Jeremy Butler capped off his minicamp with an exclamation point Thursday afternoon.
The young receiver caught everything thrown his way, including a pair of difficult sideline grabs from quarterback Joe Flacco during a two-minute drill near the end of practice. The strong finish to mandatory minicamp continued an impressive stretch for Butler in recent weeks, and it had teammates and coaches buzzing after practice.
"He might have had like 1,500 yards in a three day minicamp," Flacco said. "He was incredible."
Butler was a relatively unknown commodity heading into the offseason program. He spent last year on injured reserve because of a shoulder injury that occurred late in the preseason, but coaches raved about his potential based on what they saw from him in training camp.
He's proving them right with his performance this year.
"He's had an unbelievable [Organized Team Activities] and minicamp in my opinion," Wide Receivers Coach Bobby Engram said. "I just think he really came back driven. He came back in great shape, and he made a lot of plays."
The undrafted receiver out of Tennessee-Martin is sure-handed and has good size (6-foot-2, 218 pounds). The Ravens have primarily used him out of the slot, where he's worked the middle of the field and also come up with a few big plays down the field.
"The slot is where I'm most comfortable," Butler said. "This offense has given me the ability to show what I can do as far as being in the slot, being physical with smaller guys, and being quicker with bigger guys."
Butler has described his rookie campaign as "bittersweet." He was able to attend meetings and remain part of the team, but he couldn't practice and was mostly relegated to the training room or weight room. The closest he got to the field was when he'd pester practice squad quarterback Keith Wenning about throwing passes to him after everyone else had finished for the day.
"I bugged Keith," Butler said. "Him and I threw every day after practice. Weekends, we threw."
The Ravens are still a long way from making any decisions about their roster, but Butler has started to separate himself from the pack going into training camp. He's part of a young, talented group along with Marlon Brown, Kamar Aiken, Breshad Perriman, Michael Campanaro, Darren Waller and others.
He still has his work cut out for him when training camp opens next month, but he's shown he has potential to make an impact on this offense.
"I'm just taking it one day at a time," Butler said. "I'll control what I can control and everything will work itself out."
