Ravens observations: Training camp opens with a new look for Lamar Jackson

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The Ravens opened training camp Wednesday, and not even the football gods may know how much those 90 minutes in Owings Mills will loom over the 46 days before Week 1. Plans change. Practice performances deceive. Players put on pads.

But it was tempting to wonder whether the offense on display for the estimated 2,000 fans in attendance was a preview of what awaits the Indianapolis Colts in the Ravens’ season opener.

Offensive coordinator Declan Doyle’s Day 1 playbook did not reinvent the wheel. But it did put quarterback Lamar Jackson and the offense on a different kind of ride.

There were a lot of under-center looks. (Over 80% of Jackson’s drop-backs last year were from a shotgun or pistol formation.) There were a lot of zone runs. (The Ravens majored in zone schemes last year, too, but they mixed in a bit of gap schemes.) And there were a lot of play-action drop-backs off zone-run fakes. (The Ravens were below average in play-action rate last year.)

Jackson, an NFL Most Valuable Player winner in his first seasons under former coordinators Greg Roman and Todd Monken, did not look overwhelmed. Unofficially, in 11-on-11 action, he went 7-for-9. In seven-on-seven work, he went 5-for-7.

On his first drop-back in team drills, Jackson hit Pro Bowl wide receiver Zay Flowers for a chunk gain near the left hash marks. Then a play-action bootleg and a short connection with tight end Durham Smythe. Then another play-action drop-back that ended with him cycling through his progressions and finding wide receiver Rashod Bateman on the back side of the play.

“He’s got a lot of intent right now,” coach Jesse Minter said. “I think he’s such an elite competitor and wants to do that, that that’s always been his goal. But I do think, again, as you go through things, and as you have ups and downs, and you kind of learn that your career may not last forever, and you have these goals that you want to accomplish, sometimes your focus narrows. And I would say that he’s got a real narrow focus on what we’re trying to accomplish, and definitely appreciate that from your quarterback.”

Training camp will be the Ravens’ laboratory for the next six weeks. Jackson has always been a run threat in shotgun and pistol formations, especially in read-option packages, but he was one of the NFL’s best under-center quarterbacks last year.

As the Ravens finish their offensive installs, the challenge for Doyle and Jackson this preseason will be finding the right schematic balance. What will the sweet spot be for a 29-year-old Jackson, who labored through injuries last season?

“Just technically, schematically, the under center, it feels very natural from my perspective for him,” safety Kyle Hamilton said. “Just play fakes, running out, or running out of every handoff like he has the ball, it’s just little stuff like that that he’s been very intentional about. … I feel like he might have gotten faster somehow. I don’t want to age him, but he’s turning a certain age next year, and it doesn’t seem like that.”

Center of attention

Ethan Pocic is the most accomplished and highest paid of the Ravens’ centers. But a starting job is no given.

Pocic, who tore his Achilles tendon in December and agreed to a one-year deal worth up to $4.5 million on July 17, is battling for a spot up front with fellow free-agent signings Danny Pinter and Jovaughn Gwyn. Corey Bullock, a backup to Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum, remains sidelined as he recovers from offseason surgery, though he could return early in camp.

Minter acknowledged that, after losing Linderbaum in free agency, the Ravens don’t have an “established player” at center, a rarity on a team with few spots up for grabs.

“You’re bringing in a guy that’s got some skins on the wall, has played a lot of football,” Minter said of Pocic. “Again, another one of those guys that it’s our job and his job and our performance team’s job to help acclimate him back into football, coming off the injury that he’s coming off of. So another guy we’ll be working closely with, as far as the amount that he’s doing over these first couple weeks. But I expect him to jump in there and compete for that position. And we’ll see the best man win.”

Notes

• Jackson has gotten used to disrespect. He’s also gotten used to answering questions about disrespect. Asked Wednesday about his No. 69 ranking in the “NFL Top 100,” a player-voted list of the top performers in the 2025 season, he shrugged his shoulders. “It is what it is,” Jackson said. “I play football. I don’t care about rankings.”
• Hamilton, widely considered the best safety in the NFL, offered another contender for the title in the near future: his teammate and fellow first-round pick Malaki Starks. “I don’t see a reason why he can’t be the best at his position in our league. He has all the talent, all the mentality, just the approach to the game.”
• Kicker Tyler Loop, whose miss against the Steelers in Week 18 ended the Ravens’ season, did not have any “live” field goal attempts during practice.