Tuesday's Training Camp for the Baltimore Ravens was one of their later starts, beginning at 3:30pm and running the maximum permitted length of three full hours. bunch of new news is coming out of camp, including a few uniform number changes. New Ravens WR Lee Evans will get his normal number 83, which previously was TE Ed Dickson's. Dickson will now switch to #84, his third uniform number since being drafted in 2010.
Several veteran players have been given the day off, including Ray Lewis, Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata, Jarret Johnson, Anquan Boldin and Ray Rice. However, it's good to see OT Ramon Harewood suited up and practicing, and wow, is he a big guy! Also huge for his position is safety Bernard Pollard, who is noticeably bigger than any other safety on the team
Rookie wide receiver Tandon Doss out-jumps his defender for a solid catch, one of the many that he has made this afternoon, which prompts me to believe that he may be ahead of fellow rookie WR Torrey Smith in the eyes of the coaches. Even David Reed is back in pads and he finally catches a ball from rookie QB Tyrod Taylor.
On the defensive side of the ball, OLB Sergo Kindle is rushing the passer from the outside and does not seem to shy away from any type of contact. Also having a great camp is rookie DE Pernell McPhee, who is fast and strong with a quick first step, which seems to get him into the offensive backfield a lot.
At one point, RB Ricky Williams runs up the middle and is met by LB Prescott Burgess, who lays the wood to him, stopping him in his tracks. Later on, Williams stuffs LB Tavares Gooden on a blitz while providing pass protection for QB Joe Flacco. Speaking of Flacco, he and rookie CB Jimmy Smith jokingly trade trash talk after one particular play.
On successive plays, Flacco throws towards Torrey Smith and Jimmy Smith jumps in front only to have the easy interception clank off his chest. However, Flacco rebounds by hitting a streaking Torrey across the middle, with Jimmy trailing helplessly behind.
Overall, the running game seems to be making strides against the defense, albeit without a bunch of their main starters. On the offensive line, due to injuries as well as experimentation, the right side has rookie Jah Reid at right tackle and inside of him is Oniel Cousins at right guard, a massive side of an offensive line. Ben Grubbs is at left guard, Michael Oher at left tackle and Bryan Mattison filling in for Matt Birk at center.