Ravens training camp: Harbaugh Highlights 7/29

The fearless leader stepped up to the podium and addressed the press very quickly. The opening statement a look ahead for the next few days.

"Second day is in, and we’ve gotten through the period where we’ll be in soft shells, as we call them, and we’ll be in pads tomorrow," Harbaugh said. "We’ll have three days of that, and we’ll have a night practice on Monday, and then they’ll have a day off. That’s our schedule for the next couple of days."

Hitting starts tomorrow fellow Ravens fans. This is where the team finds identity and character. Where scuffles sometimes emerge, and the strength of others is tested against your own. I’m anxious to observe practice tomorrow.

Garrett Downing opened up fresh questions wanting to know what message it brings when you put the pads on.

"The biggest message when you put the pads on is, ‘You’ve been in pads before. Don’t overreact. It’s going to be fine.’ What happens sometimes, whenever you transition into the next phase of what you do, you kind of forget about what they’re doing," Harbaugh said. He also ended the answer with, "Let’s go play football."

Both Mike Wallace and Dobsin Collins were suited up today, meaning they had passed the conditioning test. When asked about if Jerraud was not on the field for failing the test today Harbaugh said, "Correct."

Jeff Zrebiec asked, "Is that silver lining with OLB Terrell Suggs and OLB Elvis Dumervil not being on the field that these guys can get more reps?"

"Sure. Absolutely," Harbaugh responded. "That’s not a bad thing. I don’t think Terrell and Elvis particularly are going to be hurt too much by not being out here right now. They just have to get healthy and get right. Like you said, all of these guys are getting reps, which is a good thing."

One question brought up Dennis Pitta and if Harbaugh sees small or big steps being made by him.

"I think big steps," John said. "If you want to look all the way back to the fact that he wasn’t playing, I would say big steps. He looks to me like he looks like a big player. I’m sure. . .It’s hard to just say apples-to-apples to three years ago, but he looks like a really good football player out there right now. The next step will be pads, and we’ll see how he looks tomorrow in that."

Harbaugh also informed everybody there is no update with tackle Jake Long, and he must speak with Ozzie to find out more.

A few others brought up specific players, like rookies Chris Moore and Tavon Young. Both had a great day, landing on my Biggest Winners & Losers piece. Another name was Michael Campanaro. Harbaugh praised all three of them.

Most informative answer from Harbaugh came from wanting to know the versatility of young pass rushers, namely Kamalei Correa.

"That’s a big part of our plan. I just think we’re trying to figure that out right now," John said. "We want everybody on our defense to be a pass rusher. We are working really hard at that to try to train all of our guys to be pass rushers. With that, the pass rushers — that’s what they do for a living — to be able to move them around in different spots and have them coming from different places is something that we want to do."

Everybody having pass rush ability puts fear in a quarterback. When at any given play any one on the front seven — or even secondary players — could pose a threat to the opposition. Causing confusion creates mistakes. If a quarterback believes somebody is coming and calls the protection a certain way, when in fact the opposite players are the ones rushing, there is hell to pay.