New home, number for CB
Peters participates in 1st Ravens practice; Brown still out with ankle injury
Ravens cornerback Marcus Peters was traded Tuesday afternoon, arrived in Baltimore on Wednesday and was at his first Ravens practice Thursday afternoon.
Maybe the strangest part of his coast-tocoast changeover was his jersey number. After four-plus seasons of wearing No. 22 for the Kansas City Chiefs and then the Los Angeles Rams, Peters will wear No. 30 for the Ravens. (The last player to wear that number in Baltimore? Running back Kenneth Dixon.)
Peters, acquired for linebacker Kenny Young and a reported fifth-round draft pick, is scheduled to speak with reporters Friday and is expected to play Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.
Wide receiver Marquise "Hollywood" Brown (ankle) and inside linebacker Patrick Onwuasor (ankle) missed their fifth straight practice Thursday. Cornerback Maurice Canady (thigh) was out for the second straight day, while an ankle injury sidelined cornerback Anthony Averett. Defensive tackle Brandon Williams missed practice for noninjury reasons.
Cornerback Jimmy Smith (knee) was a limited participant, as was left tackle Ronnie Stanley (knee), who missed practice Wednesday.
Smith grateful injury wasn’t worse
About the only thing that went wrong in the Ravens’ season-opening blowout of the Miami Dolphins happened to Smith.
“Twenty-something people out there, and it had to be me, I guess,” the veteran cornerback, who’s missed at least four games in seven of his nine NFLseasons, said Thursday. “Just kind of the story of my career a little bit.”
Midway through the first quarter Sept. 8, Onwuasor dived for a tackle. As Onwuasor wrapped up Dolphins running back Kalen Ballage, his momentum carried him into Smith, whose right knee bent awkwardly. The 31-year-old crumbled to the ground and didn’t return.
Tests revealed a Grade-2 sprain, which has sidelined him for over a month. Smith, speaking to reporters for the first time since the injury, acknowledged that he feared the worst.
“I initially thought, like, it was gone,” he said. “Just how wobbly and loose it felt. That kind of just scared me for my career, you know? But I thank God it was just a sprain.”
As the Ravens prepare to face star quarterback Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks’ passing attack — the NFL’s most efficient, according to Football Outsiders — they could use a cornerback like Smith, who returned to practice Wednesday in a brace.
Smith said he’s “trying to be careful” with the knee injury, his first. He feels “really good” and will test his mobility Sunday before kickoff, but the Ravens’ Week 8 bye means Smith can afford to be a little more cautious than he’d otherwise be. (The Ravens declined to create a roster spot by placing Smith on injured reserve, but if he returns in Week 9, he’ll have missed eight weeks, the same stretch he could’ve missed with an IR designation.)
Smith will return to a secondary radically different from the one he started the season with. Starting safety Tony Jefferson and backup DeShon Elliott are likely lost for the season with knee injuries. Canady has gone from the practice squad to a fixture at cornerback. And on Tuesday, the Ravens acquired Peters, a two-time All-Pro, who’s expected to play Sunday.
“Everything happens for a reason,” Smith said, referring to his knee injury. “You know, who knows if we would’ve gotten Marcus Peters if all that didn’t happen? So maybe we win the Super Bowl because of all this.”
Twice as nice
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was selected as the FedEx Ground NFL Player of the Week on Thursday, becoming the first player in the NFL award’s 17-year history to win both the air and ground weekly honors in the same season.
Jackson, who received FedEx Air NFL Player of the Week honors after a historic season-opening performance, set a career high with 152 yards on19 attempts and one touchdown in the Ravens’ 23-17 win Sunday over the Cincinnati Bengals. He’s only the third quarterback in the Super Bowl era to rush for at least 150 yards in a game.
Jackson was the first quarterback to be nominated for the rushing honors. He beat out Seattle Seahawks running back Chris Carson (124 yards on 24 carries) and Houston Texans running back Carlos Hyde (116 yards on 26 carries).
In Week 1, Jackson won his first NFL weekly honors after going 17-for-20 for 324 yards and throwing for five touchdowns against the Miami Dolphins, earning a perfect 158.3 passer rating.
Extra points
Special teams coach Chris Horton said the Ravens “could’ve made a better call” on the short kickoff that Brandon Wilson returned for a 92-yard Cincinnati Bengals touchdown Sunday.
“When we put that ball in play, our guys got to go cover,” Horton said. “I think they feel the same way I feel — very disappointed in that, because we’re way better than that.”
Horton said he talks with coach John Harbaugh, a former special teams coordinator himself, before every game about the team’s kickoff strategy. “Nine times out of 10,” Horton said, it’s his own call to make. “Obviously, if we can kick it out, we’ll definitely do that,” he explained. “But then there are some times we want to put the ball in play.”
Former Maryland and current Seahawks defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson is on pace for his best season yet in Seattle. Jefferson, a fifth-round pick in 2016, has two sacks and seven quarterback hits, both team highs. “He’s doing a great job of doing his job, essentially,” Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman said.