Marlon Humphrey is off to a great start in training camp

Now two days into training camp, one player is emerging as one of the most impressive on the field. That player is 2017 first round pick Marlon Humphrey.

Humphrey has seen a lot passes thrown in his direction already in training camp, and has been put in pressure packed situations.

Yesterday, at the end of a full team drill near the end of practice, Ravens head coach John Harbuagh pulled the entire team aside, and called Humphrey as well as Breshad Perriman to step out in front of the team for an one-on-one showdown. With the whole team watching, Humphrey stayed with Perriman nearly stride for stride, and came up with a pass breakup.

One of the biggest criticisms of Humphrey in the draft process was his struggles to defend the deep ball. His pass breakup against Perriman, one of the fastest receivers on the team nonetheless, on a deep ball shows that he is taking steps forward in that aspect of his game.

Humphrey built on his impressive showing yesterday with an even better performance today. In camp today, Humphrey had two interceptions. According to Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun, in addition to the interceptions, the rookie corner was around the ball often.

One of Humphrey’s two interceptions came while covering Perriman. Check out the play below:

On this play, quarterback Ryan Mallett was looking for Perriman near the sidelines. Once the ball was thrown, Humphrey jumped in front of the pass and in front of Perriman, snatching the ball out of the air just in front of the Central Florida product’s arms for an interception.

Humphrey has not taken long to show why the Ravens spent their first round pick on him. With two interceptions today, and the pass breakup in the showdown with Permian yesterday, Humphrey is making his case to be a rookie starter for the Ravens.

Humphrey will be competing with veteran cornerback Brandon Carr for the starting job opposite Jimmy Smith. Carr came into camp as the favorite to win the job, but he has not had the the impressive plays that Humphrey has had. Whatever ground that the rookie needed to make up on Carr, he is well on his way to doing so. If Humphrey keeps producing these types of impressive displays in practice, then the Alabama product could very well be the Week 1 starter for the Ravens.