Positively speaking
The best from first two weeks as team moves into regular-season mode
RAVENS CAMP SUPERLATIVES
With their full-team scrimmage Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium, the Ravens are moving into regular-season mode.
One week of training camp still remains before the team will trim its roster from 80 players to 53 and turn its full attention to the Cleveland Browns. But Saturday’s practice was the last open to media. As the Ravens make their final evaluations, only the first 30 minutes of practice will be viewable.
Two weeks of practices in Owings Mills and Baltimore, however, offered plenty of highlights for a team expected to contend for the Super Bowl. From the team’s standout performer to its most rewatchable play, here are some camp superlatives:
Most valuable camper
Mark Andrews played less than half of the Ravens’ offensive snaps last year and was still one of the NFL’s best tight ends. With Hayden Hurst shipped off to the Atlanta Falcons this offseason, quarterback Lamar Jackson and the Ravens may lean even more on Andrews in their passing game.
That shouldn’t be a problem. It might even be the best thing for their offense. Over two weeks in camp, Andrews has gotten open whenever he’s wanted to. Too big for defensive backs to handle and too quick for tight ends to keep up with, the third-year pro has easily been the Ravens’ most consistent skill player — even more so than Jackson, the NFL’s reigning Most Valuable Player.
“You call it a knack, you call it a feel — he has that,” coach John Harbaugh said of Andrews, who made the Pro Bowl last season after an 852-yard, 10-touchdown year. “He has a great awareness of what’s going on around him spatially, and he’s also, obviously, a gifted athlete. So he gets open. In the end, you see the result, and the result is that he knows how to get open.”
Most impressive newcomer
When the Ravens took J.K. Dobbins in the second round of the NFL draft, it was fair to wonder just how much space there would be for the Ohio State running back in the NFL’s best rushing attack. And didn’t the Ravens need a young pass rusher or wide receiver more, anyway?
With every jump cut out of harm’s way, every highlight-reel catch over a hapless defender, Dobbins looks more and more essential to the Ravens’ offense in 2020 and beyond. There are still flaws in his game — the occasional drop or missed block — and he’s unlikely to jump Pro Bowl incumbent Mark Ingram II by Week 1. But his speed, passion and football IQ have been apparent since he bounded onto the field.
“J.K., I’ve been really impressed with,” running backs coach Matt Weiss said. “I think every day, his athleticism, his physicality, his vision — all the things that make a great