(by Ross Jacobs)
You don’t bet against the Ravens in the preseason…
Battle of all backups and soon-to-be-cuts here, and the Ravens did what they always do…bully the other team. They are just so deep and so well-trained. Such a great organization. You have to hand it to the Commanders though, they were getting waxed but still were competing and looked unfazed, not in a “we don’t care, it’s preseason” kind of way, but more a “it’s ok we’re down, we can handle this” way. They are a really well-coached team, and they look totally bought in to Dan Quinn’s messaging. Adam Peters just needs another year or two to keep collecting talent and fill out the depth.
Player Notes…
-- It was Chris Rodriguez starting things off at RB for the Commanders, and he was gone fairly quick. He’s going to rotate in with Ekeler and Jacory Croskey-Merritt. We just don’t know to what degree yet. Quinn outright said he’d be the short yardage guy, so we’ll see.
I’m as big a Croskey-Merritt fan as anyone, and in fact we were the first to talk about him way back during the East/West Shrine game where we had him rated highly among the RBs, but now that his ADP has caught fire, it leaves me wondering…what’s the difference between him and Rasheen Ali? Honestly, they are similar talents. Ali might even be a tick better. But he’s buried behind Henry and Justice Hill so nobody cares, while JCM has had the runway cleared for him to start.
All the people losing their minds over the magical rookie that they’d never heard of until two weeks ago will just yawn if Henry and Hill were to get hurt and Ali got a chance to start, and yet the two players are very similar talents. Football is a funny thing sometimes.
-- I’ll say it again, Luke McCaffrey looks like just another guy out there. Granted, it’s hard to show off with the disaster that is Sam Hartman throwing you the ball, but I just don’t see any real juice out of him, and to make matters worse we totally whiffed a couple of blocks here. That’s not going to win any points with the coaching staff. Chalk Talk Database has been on this for a while…rookie Jaylin Lane has completely blown past McCaffrey.
-- KJ Osborn got released by Washington today and he’ll probably sign back with the Vikings if they can’t get a deal done for Adam Thielen. They need a veteran hand that knows the playbook to fill in for a couple games while several of their guys are out with injuries and suspensions.
-- Devin Leary seems smart and throws an accurate ball, but man is he small with a weak arm. He looks like a UFL talent.
-- The Ravens have already found their new Justin Tucker I guess. Rookie Tyler Loop went 3/3 easily including bombing a 61 yarder with room to spare. He did boot the kickoff out of bounds right after though, so there’s still some things to clean up, but he looks good.
Defensive Player Notes…
-- Trenton Simpson was playing deep into this game for Baltimore. He’s projected to be a starter, so I’m curious what’s going on there. If he’s competing with rookie Teddye Buchanan, he’s likely to win, but that could be a weak spot inside for an otherwise strong Ravens defense.
