5 things we learned from Week 2 of Ravens training camp

Training camp no longer has that new car smell. The Ravens have reached the week of their first preseason game, with a joint practice two days before to spice up their routine. As the stakes heighten for players fighting to earn jobs and snaps, here are five things we learned from the past week.

1. John Hoyland’s release isn’t a final vote of confidence in Tyler Loop

We talked last week about how Loop became the front-runner to replace kicker Justin Tucker the moment the Ravens drafted him.

He solidified that position with a stellar first week of camp only to begin the second with his most inaccurate performance of the summer. That gave pause to those who pointed to Loop’s tendency to miss left as a draft prospect coming out of Arizona.

Nonetheless, the Ravens moved ahead with the inevitable Saturday when they released Hoyland, leaving Loop as the only kicker on their roster.

They had multiple reasons, including their need to add bodies at tight end and running back to get through the preseason.

“It’s probably more about the roster than anything else,” coach John Harbaugh explained. “We definitely weren’t planning on making a move. We were planning on John being there at least for one game, maybe two games, maybe all the games, depending on how it went.”

That said, if the Ravens really thought Hoyland had a 50-50 chance to become their kicker, he’d still be in camp. They saw enough extra pop on Loop’s field goals — the confident rookie easily hit from 60 and 56 yards at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday — to keep him in pole position for the starting job.

It would be an upset if Loop is not their kicker when they take the field in Buffalo on Sept. 7.

It’s not out of the question, however, that he could send them exploring for a veteran alternative if he kicks erratically in the preseason.

“He’s kicking well enough to win the job,” Harbaugh said. “But, as we know, it’s going to be the games that’s going to mean the most.”

The Ravens don’t want Loop, who gleefully played to fans at the stadium practice, to feel the pressure is off. They want to simulate the stakes he’ll face in real games, the sense that his job rides on every kick.

Saturday’s move told us they don’t believe Hoyland is their guy. Loop still has to prove he is.

2. Isaiah Likely’s foot fracture reminds us that the Ravens can’t count on sublime injury luck

Likely’s injury is worse for him than for the Ravens, who are fortified at tight end with Mark Andrews as their No. 1 receiving option and Charlie Kolar as a trusted blocker and secondary set of hands.

Yes, Likely is an ascending player who was outstanding in the postseason and might succeed Andrews as the team’s No. 1 tight end in 2026, but he was a minor (or non-) factor in some of the Ravens’ most explosive offensive performances last year. If they have to go without him for the first few weeks of the regular season, they’ll be fine.

From Likely’s perspective, the injury is not as bad as it could have been but not the way he wants to start his campaign to earn a lucrative contract extension or free-agent payday. At 25, he’s viewed as a major talent who could deliver elite receiving production if he did not have to share targets with Andrews. But he can’t prove that if he’s not on the field.

It’s possible he’ll make the season opener in Buffalo, but that would be on the very front end of his six- to eight-week recovery timeline.

“That was a tough few minutes for all of us,” Harbaugh said of receiving the injury diagnosis along with Likely and general manager Eric DeCosta. “But he got the MRI back, saw the plan, and he’s in great spirits. It’s kind of hard to keep him down long. He’s a high-spirited person.”

Watching Likely pound the grass in frustration and leave the practice field on a cart was the kind of bummer the Ravens have not experienced much the past two seasons. After an injury-haunted 2022, they ranked middle of the pack in Aaron Schatz’s adjusted games lost in 2023 and benefited from easily the best health luck in the league last season.

They came into training camp missing only safety Ar’Darius Washington and rookie offensive lineman Emery Jones Jr.

As much as the Ravens hope the positive trend is a product of improved strength and training practices, there’s plenty of simple good luck baked into such a healthy stretch. The NFL always has been and always will be a war of attrition, and Likely’s unfortunate step at the end of a training-camp practice reminded us that no team has the power to ward off injuries forever.

The Ravens are a healthy team overall, but chances are they’ll lose more production to these mishaps than they did a year ago.

3. There’s another Ravens tight end playing for his future

Offseason discourse has understandably focused on Andrews and Likely, two essential playmakers who will command more than $10 million a year whether they extend with the Ravens or not.

Kolar made himself part of that conversation last year when he hit career highs in offensive and special teams snaps while showing off the blocking skills he has improved by adding bulk to his naturally lanky frame. It’s no stretch to call him one of the best No. 3 tight ends in the league.

Can he be more than that at a bargain price?

The Ravens will probably have to choose between Andrews and Likely as a No. 1 receiver at the position, but Kolar feels like a player DeCosta might quietly extend because he understands his value more than an outside suitor would.

“Obviously, you can’t help but sometimes think about it,” Kolar said of his future status with the team.

He can both feel terrible for Likely and recognize the opportunity to show his breadth of skill as his teammate works back from that foot fracture.

“It’s weird. As I continue to learn the game, I keep seeing ways I can be better,” Kolar, one of the most eccentric spirits on the team, said recently. “So there are still so many things in the run game I can be better at. Then, in the pass game, just taking my opportunities in the play-action game and down the seam or the cross or whatever, just being more efficient in my movements.”

At this time last year, Harbaugh predicted a “big jump” for the 2022 fourth-round pick. Now coaches speak of Kolar’s intelligence and utility as givens.

“I have a lot of respect for Charlie, I really do,” offensive coordinator Todd Monken said. “My understanding is, when he came out, he wasn’t really known as a ‘Y’ [which is] a blocking tight end. That wasn’t his forte. He was a really good matchup guy, ball-skill guy, red zone, tough catches, which he still is — but, man, has he come a long way. At times, he’s been a special teams captain for us. You talk about having a ‘Y’ when you want to be a C-gap-run team downhill [and] get under center. I have a lot of respect for Charlie, and it’s grown over the two years and now going into the third year of me being here.”

That’s a player you want to keep, even if Kolar will never be in the first paragraph when we talk Ravens extensions.

4. Safety is the land of opportunity

We’ve talked about how few opportunities there are for young Ravens to compete not just for roster spots but for meaningful snaps.

Because Washington tore his Achilles in May, safety is the rare position where playing time is there for the taking.

Many observers expect DeCosta to sign a veteran before summer’s end. The Ravens could also play around with using a starting-caliber cornerback such as Chidobe Awuzie on the back end.

For now, however, second-year safeties Sanoussi Kane and Beau Brade are making their cases. Both are known more for delivering hits than matching receivers step for step. That’s not ideal for a defense that’s best when its best player, safety Kyle Hamilton, has flexibility to play closer to the line of scrimmage.

Coordinator Zach Orr’s group improved drastically last season after Washington replaced Marcus Williams in the lineup. That was in large part because Washington blew away expectations as a cover safety, earning a top-five grade from Pro Football Focus.

The Ravens believe first-round pick Malaki Starks is precocious enough to step in as Hamilton’s primary partner, but it would help if Kane or Brade could also provide reliable snaps.

Kane, the 2024 seventh-round pick out of Purdue, has flashed as a playmaker through the first two weeks of camp after he played just 22 defensive snaps last season. Orr said he came back a “different player.”

“Sanoussi has always been a really smart player and a physical player,” he said. “I think he’s moving better in the back end than what he did last year, so that’s a credit to what he did in the offseason and training. He’s moving a lot better. He’s comfortable with the system, so he’s doing a heck of a job.”

He’s probably ahead of Brade, the former Maryland and River Hill star who made the team as an undrafted free agent last summer. If you see a ball carrier take a thump during a medium-contact segment of practice, there’s a good chance Brade is on the other end of it. He’s always looking to assert himself.

“He’s playing really well,” Harbaugh said last week. “I saw him — he was the first guy in the weight room in the morning, [I] saw him in there this morning, and he was lamenting the plays that he didn’t make. So you appreciate that mindset.”

We won’t see many starters (or even essential reserves) in the Ravens’ three preseason games, starting with Thursday night’s home date against the Indianapolis Colts. But those contests will offer crucial proving grounds for Kane and Brade as they try to convince DeCosta and Harbaugh no outside help is required at safety.

5. Some days, the Ravens embrace the painful side of camp

Last Wednesday’s practice felt like a classic forced march: the third of three straight full-pads sessions covering a full 150 minutes with the temperature approaching triple digits.

The quality of offense met the conditions, with Lamar Jackson firing errantly to every corner of the scorched earth.

Harbaugh loved it.

“If you look at the science, in terms of acclimation and all that, our guys really handled it pretty darn well,” he said as a parade of sweat-drenched behemoths dragged past in the background. “I do think it factors in, some of the mental stuff, but it forces you to really concentrate and work at the mental challenges of the game. So that’s what we need this time of year.”

The heat poses a more daunting challenge to the largest players on the roster such as guards Daniel Faalele and Ben Cleveland. The Ravens have to walk a tightrope between challenging them and looking out for their health. No one is advocating a “Junction Boys” mentality of work ‘til you drop.

Players wear monitors that keep trainers abreast of their core body temperatures and heart rates so no one enters a danger zone.

But Harbaugh said his director of high performance, Sam Rosengarten, has studied the issue and was actively rooting for five straight sweltering days, believing such conditions would lead to a payoff in early-season injury prevention.

The Ravens don’t need to prove they’re good, not to themselves or anyone watching. They’re a presumptive playoff team at worst. No July practice, whether disjointed or seamless, is going to change that perception.

So why not steer into ugliness that might simulate the difficulties they’ll face farther down their road to the Super Bowl?

Quarterbacks coach Tee Martin said Jackson benefits as much from a ragged practice — and that’s a kind descriptor for the two-time MVP’s performance Wednesday — as from a fireworks show.

“I tell you what’s beautiful right now, is our defense is playing really good,” Martin said. “They really improved personnel-wise. Schematically, there’s another year in it, and they’re kind of picking up where they left off towards the end of the season on defense. It’s good for us, because we were able to exploit some things early on last year that’s not being exploited right now. So the diamonds are in the detail, and they’re forcing us to be very, very detailed in everything that we do.”

So, if you’re a fan who happens to visit training camp on one of these 95-degree days when nothing’s flowing, just know that pain is part of the Ravens’ process.