Kevin Zeitler is the player you don’t need to worry about.
That’s the brand the Ravens guard has built over 11 seasons as a durable NFL starter. He reinforced it during the team’s mandatory minicamp this week, hustling through drills like a guy fighting for his job.
Zeitler did, however, send the Ravens a message by skipping the voluntary organized team activities as he attempts to spur negotiations for a contract extension. The 33-year-old is entering the last season of the three-year, $22.5 million deal he signed and said retirement is still far away.
“Of course, you would always, when you’re in a place this good, you’d love to finish out your career here,” he said Thursday when asked about a possible extension. “I have no intention of stopping anytime soon. Not coming to OTAs for the first time, I kind of made it real clear. I still need this game, Iove this game and I want to play this game. … Honestly, that side doesn’t really matter; when I’m here with my teammates, I owe it to them to work hard every day and do whatever I can to try and get this team a Super Bowl.”
In other words, Zeitler would like more long-term security with the Ravens, but no one needs to worry about him giving less than his best.
He noted that he was supposed to work with new Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken in Cleveland, but the Browns traded him to the New York Giants before the 2019 season.
Batter late than never, he said, after his first taste of the offense Monken is installing in Baltimore. “Great energy, a bunch of new concepts, a lot of potential,” Zeitler said.
Coach John Harbaugh expected J.K. Dobbins to practice at minicamp after the Ravens’ top running back skipped OTAs but said “it wasn’t in the cards, apparently.”
Did his words hint at a behind-the-scenes disconnect with Dobbins, who has raised questions about his future with the team as he heads into the last year of his rookie deal?
Whether or not that’s the case, speculation will persist until Dobbins is on the field for training camp and shares his perspective.
With Dobbins nowhere to be seen and Gus Edwards off to the side working out, the Ravens did not have many options at running back, a position that could be a strength for them if everyone is healthy for the regular season.
Dobbins and Edwards are expected to be ready for training camp, so this could be idle summer chatter, soon to be forgotten once the real work begins. But the team’s decision to re-sign Justice Hill, who averaged 5.3 yards per carry in a reserve role last season, looked suddenly more important over the last few weeks.
“He did a good job; all those reps helped him,” Harbaugh said. “Repetition is the name of the game, opportunity to get better. You get better or you get worse. … I think Justice made the most of it.”
Not said but easy to infer is that Dobbins did not.
Harbaugh also noted that fullback Patrick Ricard, one of the team’s key run blockers and a short-yardage option as a ball carrier, will begin training camp on the physically-unable-to-perform (PUP) list as he works his way back from hip surgery.
Sixth-round draft pick Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu took many of the first-team reps at left guard during minicamp, not a sign that he’s the favorite to start at the most wide-open position on the roster but an indication that he will compete for the job in training camp.
“He has done a great job, and he’s in the mix right now,” Harbaugh said. “You saw him with the first team. We wanted to get a look at him in there and see how it looked. One thing we always try to do, and I think this is a little bit rare, we want to see what guys look like with the first group. You can speculate all you want, but if they start doing a good job with the second group or the third group and you feel like they’re up to it, I want to see how that fits. And it looked like it fit well.”
Other candidates to step in for the departed Ben Powers include 2021 third-round pick Ben Cleveland, 2022 fourth-round pick Daniel Faalele and free-agent addition John Simpson.
The man they call “Sala” isn’t as massive as Cleveland or Faalele, but he’s plenty big enough and quicker than either. In fact, it was the 6-foot-5, 322-pound rookie’s mobility, along with his “great” attitude, that caught Zeitler’s eye.
“He’s very athletic,” the veteran guard said. “The whole world’s right in front of him, all the potential in the world, and I can’t wait to see what he does with it.”
Though he had few opportunities to go full speed over the past few weeks, second-year edge rusher David Ojabo has Ravens coaches excited with his explosive moves, which he used to embarrass veteran blockers a few times during OTAs and minicamp.
With Calais Campbell in Atlanta and no veteran in Justin Houston’s mold currently on the roster, the Ravens will need Ojabo and 2021 first-round pick Odafe Oweh to produce this year. Their progress will be a major story to watch through training camp and the preseason.
Will their work with pass-rush “guru” Chuck Smith pay off?
“David has done great. He looks great to me and I told him today, I’m really excited to see what he can do when the pads come on,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve definitely been holding those guys back. It’s a pass-rushing technique camp, but we’re staying away from the quarterback. … Preseason games are going to take on a big-time added interest with those guys rushing the passer.”
The Ravens believed they stole a first-round talent in the second round of the 2022 draft when they picked Ojabo, who was coming back from a torn Achilles tendon. The time is rapidly approaching for him to show they were correct.
The Ravens concluded minicamp with a lighter practice, running plays at three-quarters speed, so it was difficult to come away with a long list of superlatives for individual players.
Instead, the message for the day seemed to be a broader one about not wasting the next five weeks leading up to training camp. The Ravens believe they have enough talent to contend for a championship, and team leaders emphasized this is no time to take backward steps.
“I just said preparation pays off,” Harbaugh said.
He left much of the practice-closing speech to cornerback Marlon Humphrey.
“I think to win a Super Bowl, you’ve got to put a lot of time and effort in,” Humphrey said he told his teammates. “We’ve got this big break. Whether you want to hang out with your dog a lot, want to hang out with your girl a lot, try to do as much as you can. Because when we come back, we want everybody to be putting as much into football as they can.”
Humphrey laughed, recalling how difficult it was to envision himself making a speech like this when he was a rookie in 2017. But he said he’s learned enough to know the Ravens can’t waste the window that’s open for them now.
“Let’s not waste this opportunity,” he said, “because we’ve got a really good opportunity.”
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