Ravens News 6/23: Collision course with KC and more

John Harbaugh Won’t ‘Run Scared’ as NFL Prepares for Football - Ryan Mink

Harbaugh said he’s “confident” that the necessary protocols and testing will be in place to have a season.

“I think everybody is going to do their best. It’s a new world. You can look at it any way you want to look at it, but I’m not going to run for cover and I don’t think the NFL is either,” Harbaugh said Monday in a conference call with reporters.

“But they’re going to try to be safe and secure, and safety is going to come first. The health of all of us involved and the fans is going to be a major priority. And we’ll go from there. Nobody knows what’s going to happen in the next six months. No human being knows that. So we’ll just have to be very adaptable, flexible and smart about what we do, and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

“People are going to interact with one another. That’s the nature of the sport and that’s the nature of life. People are still interacting with one another in the world as well,” Harbaugh said.

“I’m personally not one to run scared from a virus or anything else. I’m just not going to do it, personally, in my own life. Although I’ll be smart and do what’s asked and respect the protocols. We’ll do everything we can to respect the protocols and more.”

John Harbaugh disagrees with Lamar Jackson’s assessment of loss to Titans - Jamison Hensley

“I don’t think we took them lightly, personally. We just didn’t play well,” Harbaugh said in a 25-minute video conference call Monday. “If you want to go back and rehash it, we can. But we’re going to try to become a better team in that circumstance at the end of the season, just like we tried to become a better team throughout the season and we were very successful with that.”

Harbaugh said Jackson’s comments didn’t upset him.

“Lamar said it, so I respect his opinion on it,” Harbaugh said. “If he views it that way, that’s how he views it. That doesn’t bother me.”

John Harbaugh: Matt Skura’s recovery from knee injury ‘remarkable’ - Kevin Patra

“We’re healthy. Yeah, we’re healthy,” Harbaugh said. “Matt Skura was the biggest injury we had last year and he looks to be like he’s ahead of schedule. Really impressed with how hard he’s worked at it. He really looks good out there. I think it was reported that the time, the workout that we did, the timing of the conditioning test, he just blew the thing away. That’s remarkable. So we go in healthy.”

With Skura suffering an ACL tear and dislocated knee, the Ravens would be ecstatic if he is good to at any point in the early part of the season given the normal timetable for such injuries. The report of his ahead of schedule recovery in June is a promising sign.

Skura’s presence on a line that will be without potential Hall of Fame guard Marshall Yanda, who retired this offseason, would be a big boost for Lamar Jackson and the rest of the Ravens rushing attack.

Ranking top 10 offensive linemen for 2020 NFL season: David Bakhtiari, Quenton Nelson lead the way - Tyler Sullivan

Offensive tackle rankings

2. Ronnie Stanley, Ravens

Stanley’s 2019 season was sensational. He led the left side of Baltimore’s offensive line during a historic rushing season where they broke the NFL record for most total team yards on the ground. He was also stellar in pass protection too, earning Pro Football Focus’ top pass-blocking grade after allowing just six pressures during the regular season and zero sacks. Given all that, it’s no wonder he was named First-team All-Pro and given a Pro Bowl nod for the first time in his career in 2019. We’ll discuss why he couldn’t reach the top spot below, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Stanely rival for the label as the league’s best pass protector going into 2020 and beyond.

The Baltimore Ravens And Kansas City Chiefs Are On A Collision Course - Jeff Fedotin

The favorite to represent the AFC in Super Bowl LV is either the Baltimore Ravens or the Kansas City Chiefs. Those teams appear to be the class of not only their conference, but also the NFL as a whole.

Meanwhile, the Super Bowl LIV champion Chiefs remain the team to beat after retaining 20 of 22 starters from last year’s championship squad. Chiefs general manager Brett Veach deftly signed several of his free agents, including Mike Pennel, Bashaud Breeland and Demarcus Robinson, to one-year contracts to work his way around the salary cap.

The defending Super Bowl champs will play the Ravens in one of the marquee games on the NFL schedule. That Monday Night Football contest is slated for Sept. 28.

That game could go a long way toward determining who holds home-field advantage. The 2020 season has a revamped playoff system featuring three wild-card teams per conference, and only one team will get a first-round bye.