Feature Clips - Week 16 Giants vs. Ravens
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Feature Clips
Week 16
Giants vs. RavensFeature Clips Week 16
Table of Contents
• John Harbaugh ....................................................................... 1-5
• Mark Andrews .............................................................................6
• Miles Boykin ................................................................................7
• Bradley Bozeman .......................................................................8
• Marquise Brown .................................................................... 9-11
• Orlando Brown Jr. ....................................................................12
• Calais Campbell .................................................................. 13-14
• Chuck Clark ...............................................................................15
• Devin Duvernay .................................................................. 16-17
• Gus Edwards .............................................................................18
• DeShon Elliott ..................................................................... 19-20
• L.J. Fort......................................................................................21
• Marlon Humphrey ............................................................... 22-23
• Lamar Jackson ................................................................... 24-30
• Sam Koch ............................................................................ 31-32
• Justin Madubuike ............................................................... 33-34
• Yannick Ngakoue ................................................................ 35-37
• Tyre Phillips ........................................................................ 38-39
• Patrick Queen ...........................................................................40
• Patrick Ricard ..................................................................... 41-42
• Matt Skura ........................................................................... 43-44
• Jimmy Smith .............................................................................45
• Willie Snead IV .................................................................... 46-47
• Justin Tucker ............................................................................48
• Derek Wolfe ...............................................................................49At The Heart Of It All: John Harbaugh’s Journey Enriched
By Strengthened Bonds
THE ATHLETIC | JULY 7, 2020 | DAN POMPEI
At the age of 57, John Harbaugh is in a Zoom meeting with Lamar Jackson.
Harbaugh is not a quarterback specialist and never has been an offensive coach, but he is talking offense with his quarterback. They
are watching tape, and he wants to know why Jackson was dropping back so quickly in one game compared to another. Harbaugh
explains why it’s so important that Jackson throw more consistently outside of the numbers. He tells him he needs to learn more about
how defenses are designed.
Some quarterbacks like Jackson might tune out some coaches like Harbaugh. It happens all over the NFL.
Jackson does not trust everyone. He has a feel for who is with him for his sake, and who is with him for their sake.
He trusts his head coach.
“Back in my rookie season, he had faith in me to go out there and play,” Jackson says. “They put me out there, as a rookie with no
games under (my) belt, to try to lead this team to the playoffs. And we end up going to the playoffs my rookie season. Just him having
faith in me, that’s why I trust him so much.”
Harbaugh and Jackson talk just about every day. Jackson cracks up at Harbaugh’s jokes in meetings. Harbaugh has found common
ground with his young quarterback.
“I feel like I have a great relationship with Coach Harbaugh because we both want to win,” Jackson says. “We both are competitive. We
hate losing. I think you need that in a quarterback-and-coach relationship. … We both don’t take any crap. That’s what I see in Coach
Harbaugh, and that’s why I love him so much because every time we talk, there’s something with him competing. He’s always
competing.”
Anyone who was with Harbaugh early in his tenure as coach of the Ravens but hasn’t been with him since might have a difficult time
believing their relationship is real.
But after 12 seasons in Baltimore, Harbaugh isn’t the same coach he was.
At the age of 57, Harbaugh thinks back to the first time he stood before the Ravens as their head coach in early 2008. He remembers it
as a “bad body language” meeting.
The Ravens, who had won the Super Bowl under their previous head coach, Brian Billick, were skeptical of the 45-year old who had
been a long-time assistant coach with the Eagles and who made his bones coaching special teams. Some of the defensive players had
lobbied for the Ravens to promote their coordinator, Rex Ryan. Harbaugh retained Ryan as his defensive coordinator, which made for
an awkward dynamic.
It was time, Harbaugh thought, for his players to stop thinking like pirates and start playing like Ravens. He tried to establish his culture
with an old-school approach. He had seen it be effective when it was used by his father, Jack, a head coach at Western Kentucky and
Western Michigan, and by Bo Schembechler, for whom Jack worked during Harbaugh’s formative years.
Practice started at 1 p.m., and every player had better be on the field at 12:45, he warned. Each had to wear the same color shoes for
practice. Thigh pads were not optional, nor were hip pads. They would hit as much as the rules allowed, every other day, even through
the preseason. Tired? Sore? He didn’t want to hear it. On travel days, players were not allowed to wear jeans, gym shoes or sandals.
And a collared shirt was required.
Veterans who didn’t play special teams, like middle linebacker Ray Lewis and running back Willis McGahee, were accustomed to
having free time during the special teams portion of practice. But Harbaugh insisted they be present and watch. And then he made
them run down on kickoff return on the scout team.
Harbaugh, never one to shy from confrontation, pushed his players. They pushed back.
When Harbaugh took McGahee out of the starting lineup, McGahee rebelled. He missed curfew for a road game, then paraded two girls
through the hotel lobby as the team boarded the bus for the game.
“Coach Billick treated us like grownups,” McGahee says. “Then we had Coach Harbs come in. He did a 360 on the program. It was a
tight ship. He monitored every move within those Raven walls. He was on us 24/7. … He was real big on rules. We like, ‘What the hell
is goin’ on?'”
As the team was boarding buses for a road game in Miami, outside linebackers Terrell Suggs and Antwan Barnes walked up wearing
suits and ties, bright white gym shoes and sly smiles. “I thought, ‘This is a defining moment,'” Harbaugh says. “Should I get upset?’ I
couldn’t lose it. I was being tested. ‘Keep your cool. But don’t back down.'”
1Suggs: “What’s up, coach?”
Harbaugh: “We’ve got a problem.”
Suggs: “What do you mean?
Harbaugh: “You’re wearing tennis shoes.”
Suggs: “It’s all I got. I don’t have any dress shoes.”
Harbaugh: “Oh, then you’re not going to be able to get on the bus.”
Suggs: “What do you mean? I can’t play?”
Harbaugh: “Oh, you can play. You just can’t get on the bus or the plane with tennis shoes. So you can’t travel there with us. You have
to get there. Hope to see you there.”
Harbaugh boarded his bus. The buses pulled away with Suggs and Barnes standing there.
Ravens security boss Darren Sanders called Harbaugh and asked what to do. Sanders enlisted the help of state troopers to quickly get
Suggs and Barnes to their homes and then to the airport.
The team boarded its charter and the attendants were preparing to close the door. That’s when Suggs and Barnes sprinted onto the
plane wearing dress shoes.
The players cheered and laughed. But the message had been sent.
At the age of 57, Harbaugh remembers being concerned about some of his relationships. By 2011, he had guided his team to the
playoffs in his first three years, but he still was at odds with many players.
Former NFL coach Dick Vermeil, one of Harbaugh’s mentors, told him he would always face resistance from a segment of the locker
room. But Harbaugh had a hard time accepting it. “I would take it really personally whenever that happened,” he says. “I felt I needed
everybody on board. I wasn’t willing to let one stray sheep go. I wanted to bring that sheep back one way or another, either by
convincing it to come back or picking it up and carrying it back against its will.”
In the summer, he sought help from Lewis, the commander of the locker room. Lewis told him he had to take things less personally. He
said when Harbaugh would get ruffled by a player, it impacted all the others. The players followed Harbaugh’s lead, he said, as the
leader and head coach.
“That was the first time he ever said that to me: ‘You’re the leader, you are the head coach, we follow you,'” Harbaugh says. “That was
an eye-opener, and I really tried to change.”
That season, Harbaugh formed a leadership council, a group of veteran players to discuss team issues. “When I began, I didn’t trust
them enough to have a leadership council,” Harbaugh says. “It turned out to be a good thing because they had a chance to come up in
the office, put their feet up on the table, and you could take them through the dilemma: ‘This is the issue, these are our options, what do
you guys think?’ Then they would argue it out. I could sit back and watch. See, it’s not so easy, is it? Ray wants this, Ed (Reed) wants
that, (Joe) Flacco thinks that way. When they’re in the locker room, it seems easy. ‘Harbaugh’s an idiot. What the hell is he doing?'”
Harbaugh took notes about what happened in those leadership council meetings. He took notes about practices, about team meetings,
about relationships with players that were going well and others that were going poorly, about motivational techniques, about game
plans, about his talks with Vermeil, about books, about his daily Bible study, about brainstorming sessions with his father and his
brother, Jim, now the head coach at Michigan.
The notes were typed into his phone or written longhand in a notebook and eventually transcribed on a computer file. Then they were
categorized by timeline and subject matter.
Family aside, there isn’t anyone who understands Harbaugh better than Jerry Rosburg, Harbaugh’s special teams coach in Baltimore
until he retired in 2019. They have been close since rooming together for a summer camp at the University of Michigan as young
assistants in 1985. They later worked together at the University of Cincinnati.
“That’s part of the reason he evolved in such a quick way,” Rosburg says of Harbaugh’s note-taking. “He won’t stonewall any way that
will help him out of stubbornness. He’s going to find a way to do it better. He is always looking for the next way, the other way, the
building block.”
Harbaugh never has been reluctant to surround himself with strong assistants who could be perceived as threatening. Starting with
Ryan, he has had four assistants who became NFL head coaches. And he has hired eight former NFL head coaches. “Those guys
have been through combat, been through firefights as head coaches,” Harbaugh says. “I can draw from that. That’s valuable.”
When Harbaugh watched his daughter, Alison, play youth sports, he also watched her coaches.
2He still has a bundle of popsicle sticks in his desk drawer that he once used in a team speech. He borrowed the idea from one of
Alison’s softball coaches, who addressed the girls by taking a popsicle stick and snapping it in half. Then he gathered the sticks and put
them in a bunch. He tried to snap them but couldn’t. “Alone, they break,” he told them. “When they are together, when we are together,
we can withstand anything.”
Alison, an only child, was 6 when the Harbaughs moved to Baltimore. She’s 18 now, a gritty left-handed lacrosse attacker who will be
playing at Notre Dame in the spring. Though soft-spoken, she led a Bible group at school and enjoys dancing to country music.
Her dad has been understandably protective of her. It wasn’t always easy for Alison to be the daughter of an NFL head coach. At times,
she was targeted and used as a measuring stick for others. Some coaches didn’t foster her growth; some parents resented her
privilege. “I think she had to fight through that a lot because her name was on the back of her jersey,” her mother, Ingrid, says.
When her father attended her games, he couldn’t control anything — not a normal feeling. “He had to be quiet and let the refs do their
jobs,” Ingrid says. “He couldn’t say things to the coach. Other parents are yelling and screaming, and I’m sure people expect him to do
the same, but he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. It was good for him to kind of take it in.”
Equal parts student and teacher, Harbaugh takes in more of what he experiences than most, and he tries to learn from everyone.
Before the 2018 season, Harbaugh wanted to reimagine his defense. His defensive coordinator, Dean Pees, was moving on, and there
was an opportunity to promote linebackers coach Wink Martindale. Harbaugh, who learned a lot about defense from the brilliant Jim
Johnson, wrote out his ideas with a pen at his kitchen table over two weeks.
When Alison observed her father using white-out correction fluid, she was puzzled.
Alison: “What is that?”
Harbaugh: “It’s white-out.”
Alison: “What is it for?”
Harbaugh: “If I make a mistake, I can cover it up and draw over it.”
Alison: “Did you ever think about using a pencil and eraser?”
Harbaugh: “Good idea, honey.”
And so he started using a pencil.
But Harbaugh had acted as if he had been using pencil for his entire head coaching career.
The Ravens have maintained consistent defensive excellence in Harbaugh’s tenure despite having five defensive coordinators with five
different schemes. He made significant changes in 2018 even though the Ravens finished sixth in points allowed the year before. And
the Ravens’ latest defense is their most radical yet, different from any other in that it has more for opponents to think about but less for
Ravens defenders.
Of course, Harbaugh is overseeing an offensive revolution as well, with offensive coordinator Greg Roman the point man.
Roman is Harbaugh’s sixth offensive coordinator. All but one of them have directed an offense that made it to the playoffs.
Change, the downfall of many who stay in one place, has helped Harbaugh remain relevant.
At the age of 57, Harbaugh sees left tackle Ronnie Stanley jogging out to practice just as the whistle blows. He asks him why he is
cutting it so close. Stanley has some excuse. Blah, blah, whatever. Stanley is the type who enjoys the back and forth.
Early in his career, Harbaugh might have been triggered by a similar circumstance. He might have raised his voice. Not anymore.
With 118 regular-season victories and a Super Bowl win behind him, discipline is more black and white for Harbaugh and less red. “The
bottom line,” he tells Stanley calmly, “is practice starts when it starts. You’re either ready or not. We can hold the whole team up and
wait for you, or start without you and you get fined. That’s how it’s going to be.”
Disarming someone, he now understands, can be easier with an arm around a shoulder. “It used to tick me off more, and I’d be more in
your face than I should have been,” he says. “Now, I’m able to let things go more. It’s easier for me just to get somebody lined up,
whether it’s a chinstrap buckled or maybe a shirt tucked in or a shoe tied, little things like that that come up all the time.”
Whereas Harbaugh once struggled to understand why he couldn’t get what he wanted immediately, he now realizes the wait makes the
reward more gratifying. “It’s taken me all these years to get better at it, and I still struggle with it as a leader,” Harbaugh says. “But I’m
way better at it, more persistent in being patient than I was.”
Patience often walks in lockstep with calm. Before Harbaugh leaves for a game, his wife reminds him to keep his composure. He
recites Psalm 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
3“Sometimes the first reaction for me is to fight,” he says. “If something happens, I want to take care of it right now and fix it. That’s my
default. But God has taught me to be still, let it go, be quiet.”
In addition to listening more to scripture, he also listens more to his players and coaches, according to Rosburg. At the end of a staff
meeting, Harbaugh often says, “Does anybody have an idea that could help us?” At the end of the season, he asks assistants to submit
suggestions that could improve the team.
Over time, Harbaugh has become more dependent on his leadership council. In recent years, mutual decisions with the leadership
council have led to players being allowed to wear different colored shoes in games, untucked jerseys at practices and jeans and gym
shoes on road trips, and playing music in locker rooms before games.
“When he first came, he wanted it done a certain way,” says punter Sam Koch, a member of the leadership council and the only player
who has been with Harbaugh for his entire tenure. “If you didn’t like it, you were going to have issues. … I look back at it now and totally
understand why he was the way he was. If you don’t create that higher sense of authority, how are you going to get your players to
jump on board with what you are doing? … He is one of those leaders now who just listens and understands.”
Maybe Harbaugh has become flexible about baseboards and wallpaper. But the two-by-fours of his structure always are the same.
“The principles are written in stone,” he says. “We still practice really hard, run to the ball, run from drill to drill. We practice like a
college team. Even players come in and say it. If we run a conditioning drill or test, you are going to touch the line. If you don’t, you
haven’t completed the rep. If you don’t finish a play in practice, what makes you think you can finish it in the game? If you can’t do it
now, what makes you think you can do it two minutes before the confetti falls?”
At the age of 57, Harbaugh goes through his day with surges of enthusiasm and energy.
Unlike some coaches of his vintage, he is neither puffy nor saggy. He does not appear to carry the weight of a thousand
disappointments or be drained by disillusion.
His vitality is partly attributable to daily morning workouts often led by Ingrid, partly the result of genes and partly due to loving his life’s
work.
And he also derives strength from empowering others.
Ravens defensive back Jimmy Smith, who has been with Harbaugh for nine years, says he and some of the other older players joke
that Harbaugh’s getting soft.
But if anyone decides to test him, they will see his ornery side. The fighter still remains.
Smith needed a strong head coach in his life. Smith, a first-round pick in 2011, has not always walked a straight line. But Harbaugh
always has been there for him.
“I always talked to him about all the things I went through off the field, and he gave me great perspective on it,” Smith says. “He
believed in me in the first place with all the stuff that was said about me, and he’s always been in my corner. He’s helped me mature as
a football player and a man.”
Smith invited Harbaugh to his June wedding (which was postponed because of COVID-19 concerns) and considers him a mentor and a
role model. Harbaugh calls Smith his good friend.
Harbaugh can captivate a room. He has the aptitude to clearly see the big picture and then paint it with words that enable others to see
it the way he does. He has a way of making a declarative statement and then inspiring a buy-in. “I’m right on this, aren’t I, guys?” he will
say.
But he especially glows one-on-one. He works on his relationship with every player on the roster and just about every member of the
organization. At practice, he moves around the field and makes it a point to talk with players from every position group. It might take him
as long to walk from his office to the cafeteria at the Under Armour Center as it does to drive from his suburban home to M&T Bank
Stadium because he stops to talk with almost everyone.
In October, Ravens tight end Mark Andrews was hurting. His foot injury wasn’t getting better, and it was limiting his ability to participate.
He called his father, Paul.
“How’s your spirit?” his dad asked.
The next day, Andrews was standing behind Harbaugh in practice when Harbaugh walked up to him.
“How’s your spirit?” his coach asked.
“I was almost flabbergasted,” Andrews says. “I took a second. He is so in tune to what’s going on. That question meant a lot. ‘How is
your spirit?’ is a really deep question. It showed he cared about what I was going through.”
4The older Harbaugh gets, the blurrier the line between coach and father becomes.
He attributes much of that to Alison. He says he sees his players differently because of her. Harbaugh started to feel obligated not only
to his team, his fans and his players, but to his players’ parents.
“When she would come home frustrated or disappointed in sports, it was all I could think about,” he says. “It made me really develop
and grow with the way I talk to players. It forced me to check my own heart first. Is my heart for the player? If this was my son, what
would I want to hear, need to hear? It’s a cliché: Treat every player like your own child. I never could do that until I actually went through
it with my daughter. I think I truly cared about the players more after that. I always cared about them, but I especially cared about them
because I want them to play well so we could be successful. After that, I cared more about their success, their future, their well-being. I
wanted them to do well more for them than for me, because of Alison.”
The natural inclination for coaches is to correct. The problem with corrections is they shadow conversations with negatives. Harbaugh
thought about the coaches who gave Alison confidence with their encouragement and praise. That, he thought, was something he
could do every day he was with his team.
He subsequently went from being a “you can’t do this” coach to a “you can do this” coach.
“I decided I’m going to tell them how great they can be, how much I believe in them, and how happy I am with them,” he says. “As a
parent, there were coaches I appreciated so much I wanted to go hug them. I thought, I can do that. I can tell my players things they will
remember for the rest of their lives. It’s a gift.”
Andrews was a third-round pick in 2018 who was initially behind Hayden Hurst, the Ravens’ first-round pick that year. Harbaugh didn’t
want him thinking like a backup.
One day, Harbaugh told him, “You are going to be the best tight end in the history of the National Football League. You remind me of
John Mackey with your ability, feel for the game, hands and grit.”
Andrews believed Harbaugh believed it, and last season, he led tight ends in scoring with 10 touchdowns and made his first Pro Bowl.
It is Harbaugh’s heart that has won over many of his players. After George Floyd was killed, Harbaugh held a virtual meeting in which
everyone was silent for eight minutes, 46 seconds. He recently advocated for Juneteenth to be a national holiday. When kneeling
during the national anthem became a national issue in 2017, he locked arms with his players when it was played before a game.
“He’s always supported his players,” Smith says.
McGahee was drafted by the Bills, played on four teams and spent only 36 percent of his career with the Ravens. But when he retired
last year, he did it as a member of the Ravens. At the news conference, he thanked Harbaugh for creating the best atmosphere he
experienced in the NFL.
“I told him he made me into the person I am,” McGahee says. “He made me work harder, even after I left Baltimore. I appreciate
everything he has done for me, the pushing and grinding me, even the bed check he did on me one time in San Diego. I appreciate all
that. As I’ve gotten older, I realized it was all for the better.”
Those kinds of sentiments make Harbaugh feel like he’s done something right over a dozen years. Of course, similar feelings come
from his Super Bowl ring, his 2019 NFL Coach of the Year award and his .615 winning percentage, the 30th best all time.
But really, his journey as a coach has been about relationships as much as victories and defeats. He realizes that now.
It’s funny sometimes the things that happen in the pursuit of dominance.
“The biggest thing with age is it becomes more about them, less about you,” he says. “Maybe you have to kind of prove yourself as a
leader and coach, have some degree of success to get to that point. But once you break through that, you become a much more
powerful leader.”
5Despite Diabetes, Mark Andrews Is All-In On Goal Of Becoming League’s Best TE
THE ATHLETIC | AUG. 11, 2020 | JEFF ZREBIEC
Nearly 70 NFL players decided to sit out this year rather than incur the risks of playing professional football during the COVID-19 pandemic. Scores of
others gave the idea strong consideration, but ultimately decided to play on.
Then there’s Ravens tight end Mark Andrews, one of the only players in the NFL with Type 1 diabetes. He didn’t give opting out of this NFL season a
passing thought.
“Obviously, I think that safety is the most important thing,” he said Monday in a video call with reporters. “Seeing what the NFLPA and the NFL have
come up with and the system, it’s extremely encouraging. I think they have a great system in place. For me, there was never, ‘Oh, I’m going to opt-out,
or I may not play.’ I’ve always been very strong in my beliefs that, one, I’m healthy. I keep my body healthy, and I’m going to do everything necessary
to make sure I don’t get COVID.”
Having diabetes doesn’t make Andrews or anyone else more likely to get COVID-19. It, however, could increase the risk of the 23-year-old
experiencing serious symptoms if he does pick up the virus. The same is true of asthma, which is why Andrews’ new teammate, defensive end Calais
Campbell, admitted last week that he at least considered opting out of the 2020 season.
Andrews takes his condition, which was diagnosed when he was 9, very seriously. He monitors his blood sugar levels regularly and stays on top of his
health. His father, Paul, is a doctor although Andrews doesn’t need daily reminders about what to do and not to do.
“I’ve worked really hard, since a very young age, at keeping my body in the best shape, keeping tight control of my blood sugar,” Andrews said. “At the
end of the day, that’s the most important thing. I’m basically treating myself like a normal person. I think if I were to get (COVID-19), it would interact
just like anybody else, because I treat myself just like anybody else would, and my (blood sugar) numbers are great.”’
In many ways, Andrews’ health is the perfect example of what’s at stake as the NFL readies for a return to full-squad training camp practices. There’s
guarding against the coronavirus, which Andrews said is a “common goal” for all 32 teams in order to make a football season a reality. Then, there’s
staying healthy in general and avoiding the types of injuries that take players off the field for significant stretches or hinder their performances.
Andrews, coming off a Pro Bowl season, balanced both concerns this offseason while at home in Arizona. He made sure to socially distance and avoid
gyms and training centers, working out in his backyard or at a nearby field. He took part in the organization’s virtual workouts, set up by head strength
and conditioning coach Steve Saunders and his staff, and then did football-specific work with his father and brother.
“I’m stronger than I’ve ever been,” said the 6-foot-5, 256-pound tight end. “I have less fat on me than I’ve ever had, and I feel incredible.”
That is significant news for the Ravens as Andrews enters his third season as one of the organization’s most indispensable players. The Ravens saw
what effect Andrews not being 100 percent had on the offense last year and revisiting that reality would make it extremely difficult for them to replicate
last year’s offensive success.
Andrews’ breakout 2019 season ended with him hobbling around on a high ankle sprain last January in the Ravens’ desultory 28-12 home playoff loss
to the Tennessee Titans. Not that he made any excuses, but a healthy Andrews probably catches Lamar Jackson’s high throw down the middle of the
field on the Ravens’ first drive. Andrews made tougher plays consistently throughout the season. Instead, the ball hit off his hands and was intercepted
by safety Kevin Byard and the Ravens went from having the ball inside the Titans 20 to having to defend them deep in their own territory.
Andrews finished the game with four catches for 39 yards, a quiet conclusion to a season in which he led the Ravens in receptions (64) and receiving
yards (852) and led all NFL tight ends with 10 touchdown catches. The importance of Andrews, Jackson’s favorite target, specifically on third down and
in the end red zone, being healthy was clear the night of the playoff loss and it’s only grown since.
The Ravens’ offseason trade of Hayden Hurst, one of Andrews’ best friends, to the Atlanta Falcons leaves the team without insurance for their top
pass-catching tight end in an offense where the position is critical. Nobody threw a bigger percentage of his passes to tight ends than Jackson did last
year. With Hurst, a former first-round pick, now gone, the Ravens’ candidates for the third tight end role are veteran Jerell Adams, Charles Scarff and
undrafted rookie Eli Wolf. Adams hasn’t caught an NFL pass in two years and Scarff and Wolf haven’t caught one at all.
That will leave Andrews and Nick Boyle, one of the league’s top blocking tight ends, to carry much of the load. Andrews has been working for months
to do just that.
“Obviously, last year was a good year, but there’s a lot of room for me to improve,” Andrews said. “Looking back this offseason, I had a ton of time to
think and watch film and really work on my body to try to get to that next level. I want to be the best tight end. I’m not there yet, and I’m excited to be
able to show what I can do this year.
“I’m super excited for this year. I don’t come out and have goals for any year. I don’t want to have a certain amount of yards, or catches or touchdowns
— I’m a team guy. I want to win a Super Bowl, and that’s the most important thing for me.”
Andrews put up the numbers that he did despite playing only 41.5 percent of the team’s offensive snaps. To put that in perspective, 11 Ravens played
more offensive snaps than Andrews did last year. Boyle played 69.6 percent of the offensive snaps and Hurst was on the field for 41.4 percent of them.
The Ravens obviously wanted to keep their top receiving threat fresh, but Andrews’ limitations as a blocker also factored in his snap count. The
Ravens, after all, have a run-first offense and they averaged just over 37 rushing attempts per game. That was six more than any other team.
While the plan is to evolve a little offensively and incorporate more of a passing game that challenges defenses at every level, they are not expected to
sway too far from last year’s run-heavy approach. Andrews prepared for the season with that in mind.
“I think blocking is going to be a huge thing for me where I’ve got to improve,” Andrews said. “I think I’m going to make big strides in that area this year,
and I have a lot more opportunities to do that this year. And just continue to work as a receiving guy — that’s my bread and butter. But I always want to
get better at that. I want to be dangerous in all situations.”
6Eyeing Breakout Season, Ravens Wide Receiver Miles Boykin Strives To
Make His Mind As Fast As His Body
BALTIMORE SUN | MAY 26, 2020 | CHILDS WALKER
Miles Boykin has always trusted the speed of his body.
As a 6-foot-4, 220-pound NFL wide receiver who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.42 seconds, he won’t encounter many athletes who put him to
shame.
But as Boykin prepares for his second season with the Ravens, he’s working to make sure his mind can keep up with his legs. He
acknowledges that was not always the case during his rookie year. As he sought perfection on every play, sometimes he got stuck in his own
thoughts.
“I’m a fast guy, but that’s not what it’s about when I say playing fast,” he explained Tuesday on a conference call with Baltimore media
members. “When you’re younger, you worry about, ‘OK, what do I have to do?’ When you’re older, you know why am I doing this. ... So now I’m
worried about how to do things right. I’m not worried about what I need to do right.”
The coronavirus pandemic has kept Boykin from following through on some offseason plans. He had hoped to get to Florida for workouts with
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson and fellow second-year receiver Marquise Brown. Boykin said he’ll finally make that trip next week along
with several other teammates.
But he has worked out with the team’s third-string quarterback, Trace McSorley, and perhaps more importantly, he’s picked apart his own game
on film, something he did not always have time to do during the season.
As such, he feels ready to make good on optimistic projections from Ravens coach John Harbaugh and general manager Eric DeCosta, who’ve
said that they expect Boykin to take a significant step forward in his second season.
“I just feel like I’m getting better as an all-around player,” he said. “I’m capable of a lot more. I’ll be able to play faster this year, have more
chemistry with Lamar.”
Boykin, 23, stood out as one of the team’s most impressive young players at the beginning of training camp last summer. But that promise did
not translate to big-time production during his rookie season. Boykin caught just 13 passes on 22 targets, though he did average 15.2 yards per
catch and score three touchdowns. Coaches praised him for maintaining his intensity as a blocker even as he failed to see the ball consistently.
Boykin said that in addition to struggling with the speed of the pro game at times, he was not fully prepared for the battering his body would take
over a 16-game schedule. He needed the last four months to feel refreshed.
“I feel great,” he said. “My body feels great. And I feel like I’m ready to play another season. I know what to expect now.”
The team drafted two receivers, Devin Duvernay of Texas and James Proche of SMU, but neither is perceived as a classic outside target. So
Boykin’s path to playing time seems as clear as it was at the end of last season. He’s one of only three established receivers guaranteed to
make the roster, along with Brown and Willie Snead IV. As efficiently as the Ravens moved the ball last season, they would become more
potent if he reaches his potential as a downfield and red-zone threat.
“They bring great versatility,” Boykin said when asked about Duvernay and Proche. “I think that’s one thing you can say about our receiving
corps. You look up and down and you don’t say OK, this guy is like that guy. I think we’re all different. We all have different sets of talents. And
that’s what’s going to make us work well this year.”
Boykin has already gotten to know the rookies as the team goes through virtual meetings and workouts. He said he’ll remind them that “each
step is a new level.”
“That was probably the hardest thing for me,” Boykin said. “I was coming in there trying to be perfect, and nobody ever is.”
Asked if he had thoughts about another pass catcher — seven-time Pro Bowl selection Antonio Brown — who’s continually linked to the
Ravens in offseason rumors, he said: “No, other than I think he’s a great receiver.”
The pandemic has hit close to home for Boykin, whose mother works as a labor and delivery nurse at a hospital that’s treating COVID-19
patients. He recently auctioned off online meet-and-greet sessions with fans, donating the proceeds to the United Way in his hometown of
Chicago.
But he’s not fretting about the impacts on his preparation for what could be a pivotal year in his career.
“Are we behind on where we would be in a normal year?” he said. “Maybe. But since the whole league is doing that, not really. We’re doing as
much can now in terms of knowledge of the game.”
Hall of Fame safety Ed Reed spoke to the Ravens on Tuesday, urging them to take care of business as best they can under the circumstances,
whether that means focusing on finances, physical recovery or film study.
Boykin and his teammates know they’ll be on the short list of Super Bowl favorites entering the season. But Harbaugh always tells them that no
team is Super Bowl-ready on the first day. That level, which the 2019 Ravens tasted before falling to the Tennessee Titans in the playoffs, is
built over seven months.
“I think we have the potential to be a great team,” Boykin said. “For us, we can’t listen to the outside noise. I don’t think we ever have. We lost
to Tennessee because we didn’t play well enough to win. It wasn’t because we thought we were better than we really were.”
7Ravens' Bradley Bozeman On The Road To Becoming One Of NFL’s
Best Guards, One Stop At A Time
BALTIMORE SUN | OCT. 9, 2020 | DANIEL OYEFUSI
Ravens running back Mark Ingram II took a handoff from quarterback Lamar Jackson at the Washington Football Team 1-yard line last
Sunday and eased his way into the end zone, escorted by left guard Bradley Bozeman, who pulled on the play to create a running lane.
Bozeman gave Ingram a congratulatory slap on the helmet and Ingram responded by handing the ball to Bozeman to deliver a vicious
spike, a sign of acknowledgment for one of the more unheralded pieces of the team’s offensive line.
In a position that’s often overlooked by most football watchers, Bozeman has performed like one of the best guards in the NFL,
according to several metrics.
Four games into the regular season, Pro Football Focus has graded him as the sixth-best guard in the league, performing at a
borderline Pro Bowl level. Bozeman hasn’t had a blown block in pass protection and just one in run blocking, according to Sports Info
Solutions. In ESPN’s Pass Block Win Rate, which measures how often linemen sustain their blocks for 2.5 seconds or longer, Bozeman
ranks seventh among guards at 96%.
“I feel like I’m having a solid year but there’s some things that I really need to clean up,” Bozeman said Thursday. “There’s always
things we can work on and get better at. I’m not where I want to be yet. We’re working there every day and trying to get to that point
where hopefully I’m one of the best guards in the league. I’m prideful in that and I want to be at the top."
Ravens players and coaches are reluctant to publicly give any credence to such metrics. But while Ronnie Stanley has developed into
one of the top tackles in the league, Bozeman himself has formed into a consistent guard on the left side. He played a key role in
Jackson’s career-long 50-yard touchdown run against Washington, pulling from left to right to deliver a block on a linebacker 10 yards
downfield that opened the floodgates for Jackson.
“He’s a smart guy, and he’s really starting to figure out how to play,” offensive coordinator Greg Roman said Thursday. "'Know thy self'
is very important at any position, especially offensive line. So, him playing it within the framework of his game — that realization on his
part on how to approach certain blocks, how to play certain guys that he’s going against — it just adds coats of paint to an offensive
lineman’s profile.
“So, he’s on that journey, and he’s doing well. He’s rough, tough and physical, and that’s how we like them. And we just expect
improvement all the time. When we work on something, we always want to get better at it, and that’s what he’s doing. So, I’m really
pleased [with] where he’s at and looking forward to [what] he grows in to.”
Coach John Harbaugh on Monday called Bozeman a “gamer” and a “real legit starter in the league.” And still, there’s even more room
for growth, Bozeman said, whether it be footwork or getting quicker off the line.
But it’s a step in the right direction for Bozeman, a 2018 sixth-round draft pick from Alabama, who won the starting left guard job to
open the 2019 season and has started every game since.
After capping his first season as a starter in the NFL, Bozeman took a different path than most in the offseason: He embarked on a 17-
state, cross-country anti-bullying tour alongside his wife, Nikki, in their 40-foot recreational vehicle. It was as unique as an offseason
gets for an NFL player — Bradley brought workout gear with him and had to get “innovative” on the road, with makeshift workouts such
as “picnic table, single-leg step-ups with weights,” while Nikki, also a standout basketball player at Alabama, kept him on track.
The tour was set to conclude in late March, but the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic forced the two to end about four stops shy
of completing the trip. The pair had already purchased a house to live in for the 2020 season and upon returning back home to
Maryland, the Bozemans sold the RV after living in it for about a year and a half. They ended up selling to another couple — Ravens
fans, of course — and downsized to a less roomy, 25-foot RV. When the public health situation allows for it, the Bozemans hope to take
the RV to Southern Maryland for several days and continue to visit local schools.
Now that the season is underway, the two partnered through their foundation, the Bradley and Nikki Bozeman Foundation, with Mt.
Pleasant Ministries in Northeast Baltimore and Nourish Now, a nonprofit food bank, to stage food distribution events every other week.
With the NFL’s COVID-19 protocols prohibiting in-person gatherings for players and team personnel, the Bozemans once again got
creative. With assistance from Ravens community relations, they participated in the event virtually, watching from tablet screens fixed to
mobile robots.
It’s just another reminder of how tricky the season can be to navigate, not only on the field but off it, too.
“It was so easy, you logged in on your phone. Your phone turned into, almost like a controller,” Nikki said. "You could see everything
around you, you could interact with people. So it kind of literally let us be there without being there.
“It’s really really cool, and we’re super excited for the possibility of that, whether it’s getting into these hospitals where the kids are sick
and they’re not having any visitors or going to a virtual Halloween event with these robots.”
8Faster Friends: From South Florida To NFL For Ravens Lamar Jackson
And Marquise Brown
PRESSBOX | SEPT. 2, 2020 | BO SMOLKA
The first play that “Coach Rob” McCoy teaches his pee-wee football players in Hollywood, Fla., is always the same: 22 Quickie, a
straight dive up the middle that gives the kids their first taste of the terminology.
But when McCoy got a good look at Marquise Brown, then a 7-year-old playing in the 85-pound division of the South Florida Youth
Football League, McCoy came up with a new play:
Fake 22 Quickie Wide Receiver Reverse.
The quarterback would fake a handoff, roll out one way, and then little Marquise Brown — “he wasn’t 85 pounds soaking wet,” McCoy
says — would take a handoff going the other way.
“We didn’t have blocking, no guards pulling, it was all Marquise,” McCoy says. “He was fast as all outdoors. Get him out in the open
field and run track.”
That God-given speed, McCoy says, “got him to where he is today.”
Indeed, Brown used that blinding speed, along with an indomitable will, to blow past all defenders, all limitations and all skeptics —
including, if he is honest, McCoy — to reach “the league.”
Brown and his good friend, 2019 NFL Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson, who grew up about 20 miles north in Pompano Beach, are
not only focal points of a Ravens offense that has legitimate Super Bowl aspirations, but they are also two of the latest players to make
the NFL out of South Florida, where the palm-tree-lined parks grow pro football talent like grass.
Northwest of Pompano Beach along the banks of Lake Okeechobee lies the city of Pahokee, also known as “Muck City” because of the
dark soil that produces sugar cane. It also produces NFL players, including Ravens outside linebacker Pernell McPhee. Pahokee,
population 6,200 — smaller than the Baltimore suburb of Lutherville — has turned out more than a dozen NFL players, including former
Raven Anquan Boldin, whose brother, DJ, is now Pahokee High School’s football coach.
Pahokee’s archrival is Glades Central in nearby Belle Glade, where Ravens wide receiver Willie Snead began his high school career
before moving to Michigan.
“Down in Florida, football is a way of life,” says Devin Bush Sr., who grew up in Miami and then coached his future-NFL-first-round-
draft-pick son in the same youth football league in which Brown played.
“I mean, when they come out of the womb,” Bush says, “they’re almost handed a football in South Florida.”
“Raw Talent”
Texans will argue they have the best youth football in the country, a claim backed up with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
In 2018, McKinney Intermediate School District north of Dallas unveiled a $70 million football stadium for the district’s three high
schools, one of which is the alma mater of Ravens rookie defensive lineman Justin Madubuike. That came a year after the Katy school
district in suburban Houston opened a $70 million facility, one of several eight-figure stadiums that have risen like crops across Texas in
the past decade.
And while the Sunshine State can’t boast such facilities, it’s hard to argue there’s a more fertile breeding ground for NFL talent than the
fields of South Florida (although the 11 Texas natives on the Ravens’ training camp roster, including kicker Justin Tucker, quarterback
Robert Griffin III and running back J.K. Dobbins, might beg to differ).
“They’re blessed that they have those facilities to better their players,” says rookie quarterback Tyler Huntley, who grew up about 5
miles from Brown in Hallandale Beach. “Down in Florida, it’s more off raw talent.”
While the pint-sized Brown was learning Fake 22 Quickie Wide Receiver Reverse, other players running around pee-wee leagues in
South Florida included Jackson and Huntley, Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley, Las Vegas Raiders cornerback Trayvon
Mullen and Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Devin Bush.
“We used to play football all day,” says Huntley, who signed with the Ravens this spring as an undrafted free agent out of Utah. “We’d
go to school, come back, play football in the streets. … We’d have practice later that day and then go play football again.”
“The talent level is just crazy,” Brown says.
According to Pro Football Reference, 284 active NFL players hail from Florida, the most from any state. Fourteen high schools
nationally boast at least four alumni playing in the NFL — and five of those schools are in South Florida.
9“It’s just a part of what most kids aspire to do,” Devin Bush Sr. says. “It’s a way to keep our kids off the street. It’s an escape for our kids
with anything they’re going through at home, be it hard times, poverty. It’s a way for them to get together with their friends and have fun
in a structured environment. … It’s a big support system.”
Bush noted that as the talent level increases, so does the quality of coaches who volunteer to help, and good competition attracts more
good players. It becomes a cycle of athletic production.
“You keep sharpening the tools,” Bush says, “so these kids keep getting better and better by each generation. … Kids learn from
imitation, more exposure, more visibility [and] good instruction, so our kids get really, really good.”
That trend doesn’t appear to be changing.
Five of the top 21 football players on the Rivals100 ranking of top high school seniors hail from South Florida, including inside
linebacker Terrence Lewis from Chaminade-Madonna, where Brown played as a senior (also the alma mater of former Ravens receiver
Kamar Aiken).
Jackson says he doesn’t remember playing against Brown in youth ball, but he knew of him and watched Brown’s Oklahoma highlights
during his rookie season.
“I’m like, ‘Man, we need to get someone like him on our team,'” Jackson recalls. “His speed is crazy. He’s got that Florida speed in him.”
A Roller-Coaster Ride
Jackson got his wish when the Ravens selected Brown with the No. 25 pick in the 2019 draft, the culmination of an improbable journey
for Brown.
Brown’s mother endured a complicated pregnancy that included failing kidneys to deliver Brown two weeks early, 5 pounds and 6
ounces of fight and drive.
With a late-qualifying ACT test score and all of 140 pounds on his 5-foot-9 frame, Brown generated virtually no interest from Division I
colleges. An apparent offer from Utah State dissolved.
About that time, College of the Canyons, a junior college in Santa Clarita, Calif., was recruiting a wide receiver from South Florida
named Jeremy Lubin. He told head coach Ted Iacenda that he should also look at his friend.
“This happens at our level all the time. ‘Coach, I have a friend.’ … Of course, the friend is always a tiny wide receiver,” Iacenda says
with a laugh. “The friend is never a 6-7 offensive tackle, you know what I mean? So we see the film. … He can run a little bit. Oh my
goodness, but he is tiny, there’s no question about it.”
Brown’s mother initially balked at sending her child 3,000 miles away, so Brown sat out during the fall of 2015, staying in shape with
regular workouts at a local park. His mom then had a change of heart, and Brown arrived at College of the Canyons during the winter.
Other than his size, Brown made another immediate impression on Iacenda: dedication.
“The kid from Day One is on time, every day, every meeting, working his tail off,” Iacenda recalls. “He shows up every day, he’s ‘Yes
sir,’ ‘No, sir.’ He’s taking instruction and implementing it.”
College of the Canyons offers no scholarships, so to make ends meet, Brown took a job at Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park
in Valencia, Calif. He operated a ride called “Full Throttle,” which quickly accelerates to 70 mph. Before long, Brown was flashing his
speed on the field, too.
Iacenda explains that he had seen Brown run during offseason conditioning, but, “You don’t really see Marquise’s next gear until he
competes.”
On the first day of spring practice in 2016, matched up one-on-one against a cornerback, Brown competed.
“He’s running a streak up the sideline,” Iacenda recalls, “and the quarterback threw the ball. We were like, ‘Oh, he overthrew him.’ And
Marquise hit a second gear. I will never forget … watching him accelerate to go get that ball. We all looked at each other on the
offensive side of the ball and go, ‘Wow! Did he just catch that ball? Oh my goodness, this kid is special.'”
In Brown’s second game for College of the Canyons, he caught a 61-yard touchdown pass on the Cougars’ third offensive play. He
finished that game with 151 yards and three touchdowns receiving, plus an 84-yard kickoff return score, in a 42-19 win.
From that point, Iacenda says, “The phone was ringing off the hook.”
Brown ultimately landed at Oklahoma, where he played with future Ravens teammates Mark Andrews, Orlando Brown Jr. and Ben
Powers and caught passes from Baker Mayfield, the first of two consecutive Heisman Trophy winners to be his quarterback. A deep
touchdown pass from Mayfield to Brown led FOX announcer Gus Johnson to exclaim “Hollywood!” — and the nickname stuck.
“I Feel 100 Times Better”
10Now Brown is trying to run past the Ravens’ tortured history at the wide receiver position.
The Ravens have drafted 31 wide receivers during their 25-year history, and exactly one has compiled a 1,000-yard receiving season
with the team — Torrey Smith.
Brown missed much of his first pro training camp in 2019 recovering from surgery on a Lisfranc foot injury, and after first-round wide
receiver Breshad Perriman’s rookie year vanished because of injury, fans grew restless to see a high-impact, homegrown playmaker.
They didn’t have to wait long.
Playing just a long post pattern from his hometown, Brown caught touchdown passes of 47 and 83 yards on the first two receptions of
his career during the Ravens’ 59-10 rout of the Miami Dolphins in Week 1.
Brown, though, acknowledges that the foot was never right last year.
“Sometimes, I would try to make a cut that my foot wasn’t able to make, and I would go down,” he says. “It was more about getting the
yards that I could get, get down, get ready for the next play. It was better for me to be in the game than to be out of the game.”
He finished the season with 46 receptions for 584 yards in 14 games, and his seven touchdown catches tied a Ravens rookie receiving
record.
According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Brown was timed at 20.33 mph in the win at Miami, his fastest time of the season. Brown says he ran
23 mph at Oklahoma. The fastest runner in the NFL last year by Next Gen’s measurement was running back Matt Breida, who was
clocked at 22.3 mph on an 83-yard touchdown run against Cleveland.
Brown had a screw removed from his foot this offseason and he is up to 180 pounds — more than 20 pounds heavier than at the end of
last season. With that weight, though, Brown says he hasn’t lost a step.
“I feel 100 times better than I did last year,” he says.
His teammates have already noticed.
“He looks like a totally different kid from when I saw him last year,” Snead says.
Describing Brown’s speed on one of his long touchdown catches during training camp this summer, head coach John Harbaugh says,
“It was really a third or fourth gear. How many gears are there on a sports car? Whatever it was, he was in it.”
Jackson, one of Brown’s offseason workout partners, figures to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of a healthy Brown. Coming off a
record-breaking season for the 14-2 Ravens, Jackson says he wants to improve his deep throws this year.
“His full potential is going to show off this year,” Jackson says, adding, “He’s a lot faster with that foot at 100 percent.”
McCoy, Brown’s very first coach, admits he did not see the NFL in Brown’s future way back when, but now he unabashedly holds him
up as a poster child for other kids running around the fields of South Florida.
“He was small,” McCoy says. “I thought youth football would be the sum total of his athletic career. But obviously he had the right
attitude. He wasn’t going to let anyone else make that decision for him. … He is, without a doubt, the one you want to tell all the little
kids about, to give them some inspiration. There’s not one that has a story like Marquise.”
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