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Baltimore Ravens: Injuries Change the Shape of Competitions

By Jeremiah D. Sater

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Jan 3, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh (left) shakes hands with safety Will Hill (33) against the Pittsburgh Steelers in an AFC wild card playoff game at Heinz Field. The Ravens defeated the Steelers 30-17. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Baltimore Ravens hosted their training camp practice at M&T Bank Stadium tonight. The practice was open to the public.

Two of the positional competitions have begun to take new directions after the fourth practice was finished Sunday afternoon. The competition with the safeties has taken a drastic change with the news that safety Matt Elam will miss the entire season with a torn biceps. You can read more about his injury here.

The third-year safety was in a competition with Will Hill for the strong safety position. With the injury ending Elam’s chance to compete, the former Florida safety will likely be a lock alongside safety Kendrick Lewis.

The position was one in which the team did not add a lot of depth. As I said in an earlier article, they must have been hoping for Elam to have a strong year and Terrence Brooks to fully recover. The team needs the injured safety to recover if they are to have any depth at the position. He has started training camp on the PUP (physically unable to perform) list.

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Brooks would have to be removed before the Ravens’ first game of the season; otherwise, he will be forced to miss at least the first six games. The team may have to be forced to add another safety if he remains on the PUP list. However at this point, head coach John Harbaugh said they will not add another safety.

On the other side of the ball, the young wide receivers are taking advantage of the rookie Breshad Perriman (knee) and third-year receiver Marlon Brown (back) being sidelined. The former Georgia receiver missed Saturday’s practice, but he returned Sunday.

However, as Monday’s practice began, he was reported to being sidelined again alongside Perriman by Baltimore beat writer Jeff Zrebiec on Twitter. In their absence, Kamar Aiken and Jeremy Butler have used the most of the time to move up in the competition, according to ESPN’s Jamison Hensley.

There is still a lot of training camp left, so with exception to veteran Steve Smith Sr., no receivers have solidified their spot on the roster. With 12 receivers on the roster, the competition is going to be tight, and they need to take advantage of when they get more reps.

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As of Monday’s practice, only 10 of the receivers are practicing. If they all practice, it will be interesting how Harbaugh gives them all adequate time to show how well they can play.

Monday’s practice was open to the public, and the Ravens’ insiders were in attendance. Here are some tweets posted live during the practice.

Smith usually does not mind getting physical during practice, and according to later tweets, he wouldn’t let the cornerback Kyle Arrington apologize.

The offense looked good early on during the practice according to the Ravens’ insiders, but the defense eventually began to change things.

Lardarius Webb is trying his best to make up for his failed conditioning test.

The team has Tuesday, August 4 off before returning to the field the day after.

Next: Matt Elam Injury Leaves Baltimore Ravens With Void At Safety

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