versatility of DB Lardarius Webb will be: "Well, Webb is doing a nice job. It's the first week he seemed really healthy since the very first minicamp. He's kind of over the hamstring [injury] now. I think he did a really nice job with Bill [Tessendorf] working hard to rehab it. He showed a lot of quickness and has a good understanding of the defense for a rookie – but the fact that he plays safety and corner is going to be helpful throughout his career. But it's going to help us in camp, too."
On whether the Ravens are interested in Broncos' WR Brandon Marshall: "Yeah, we're interested in anybody that can help our team. So, you know he plays for the Broncos and he's under contract. So he's not a guy that we're considering or concerned with right now. We'll just have to see what happens."
On whether they have had any contact with Marshall: "No, no. We can't. He's in a contract."
On what the phrase 'Play Like A Raven' means to the rookies: "Well, it's interesting. They've watched a lot of tape, so they see it for themselves, but our guys take that pretty seriously. So, I assume if these guys want to be Ravens, they'll figure out what that means."
On whether WR Justin Harper was at practice voluntarily today:"No, he had to be here. The guys who don't have a year accrued – practice squad guys, basically last year, are eligible to be in this rookie camp."
On whether they do anything differently with T Michael Oher as a potential rookie starter: "Well, you know he's competing for a spot. Obviously, there are a couple of other guys who are interested in that starting spot, so Michael is going to have to win the spot. He gets coached just like the other guys do; the veterans really get coached the same way. You probably have a guy like that who has more to learn, and [offensive line coach] John [Matsko] and [assistant offensive line coach] Andy [Moeller] have spent a tremendous amount of time with him individually. He just hungers and thirsts for work. I mean the guy loves football – he's in here morning, noon and night. He studies tape, he does a lot of extra work, so he's going to have a chance to compete for that job."
On whether they talk to players about the rookie symposium and if the Ravens have their own: "Well, we have a whole program that's run by O.J. Brigance and by Harry Swayne - a player development program for the rookies – and they basically every afternoon have a seminar on some phase of making the transition, life and NFL-wise, and then the rookie symposium kind of tops that all off. That's something that I think O.J. does a great job with over the years and has. Harry continues to do that, too. No, we don't talk about that per say, the rookie symposium, to answer your question."
On whether he sees the receiving position as a weakness on the team: "We don't consider it a weakness by any stretch. You know we want to make every position stronger. You guys ask the questions, so we answer them. It's like, questions get asked and sometimes you wonder, 'Are you telling us the truth?' or 'Are you being honest with us?' We try to make every position as strong as we possibly can. We're open to any player at any position, anywhere that can make our team better. So, are we looking to upgrade our receiver position? The same as we are every other position. And if we can get a player in here that can make us better, sure, but if we can make the players we've got better, healthier, more productive, that's what we're going to do. We're trying to put together as strong a football team as we possibly can, and it's really not any more complicated than that. So, you have an interest in the receiver position, so do we. Just like every other position."
On whether it would matter if an incoming receiver had "baggage" attached: "Well, their background matters. We want to bring guys in here that are what we consider Ravens. So, any player that we bring in here, we've got to be convinced that he's a man of integrity, a high-character guy and that our players can respect him in the locker room. That's going to be true whether it's in a draft or free agency or any guys we choose to re-sign. We look at that real hard because we think those are the type of people that you win with, and we're never going to compromise on that."
On how K Graham Gano has progressed: "I think he made a 60-yarder today. He's done a nice job under pressure and [with] different snappers, different holders. And Steve Hauschka has done a nice job before that, so the two young guys have kicked well."
On how FB Jason Cook has performed:"There's a lot of ways to, in camp, and we'll talk about this here in a minute, but there's a lot of ways to address that position. It can be tight ends, it can be defensive guys coming over and blocking people and it can be a true fullback and Le'Ron [McClain] can do it. So, we'll find whatever guys can fill the role and [offensive coordinator] Cam [Cameron] is real creative with that, but Cook is in the mix."
On how QB Drew Willy performed in practice: "He did well, and he was out there yesterday, too. I would say he improved from yesterday into today. He was accurate, he was on time, he did a great job of operating the offense. So, it's pretty tough to do the first time through, and he did well."
On whether they will retain any of Tuesday's tryout players: "Don't know. We haven't even talked about it yet. We're going to look at this tape, and once we get three days of tape we'll take a look and see if any of those guys can make us better. If they can, we'll make a change."
