The Ravens are back to work, taking their first steps in what they hope will be a seven-month trek to Super Bowl 60 in Santa Clara, California. Here are five things we learned from their first week of training camp.

1. The Super Bowl talk is inevitable, but the Ravens know how many steps lie between here and there

Every player and coach in the building knows this is one of three or four teams deep, balanced and lustrous enough to hoist the Lombardi Trophy next February. The Ravens have the superstar quarterback. They have the complementary playmakers and scheme to maximize his greatness. They have Pro Bowl and All-Pro selections at every level of their defense. They have a seasoned coaching staff. Their skin should be tough after crushing disappointments the last two seasons.

So of course training camp commenced with the team’s star players fielding question after question about why this year might (or might not) be the one.

This is the trap the Ravens have set for themselves. They’re too talented and have forged too deep in the previous two postseasons for anyone to be particularly interested in what they do over the next five months. We assume they’ll be back on the Super Bowl trail come January. The real question — the one the Ravens confront in every practice, meeting and interview session — is whether they can steer past the inexplicable blunders that derailed them in season-ending losses to the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs.

It’s both the issue that frames everything and one they have little way of dealing with on these sweltering July afternoons.

“To be honest, I’m really not trying to think that far [ahead], because every time we had those discussions, man, we get to the playoffs, but we don’t punch in. We don’t finish,” quarterback Lamar Jackson said. “So I’m pretty much just trying to finish camp the correct way and then get ready for the Bills.”

If the Ravens’ answers on this subject come off as bland or clichéd, cut them some slack. For now, there isn’t much they can do beyond committing to the details of daily and weekly toil — getting into sets quickly, minimizing presnap penalties, rewarding those who tuck the ball securely.

Cornerback Marlon Humphrey has described how every bit of their work is graded so that even the smallest pebbles don’t lie unexamined.

They spend their days boring into minutiae, because the wide frame is set.

“You have to be about it every single day,” outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy said. “I think we’re doing that. I think we’ve been doing that. I think we’ve just had a couple lax situations that ultimately have bit us in the butt, and we just got to knock it off. I think, with the group that we have, with the leaders that we have and the quarterback we have, I think we’ll be in good shape, and I know everybody’s sick of hearing that. It’s easy to say, but at the same time, it’s hard to do.”

There aren’t many position battles to adjudicate. Save for a spot or two, the 53-man roster is easy to predict. It’s excellent, maybe the best in franchise history at this (admittedly meaningless) point in the season. The Ravens will do their best to tune up this exquisite machine in camp and the regular season. They’ll knock on wood that their collective health holds. Only after all that, when the temperatures plummet and the games become do or die, will we get to their defining business.

2. It’s a tough year to be a training camp hero

Reuben Lowery has already made his name ring out, and that’s no small feat for a 5-foot-9 undrafted defensive back from Tennessee-Chatanooga who’s surrounded by Humphrey, Kyle Hamilton, Jaire Alexander, Nate Wiggins, Malaki Starks, etc.

Lowery picked off backup quarterback Cooper Rush during Thursday’s practice, adding to the pile of interceptions he’d amassed during organized team activities and mandatory minicamp. On a defense that has made creating turnovers its No. 1 priority, there’s no better way to seize coaches’ attention.

Lowery is on John Harbaugh’s radar, and that’s the first step to becoming a factor in the Ravens’ final roster calculations.

“He’s doing a great job,” Harbaugh said. “Reuben is ‘all ball.’ He’s ‘all ball’ every day. All he thinks about, all he talks about, eats it, sleeps it. He comes out here and flies around. He’s a very smart player.”

But there’s a significant math problem confronting Lowery, even if he keeps it up. Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta likes to say the team can never have enough defensive backs. He lived up to his credo in the offseason, not only signing starting cornerback candidates Alexander and Chidobe Awuzie but using three draft picks on cornerbacks and safeties.

With other recent picks such as Sanoussi Kane and T.J. Tampa also angling for playing time, it’s not clear there are any spots to claim. Lowery might have to take a job from one of the team’s two sixth-round cornerback picks, Bilhal Kone and Robert Longerbeam.

“One of the most competitive rosters we’ve had since I’ve been here,” defensive coordinator Zach Orr said.

The Ravens are far deeper at cornerback than safety, so Lowery could help his case by demonstrating aptitude for both positions (he’s listed at corner but has lined up on the back end in early practices). Of course, the Ravens could also complicate the picture further by signing a veteran safety.

This franchise prides itself on identifying and developing undrafted free agents, who create the charming, unexpected stories that carry us through July and August drudgery. Lowery has already done enough to make us wonder if he could join that line. But the flip side of a Super Bowl-worthy roster is the lack of opportunities for players we didn’t see coming.

3. Jaire Alexander will bring swagger to a defense that wants to inspire fear again

The two-time Pro Bowl cornerback didn’t need long to introduce himself to fans at the team’s first camp practice. After he broke up Jackson’s back-shoulder throw to DeAndre Hopkins, Alexander turned to the stands and struck a “buckle your seat belt” pose.

By Friday, his expressiveness had gone viral; Alexander pulled Wiggins into a two-man celebration — again, directly in front of the stands — after the second-year cornerback finished a stellar day with a pass breakup. Even after sitting in 95-degree heat for two hours, fans ate it up.

Alexander will be judged primarily by how many games he plays, how many top receivers he blankets and how many turnovers he creates. But his confidence could also give the defense an element it has lacked in recent years, even when the results were excellent.

Humphrey has talked several times this summer about how the Baltimore defense is no longer feared the way it was when he arrived.

“Now we are trying to get that back, but I mean I don’t think the Bengals fear our defense,” the dean of the secondary said Thursday. “I don’t think the Steelers fear our defense.”

That statement might not entirely hold up to scrutiny, given that the Ravens are just two years removed from leading the league in takeaways, sacks and fewest points allowed. But it’s significant that one of their core players feels that way as he reflects on their hapless efforts to prevent chunk plays in the first half of last season.

Even when the Ravens made marked improvements down the stretch, they did not have a defender who kept opponents on edge with daring interception attempts and riled up the crowd in the process. They haven’t had a defensive back who fit that description since Marcus Peters’ early days in Baltimore in 2019 and 2020.

Enter Alexander, who, if he can stay on the field, will quickly become a favorite at M&T Bank Stadium.

“I think we probably needed some of that,” said Hamilton, who for all his multifaceted greatness is a more subdued presence on the field. “Guys can be a little eccentric at times, but I’m more even-keeled, so I need to have that brought out of me a little bit, and Jaire does that for us. Everybody follows his lead when it comes to the energy and stuff, and he’s only been here three practice days, but everybody can feel the difference with him here.”

Alexander seems to be a firecracker from dawn ’til dusk, demanding that the stereo in the weight room be cranked to full volume when he arrives for 6 a.m. workouts. He delights in practice competition with his college buddy, Jackson, and wants to be part of every locker room conversation.

Some spirits simply vibrate at a higher pulse and can’t help but affect the collective vibe. Maybe Alexander is the element that reconnects this Ravens defense to the cocky, overwhelming units of yore.

4. The kicker “battle” might not be much of one

Tyler Loop exchanged an effusive high-five with Harbaugh after the rookie drilled a 63-yard field goal with distance to spare Friday.

To that point, the Ravens had kept it simple for Loop and fellow rookie John Hoyland, who are vying to replace Justin Tucker. Their longest attempts were just beyond 40 yards, and that made it difficult to say one was outshining the other. Both young kickers had performed inconsistently during OTAs and minicamp.

But Loop’s Friday practice bomb — the Ravens also posted video of a 68-yard make on social media — felt like the first differentiating blow. Here was the mighty leg team officials, led by kicking coach Randy Brown, had bet on when they devised a succession plan in advance of releasing Tucker, the most accurate kicker in NFL history.

Loop was perfect again Saturday, hitting the top of the net behind the goalposts on seemingly every attempt.

Harbaugh has said he sees sufficient talent in both Loop and Hoyland. The question of whether either can be dependable under the hot lights of NFL Sundays won’t be answered in July or August.

But the Ravens would love Loop to separate himself by making kicks like the ones he drilled last week. They would not have used a draft pick on him if they didn’t see him as Tucker’s replacement. Sure, they want him to stand up to the pressure of competing with Hoyland. But it’s Loop’s job to lose.

5. No one seems overly worried about extension talk, but that doesn’t mean it’s going away

Running back Derrick Henry agreed to a $30 million contract extension May 14. The natural question was who’d come next from a long list of candidates, topped by Jackson and including Hamilton, center Tyler Linderbaum, tight ends Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely, outside linebacker Odafe Oweh and defensive tackle Travis Jones.

We haven’t heard a substantive peep on any of them in more than two months, and it’s fair to wonder if the Ravens are going to go into the season with most of their 2026 business unresolved.

That’s not a given. Extension announcements pop up when they’re least expected, sometimes during the season.

But for now the players in question seem intent on preparing for the season, with little to say about what comes after. None of them skipped offseason workouts in protest or staged hold-ins after reporting to camp.

The interest in a Jackson extension dwarfs everything else, given that he’s the most important person in the organization and that his $74.5 million salary cap hit next year would cripple other team-building efforts. DeCosta has said he initiated discussions with his franchise quarterback this year, but with no agent involved, the ball seems to be in Jackson’s court. It’s possible he’ll feel no urgency to get a deal done until after this season. He has quickly deflected questions on the matter the last few times he’s met with reporters.

Hamilton and Linderbaum are also core players, with the safety under contract through next season and the center approaching free agency after the Ravens declined to pick up his fifth-year option. Like Jackson, neither has shown interest in negotiating through the media.

The tight end situation is different, because the Ravens will almost certainly have to choose between Likely and Andrews after this year. Likely is almost five years younger and thus a more obvious extension candidate, but he might bet on himself, figuring, if he increases his production again in 2025, he’ll be a top free agent. Andrews was the subject of trade speculation after his drop sealed the Ravens’ fate in their season-ending loss to the Bills, but he’s Jackson’s top red-zone target and probably has at least a few years left as one of the league’s premium tight ends.

Likely has always credited Andrews as his mentor, and they’re both exemplary professionals. But there are only so many targets to go around in a stacked offense, and it will be interesting to see how both men react if one sees the ball significantly more than the other with millions of dollars on the line.