Feature Clips

Week 3 Ravens at Lions Feature Clips Week 3

Table of Contents

• Mark Andrews ...... 1

• Anthony Averett ...... 2

• Rashod Bateman ...... 3-6

• Ben Cleveland ...... 7-8

• Malik Harrison ...... 9

• Marlon Humphrey ...... 10-12

• Justin Madubuike ...... 13

• Odafe Oweh ...... 14-17

• Patrick Ricard ...... 18-20

• Ronnie Stanley ...... 21-22

• Brandon Stephens ...... 23-25

Ravens TE Mark Andrews Signs Four-Year Contract Extension Worth Reported $56 Million

BALTIMORE SUN | SEPT. 6, 2021 | JONAS SHAFFER

The Ravens reached a long-term deal with one of their brightest offensive stars Monday, signing tight end Mark Andrews to a four-year contract extension.

Andrews’ deal is worth $56 million over four years and includes $37.6 million in guaranteed money, according to ESPN. The extension comes on his 26th birthday and makes Andrews the NFL’s third-highest-paid tight end ($14 million per year), trailing only the San Francisco 49ers’ George Kittle ($15 million) and Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce ($14.3 million) in annual value.

Andrews, a Pro Bowl selection in 2019, was entering the final year of his four-year rookie contract. He had a team-high 58 catches for 701 yards and seven touchdowns in 14 games last season, becoming the first tight end in Ravens history to produce multiple seasons with at least 700 receiving yards and seven receiving touchdowns.

“Mark is exactly the type of player we wish to keep as a Raven long-term,” general manager Eric DeCosta said in a release Monday. “He’s competitive, passionate, talented and a leader. We are so excited to have him in Baltimore for the next five years. Congratulations to Mark and his family — and happy birthday.”

Over three seasons in Baltimore, despite playing in a run-heavy system, Andrews has 156 catches for 2,105 yards and 20 touchdowns. Since 1970, the start of the NFL’s modern era, only 16 other tight ends have recorded 2,000 receiving yards over their first three seasons, according to Pro Football Reference, including stars like Rob Gronkowski, Jimmy Graham, Zach Ertz and George Kittle, all of whom played in more pass-oriented offenses.

DeCosta said in January that the Ravens “would be foolish to not want to try and keep” Andrews with a long-term deal. He said the former Oklahoma star is “one of the better tight ends in the entire NFL” and underlined his fit in a “tight end-centric offense.”

“He works hard every day to get better at his craft, and he wants to be one of the best ones in the game,” Ravens tight ends coach Bobby Engram said last month. “But he also attacks the playbook, and he’s really worked hard on being a better blocker. So he just wants to be a complete player, and he goes about his business every day like that.”

Andrews’ extension is the latest DeCosta has handed out to an ascendant homegrown player, following 2020 deals for left tackle Ronnie Stanley and cornerback Marlon Humphrey. Securing quarterback Lamar Jackson, who’s under contract through 2022, to a long-term megadeal remains the Ravens’ top priority.

Few expected Andrews to establish himself so quickly when he arrived in Baltimore three years ago. Despite winning the John Mackey Award in 2017, given to the nation’s top tight end, he fell to the third round of the 2018 draft over concerns about his blocking ability and athleticism. He arrived at offseason workouts in the shadow of the Ravens’ top pick, tight end Hayden Hurst, who was drafted seven spots before quarterback Lamar Jackson (No. 32 overall) and 61 spots before Andrews (No. 86).

But Andrews went on to lead all Ravens tight ends as a rookie with 552 receiving yards and three touchdown catches. In 2019, when the Ravens had the NFL’s most efficient offense, he set a single-season franchise record for touchdown catches by a tight end (10) and finished with team highs in receptions (64), receiving yards (852) and receiving touchdowns (10).

Last season, despite a slight dip in production, Andrews improved his drop rate (from 7.1% to 5.7%) and finished the season as Pro Football Focus’ No. 10 pass-blocking tight end and No. 17 run-blocking tight end, one of the few at the position to be rated so highly at both.

Andrews is one of the more popular players in the Ravens’ locker room — “So happy for Money Mark,” former Sooners teammate and current Ravens wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown tweeted Monday — and one of its hardest-working. He trained with Brown and rookie wide receiver Rashod Bateman during the Ravens’ offseason hiatus in July, and was so drained after a humid joint practice with the Carolina Panthers last month that he had to be treated for full-body cramping with intravenous fluids.

Andrews’ dedication is most evident in his chemistry with Jackson, who has likened their go-and-get-it connection to “street ball.” Andrews was dominant at times throughout offseason workouts and training camp; coach John Harbaugh remarked in June that Andrews was “running routes the best that I’ve seen him run routes since he’s been here.”

When Andrews was asked whether he’d thought about his future in Baltimore, he said his focus was on self-improvement. His mantra since childhood has been constant: “Top five,” a statement of purpose about where he thinks he stands in the world, in whatever he’s doing.

“I try not to worry about the things that are not in my control,” Andrews said in June. “I love Baltimore. I love being here. I love playing here. I want to be here for the rest of my life, man. This is home for me. So that’s where I’m at. I’m just going to, as a player, be the best player that I can be for this team. …

“We all are moving in the same direction, and that’s really all that I’m worried about right now. You can’t worry about too much of the outside noise and what happens with that. I’m just going to let my play speak for itself. Obviously, I love Baltimore. I love being here, and I would love to be here for my whole life.”

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Anthony Averett ‘Has All-Pro Talent’ In Backup Role For Ravens

AL.COM | AUG. 19, 2021 | MARK INABINETT

Anthony Averett’s NFL career has resembled his time at Alabama so far. If that continues, then the cornerback is about to take off in 2021, and Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale thinks Averett has the ability to do that.

“He’s one of my favorites,” Martindale said on Tuesday. “I said in front of the defense last night, to me, he’s the third-best corner we have on the team, and I think the kid has All-Pro talent. I tell him that every day, and he’s practicing that way this year. I mean, you’re really seeing everything go from the practice field to games now, and you can just see his confidence build. I tell everybody when I start talking about him, it doesn’t matter who he’s covering – to him – he just goes and covers them, and that’s what you like about your corners.”

In his first three years at Alabama, Averett played in seven games before entering the starting secondary in his junior season. He didn’t play in the Crimson Tide’s 45-40 victory over Clemson in the CFP national championship game for the 2015 season, but Averett had six tackles, a sack and a pass breakup in Alabama’s 26-23 overtime victory against Georgia in his final appearance for the Tide – the CFP national championship game for the 2017 season.

A fourth-round selection in the 2018 NFL Draft, Averett has played in 30 games, with seven starts, for the Ravens. His playing time has increased from 71 defensive snaps as a rookie to 220 in 2019 and 354 last season, which put him on the field for one-third of Baltimore’s defensive plays in 2020.

“Actually, I did pretty much the same thing at Alabama,” Averett said. “I sat for plenty of years, then I got my chance, got my opportunity and I never left the field after that, so that’s my mission, that’s my goal, and, you know, nothing wrong with sitting back and just actually learning, and that’s what I pretty much did and now you see the outcome.”

One of the players ahead of Averett on the depth chart during his time at Alabama was Marlon Humphrey. In Baltimore, Humphrey holds the same status.

While Martindale considers Averett an All-Pro talent, the Ravens’ starting cornerbacks are All-Pros. A first-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, Humphrey received first-team All-Pro recognition in 2019 and was a Pro Bowl pick in 2019 and 2020. A first-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, Marcus Peters was an All-Pro in 2016 and 2019 and a Pro Bowler in 2015, 2016 and 2019.

“Definitely I want to be out there and definitely want to play,” Averett said, “but I know the circumstances. I know this is the NFL and I can’t just select and I love to be here. I love the Ravens. We have a deep secondary. I know that. But whenever I get my chance, I just ball. I just do my best.”

Averett’s rise in playing time in 2020 included four starts. In those four games, Averett played 224 of Baltimore’s 237 defensive snaps. The Ravens won all four, giving up a total of 47 points.

“I’m definitely confident, just coming off that season last year,” Averett said. “This year, I’m balling in camp, and, I mean, it just comes with the confidence. I’ve been balling last year. I know the system – this is my fourth year I’ve been here – so I’m just comfortable. …

“This is the best I’ve felt since I’ve been here, too. I’m definitely taking care of my diet, everything that I’m doing off the field, as well. Pretty confident about this year.”

The Ravens will play the second of their three preseason games at 6 p.m. CDT Saturday, when they square off against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Baltimore defeated the New Orleans Saints 17-14 on Saturday for the Ravens’ 18th consecutive preseason victory. Averett broke up a pass and made two tackles on defense and one on special teams. He was on the field for 31 defensive snaps and seven special-teams plays.

2

Rashod Bateman: The Emergence Of A Butterfly

BALTIMORERAVENS.COM | JUNE 1, 2021 | RYAN MINK

Rashod Bateman would hear the screams coming from his mom in the other room.

While his two older brothers would try to lose themselves in their video games, Rashod couldn't stand by while his stepfather beat his mother – again. He would sneak over and open the door to the pain, hoping his presence could get it to stop, hoping he could save her.

"Sometimes I just wanted to make sure that my mom was alive," Bateman said.

He was just a kid, but Bateman was forced to grow up fast. The abuse of his mother started as far back as he can remember and lasted for a decade.

"I don't want to get too deep, but I remember a lot," he said. "It was just a lot of violence, a lot of hitting, a lot of yelling, cursing. It was multiple weekends in a row for years straight. It's just what our family got used to."

When he would leave his mother's room, Bateman would sometimes settle down in front of the TV and watch football. He slept with a Wilson football every night. During a time when the world around him was confusing and traumatic, football was a comfort and escape.

"I loved football ever since I could think," Bateman said.

Football and his mother. Those two helped transform Bateman into what he is today – a strong-minded, strong-willed first-round wide receiver of the Baltimore Ravens.

Bateman enters his rookie season with plenty of promise, billed as a polished playmaker who could take the Ravens' passing attack to the next level. After all he's been through, he's just getting started.

‘Do the opposite of what you see’

Bateman grew up in Tifton, a small, historically agricultural town in southern Georgia where one in five families and more than 40 percent of children live below the poverty line. Bateman was in one of those families and was one of those kids.

His mother, Lashonda Cromer, married his stepfather before Bateman could string a full sentence together.

"The first year was pretty good. But after that first year, a lot of abuse started," Cromer said. "It went on for 10 years because I was afraid to get out of it."

His stepfather was an alcoholic, often coming home groggy and angry. He didn't hit the children, but Bateman called 911 on many occasions, trying to save his mom. Cromer was afraid to press charges for fear it would make matters worse.

"When you're scared and you're trying to stay safe for you and your kids, there's not much you can do," Cromer said. "Rashod was hurt. He told me he was hurt. I was trying to tell him, as soon as I felt we could get out of there safe, we were getting out of this.

"I always taught my kids, you do the opposite of what you see."

Bateman and his brothers, Monjharvis and Travian, would take their frustrations to the backyard. They drew lines for a football field with their feet, stuffed balled-up paper under their T-shirts for shoulder pads.

At Annie Belle Clark Elementary School, Bateman would talk to his third-grade teacher, Mindy Palmer, who would later play a much larger role in his life, about the abuse at home. But it was at recess where he let out his frustration.

"He was not a kid starting fights or stuff like that, but if he didn't get to be the one to carry the football out to the playground, that would make him upset," Palmer said. "He wanted to tote it out, pick the teams, start the game. That's where he released all that pressure."

Cromer did her best to see all of Bateman's childhood games, but she was also working 12-hour overnight shifts to pay the bills. For eight years, she worked from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. operating machines that made hardwood flooring and carpet.

"There were some days when I would barely see my kids before it was time to go back to work," she said.

It was all part of a cycle that seemed to have no end in sight. Then one day, Cromer's husband stole her keys as she tried to leave and jumped on her. Bateman ran to his grandmother's house down the street and called 911.

This time, one of Cromer's friends was working at the police department. When the police came and saw the bruises on her face, they arrested the stepfather and the state pressed charges. A two-year protection order gave Cromer the time to break away, and the two divorced when Bateman was about 13 years old.

"It was a sigh of relief, but we had to start over," Cromer said.

Cromer was now raising the three boys basically by herself, with some help from her mother. The family moved four or five times. One time, they were evicted from a mobile home she was renting because Cromer was also trying to pay for her father's funeral.

The last place the family lived before Cromer got remarried had an active drug house two steps down from their front door. One day as they were getting ready for church, Bateman called for his mother to look out the window. Two men stood in her yard pointing machine guns at each other.

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There were times when Bateman would come back from practice and there would be no water or no electricity. Travian recalls watching his mother go long stretches hardly eating to make sure her boys had enough bologna sandwiches, Cup O' Noodles or tuna.

Cromer kept working, including as a cashier at a Dollar General and as a teacher's aide in the school, giving her more normal hours so she could be there more for her boys. That was always her highest priority. But she still couldn't afford much.

So when Bateman was ready to play tackle football as a sixth-grader, he didn't want to ask his mom for new Nike cleats. He got his hands on her cell phone, created a Facebook profile, and privately messaged his former third-grade teacher to ask if she could buy them for him.

Palmer didn't have much to spare herself, but she bought those cleats. She could see that Bateman had big dreams and was willing to work for them, even at his young age.

"He knew he needed those cleats, but he didn't want (his mother) to be upset with him asking," she said. "We helped in any way we could."

Palmer and her husband, Shane, started attending Bateman's football games. They took he and his brothers to church and out to dinner. They even brought Bateman on vacation with them to Maryland's Eastern Shore, where Palmer's from. That's where Bateman had crabs for the first time.

The Palmers have no biological children, but they became godparents to Rashod. Once he got to college, they attended all but three of his games.

"Mindy just kind of gave me what my mom couldn't at the time," Bateman said. "It wasn't my mom's fault, but Mindy just kind of took care of me the way my mom couldn't, financially. She made sure that I was eating, made sure that I had clothes that I needed, and was also able to give me things I asked for. Mindy is like a part of our family – close family."

‘A skinny little thing’

Bateman started playing flag football at 5 years old. Cromer remembers one of his coaches asking, "How did this kid learn all these moves like this at his age?!"

Here's how: Bateman watched college football games at 7 years old, learned what they were doing, then imitated it in the yard. He set up drills for himself, bringing cones back from the playground until his mom could buy his own.

But when he got to Tift County High School, Bateman didn't turn heads. He didn't become a starter until his junior year, after an injury to a wide receiver and good friend who was ahead of him.

"He was a little skinny thing," said Ashley Anders, the former head coach of the school's strong 7A football program. "You always know kids are going to grow, but I would be willing to bet that nobody thought he was going to be a first-round draft pick."

Anders estimated that Bateman was probably about 5-foot-8 and maybe 145 pounds during his first years of high school. Travian said Bateman wore the same size shoes for who knows how long. When he got his shot to play, Cromer said her son was nervous.

"Rashod would say, 'I'm too little. That's why they don't want me out there,'" Cromer said. "I told Rashod, 'You don't worry about your weight and size because somebody will see something in you. When you get that chance, you put on a show.'"

"It definitely impacted me a lot," Bateman said. "I was getting overlooked because of my size. I was strong for my size, but my size didn't show it. I just had to continue to keep my head down and work."

Bateman was also tired of watching his mother carry the burden of the family's financial struggles. He told his mother he was going to the NFL someday, and set his mind to it.

"He was even more hungry for success, on the field and off the field, in the classroom. He did as much as he could," Travian said. "Seeing my mom going through everything, he wanted to make sure that ended one day."

Bateman had a good junior year, but not good enough to attract major Division 1 offers. That summer, he devoted himself to the weight room. He always had athleticism – the body control, hand-eye coordination and speed – but now he started to become bigger and more explosive.

But still, his football coach wondered if he was going to end up being a basketball player. Even though Bateman didn't start playing the sport competitively until eighth grade, he was a guard with excellent quickness, ball handling and elevation (yes, he could dunk). He helped lead his high school to a state championship as a senior, and first caught scouts' attention on the hardwood.

Frustrated by the lack of football offers, Bateman nearly went to college for basketball. He had offers from Texas A&M and Penn State.

"You kind of wondered whether he was going to say, 'Hey, basketball is my thing.' Then he ended up being the complete opposite," Anders said.

Anders remembered one instance when the football team was maxing out on power clean lifts in the weight room. Bateman had a playoff basketball game that day, so Anders told Bateman he had the day off. Bateman refused. "He was like, 'Shoot, I want to max out.'"

Bateman was good friends with the quarterback, and Anders remembered the two being out on the field in the spring and summer, throwing and catching every day. His work ethic – inherited from his mother – set him apart.

"I think that's why he's such a good route-runner," Anders said. "Obviously, he's been well-coached through college and all that stuff, but I think a lot of his success is because he's run those routes 100,000 times."

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"Me being overlooked and under-recruited, it just made me work harder at my craft," Bateman said. "I would go outside on late nights and do football drills. I would go hard in practice. I would just do everything I could to be successful."

Before his junior year, Bateman went to a summer camp at Georgia Southern and caught the attention of some college scouts and coaches. But one school took a particular interest – Minnesota. Bateman told Minnesota at the start of camp that they were going to offer him that day. The following spring, before his senior season, Minnesota did.

"I still, to this day, haven't had maybe anyone have a better individual workout than he did that day," Minnesota Head Coach P.J. Fleck told Pro Football Focus. "And he loved every minute of it."

Bateman had never been to Minnesota and didn't know much about it, but he immediately committed once his first Division 1 offer arrived. Then came his senior year.

"I guess with him not being a super big name going into his senior year, folks weren't expecting what Rashod did," Anders said. "Man, I mean from Game 1, he arrived. He blew it up."

Bateman set school records for catches (83), receiving yards (1,539), and touchdowns (21). His receiving yards were the fifth most ever in the state of Georgia. All the big SEC programs came running, including home-state Georgia and Kirby Smart.

Bateman turned them all down to stay with Minnesota, a program that had never had a wide receiver drafted in the first round and just one highly successful one (Eric Decker) since the mid '70s. The school hadn't had a first-round pick at any position in 15 years.

"Not a hard decision at all," Bateman said. "Loyalty."

That year, an assistant coach at Tift County started a $500 scholarship "Commitment Award" in honor of Bateman's decision. Even though the coach is a "big Georgia guy," Bateman was the first recipient.

"As coaches, you always try to instill in kids, your word is your bond," Anders said. "As good a football player as Rashod is and all the success that he's had, he's probably a better person. He'll probably be more successful as a person than he is as a football player."

‘I proved I belonged’

Unlike in high school, Bateman was an immediate hit in college.

As a true freshman, he caught 51 passes for 704 yards and six touchdowns. Then came a monster sophomore year, in which Bateman posted 60 catches for 1,219 yards and 11 touchdowns.

His mom made it to all but one game, splitting the 19-hour car ride over two days and sometimes bringing a gaggle of family members with her. But family tragedy still tagged along, too.

On Aug. 3, 2019, Bateman's uncle, Anthony, died suddenly of a heart attack. Anthony had become a father figure to Bateman. He coached Bateman in basketball and football and would take him home every day from practice to make sure he was OK.

"He taught me a lot about life," Bateman said. "He basically told me that I was going to be in the position I'm in today. I do everything in honor of him."

Bateman, who still wears his uncle's gold pendant every day, dedicated the first game of his sophomore season to Anthony. Then he went out and posted 132 receiving yards, including a one-handed touchdown grab that was arguably the greatest single highlight of his college career.

Playing opposite Tyler Johnson, a 2020 fifth-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Bateman dominated games. He put up 177 yards and two scores against Purdue. He had seven grabs for 203 yards versus Penn State. He hung 147 yards on Wisconsin.

"When I got to college, I knew that I was going to go to the NFL. That was something I drilled into my head," Bateman said. "After that year, I felt that I proved I belonged."

A year ago at this time, ESPN's Todd McShay ranked Bateman at No. 19 on his way-too-early top 32 college prospects of the next NFL draft class. NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah compared him to New Orleans Saints megastar Michael Thomas.

‘There’s racism everywhere’

Just as the hype train was taking off, Bateman's life was turning upside down again.

In early June last summer, Bateman contracted COVID-19. It was such a bad case that it put him out of commission for nearly a month. "I had every symptom you could possibly think of," he said.

Only able to eat about once a day, Bateman resembled that "skinny kid" once again. He grew up with asthma, which further complicated his breathing and conditioning when he tried to get back into shape. He lost more than 10 pounds, which he wasn't able to put back on until this year's pre-draft process.

While he was dealing with COVID-19, the world around him was also rocked. On May 25, George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, just a short walk from where Bateman was living.

Bateman dealt with racism in Georgia, especially when it came to dating. He and a white girlfriend had to hide their relationship from her parents. Palmer, who recently resigned from her job as an assistant principal because of what she described as "sheer racism" toward the Black principal, saw it too. Cromer hoped to shield her son from it, but he now had a front-row seat to a racial awakening in America.

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"You teach your kids about racism, but until they see it and experience it, that's when it really hits," Cromer said. "The George Floyd killing really took a toll on Rashod."

Bateman remembers looking out the window of his college dorm and seeing seven helicopters circling overhead as protests and mayhem erupted around boarded-up Minneapolis. He wanted to join the protests but was too scared to leave his building.

"It felt like I was in the middle of a purge," Bateman said. "It was like the video game 'Grand Theft Auto.' Everybody was doing their own thing, dying, getting shot, protests. I look back on it now and I can't even imagine that actually happened. There's racism everywhere. Being in Minnesota, I learned that with George Floyd."

About two months after contracting COVID-19, Bateman announced that he was opting out of his junior season. He said it was for medical reasons, but Floyd's death also played a role. He was one of the first high-profile college players to opt out, and he called it the hardest decision he ever made in his life.

It pained Bateman not to play with his teammates for the school that first saw something in him. When the Big Ten announced that it would kick off its football season, Bateman immediately opted back in. He did so with a new jersey number, changing from 13 to 0 "because there is zero tolerance for racism in this culture." Bateman helped establish and was one of the most outspoken players in Minnesota football's monthly HERE (Help End Racism through Education) program.

"I just have to voice my opinion to make sure that everybody loves each other, no matter their race, color, or religion," Bateman said.

Bateman said he would wear No. 0 in the NFL if it were allowed by the league. He has continued to speak out about racial justice on social media, which has made his mother nervous of backlash, but proud at the same time.

"I feel like certain things are taught at a young age and I have a lot of young people that look up to me," Bateman said. "I know if they see me loving everyone, staying positive, being nice to everyone no matter their color or race, then maybe they will do the same thing. They want to be like me when I'm on the football field; maybe they want to be like me as a person."

‘Ends as a beautiful butterfly’

After all the offseason hype, Bateman's junior season was tougher than his sophomore year.

He played at 186 pounds all season after being at 197 or 198 the prior year. His conditioning hadn't fully recovered from the respiratory problems, and he dealt with other injuries.

He still averaged nearly 100 receiving yards per game though. After five games and following a spike of COVID cases on the team, Bateman opted out for a second time to focus on preparing for the NFL Draft.

Bateman was lumped into the second tier of wide receiver prospects entering the draft. He didn't care much about that, but he was puzzled that his speed was questioned (he ran a 4.39 40-yard dash at his Pro Day to eliminate those concerns) and those pesky questions about his size popped up when he measured a smaller than he looks on tape.

The Ravens loved what they saw – the total package of polished route-running, athleticism and work ethic. Director of Player Personnel Joe Hortiz had a front-row seat at Bateman's Pro Day and immediately called General Manager Eric DeCosta and Head Coach John Harbaugh afterwards.

"I'm like, 'Hey man, you've got to watch his Pro Day.' You can definitely feel the speed," Hortiz said. "You really felt it – his ability to really just get in- and-out [of routes] and show that twitch and strength that can transition into the burst and explosion."

With a hunch that the Green Bay Packers could draft Bateman at No. 29, the Ravens grabbed their guy at No. 27. Baltimore has been starving for a star wide receiver for decades and DeCosta is hoping Bateman and fellow first-round wide receiver Marquise Brown team up to break the cycle.

On the other end of the line of the draft-night call, Bateman and his family freaked out. After he hung up with DeCosta and Harbaugh, Bateman took off running down the street in celebration as if he were going to run straight out of Tifton – for good.

"He has no reason to come back here except to see his Momma," Cromer said. "He's ready to put on that show."

"My husband is a paraplegic, so he can't stand. But I really thought he was going to walk that night," Palmer said. "The word proud doesn't even encompass the way we all feel. It's just so wonderful to see his dreams come true."

Bateman, his two brothers and Cromer all plan to get matching butterfly tattoos. They hoped to get them before Bateman left for Baltimore, but his schedule filled up fast.

"Once he got that playbook, he was going out to the school practicing and learning those plays. And that just left me and my butterfly out the window," Cromer said with a chuckle. "I'm praying he takes a break one day."

Cromer plans to get her tattoo on her foot. Bateman is thinking he'll get it on his rib cage. He doesn't have a lot of real estate left after he got a Black Lives Matter tattoo on his left thigh.

"The only place I can think of right now is a painful place," Bateman said. "It signifies that our family is growing. A butterfly starts off as a caterpillar but ends up as a beautiful butterfly."

"It signifies change," Cromer added. "I have seen all of us change because we've been through so much, but we didn't let that tear us down."

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Size 17 Boots, 700-Pound Squats: Nothing's Too Big For Baltimore Ravens' Ben Cleveland

ESPN | JULY 11, 2021 | JAMISON HENSLEY

If anyone doubts that rookie Ben Cleveland can start immediately on the Baltimore Ravens' offensive line, they should step inside his family’s kitchen in Toccoa, Georgia.

There are markings on the wall where Cleveland would stand and his mother would take a pencil and ruler to line the top of his head. One reads: Ben 6' 2" -- he was 13.

You learn quickly that nothing has ever been too big for Cleveland, the Paul Bunyan of the Deep South whose sprawling beard is as enormous as his stories.

Growing up, it was easy to remember his shoe size because it matched his age through much of his teenage years. His cowboy boots these days are size 17, extra wide.

At the dinner table, he once ate a half-dozen double cheeseburgers in one sitting. As a teenager, he was known to down two whole pizzas during the few hours after football practice and before going to bed.

When he was fishing at 11 years old, Cleveland caught an 85-pound stingray at Myrtle Beach. He didn’t want anyone to get hurt on the pier, so he cut the line and let it swim away.

As a high school freshman, Cleveland was pulled off to the side by his coach, who told him Florida had offered him a scholarship. Cleveland had never even watched a college football game because the fall is hunting season.

Now, with Cleveland having wrapped up his first NFL minicamp, the notion of being considered the favorite to start at left guard in front of Lamar Jackson could become overwhelming. But he adheres to a philosophy that’s not surprising for someone nicknamed Big Country.

"I am a firm believer that if you sit here and try to control every little bitty aspect of everything that could possibly happen, that’s how you create stress, and everything just piles on top of one another,” Cleveland said in his Southern drawl. “I’m just going to show up and do everything in my power to make sure that it gets done the right way. That’s all that I can control, so that’s really all that I can focus on and worry about.”

No one who ever went against Cleveland would describe him as laid-back. While playing under-14 baseball, he knocked out the catcher in a home-plate collision. Cleveland was thrown out of the tournament.

It was around that time when Cleveland figured he wasn’t going to follow the same path as his older brother, Ryan, who finished in the top 10 in career home runs at Georgia Southern.

“We really grew up as a baseball family,” his father, Derek, said. “Both the boys played football at an early age, but it was more of a thing just to keep them in shape for baseball season. That was our whole mindset, and then Ben just kept getting a little bigger and a little stronger. It was just meant to be.”

Cleveland was raised in a small northeast Georgia town that is known more for a waterfall — it’s 28 feet higher than Niagara Falls — than for producing professional athletes. The last player from the town before Cleveland to get selected in the first three rounds of the NFL draft was five-time Pro Bowl linebacker Pat Swilling in 1986.

Cleveland’s father is a production manager for a company that makes bathroom partitions. His mother, Andrea, is a receptionist at a doctor’s office.

By the time Cleveland was 2, his father had him outdoors, learning how to fish and hunt. His sons weren’t going to be spending hours playing Madden.

“To me, just sitting around playing video games is a waste of time,” Derek said. “When they had time on their hands, I wanted them to be outside and enjoying what God gave them rather than sitting in front of a television or whatever those little hand-held gizmos they used to have.”

When it comes to bragging rights, Ben is the best at duck hunting. His father is tops at deer hunting. Fishing is considered a toss-up.

Last year, Ben shot his biggest deer at a buddy’s farm. He believes it was a 10-point buck and has sent it to a taxidermist.

"I guess I’m just gonna throw him on the wall and find a pretty picture to put beside him, I reckon,” Cleveland said.

Hunting became more than bonding time for the Cleveland family. With two growing boys, they had to buy five gallons of milk and three loaves of bread each week. There were times when the grocery bill totaled $400 or $500.

7

"It was crazy,” Derek said. "And that’s one reason why we hunted and fished the way we did. It was to keep the freezer full and try to supplement some of the costs somewhere else, because it got expensive."

Strength and agility

Cleveland knows how to make an immediate impact, becoming the first freshman in more than three decades to start on the offensive line at Stephens County High School. He averaged six pancake blocks a game in his first season and increased that to double digits by his sophomore year.

But his favorite play came on defense. As a junior, he turned a strip sack into a 25-yard fumble return for a touchdown. Cleveland picked up the ball and hurdled the quarterback before reaching the end zone for the late-game score.

"I went and laid down on the sideline,” Cleveland said. "I told Coach, 'I’m done.’ I just sat on the sideline and watched the rest of the game from that one.”

At the University of Georgia, Cleveland not only drove defensive linemen off the ball in the running game, but he was also an outstanding pass protector. He allowed a total of four pressures on 473 blocks over the past two seasons (22 games), the best success rate (99.2%) by a right guard in the SEC, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Few linemen were more disciplined than Cleveland, who didn’t commit a penalty in 520 snaps last season.

At 6-foot-6, 357 pounds, Cleveland has the strength to match his size. In the weight room, he can squat 700 pounds, and his personal best in the bench press is 545 pounds. The Georgia strength coach posted a video on Twitter of Cleveland doing six reps of 160-pound dumbbell presses with one arm.

What really wowed scouts was his speed. A shirtless Cleveland ran the 40-yard dash in 4.97 seconds, which is the type of movement Baltimore needs when its guards pull and run zone-scheme blocks.

"I think we have a pretty well-defined and clear understanding of what we want to be on offense. He fits that,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "That’s a big, strong, powerful guy that likes to rough people up, and that’s how we want to play.”

Wait is over

In this year’s NFL draft, the Ravens didn’t have a second-round pick. So Baltimore had to wait 62 picks on Day 2 — a span of 4 hours, 11 minutes — before selecting Cleveland.

The reality was the Ravens had been waiting much longer than that to grab him.

"John has been talking about Cleveland for like two months, really,” Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said after using the No. 94 overall pick on Cleveland. "So it was a relief for me to actually see him available when we picked. This was John’s pick."

Harbaugh chimed in, saying, “I’m off your back now.”

Harbaugh acknowledged that he had wanted DeCosta to trade up to make sure the team got Cleveland.

“Ben was a guy who we really, really wanted to get,” Harbaugh said. "I know I was being a little bit of a nervous Nellie there for a bit, [but] we held tight and we got our guy.”

The fan club for Cleveland has grown. When the Ravens posted a video of Cleveland at rookie minicamp, former WWE champion Braun Strowman tweeted: “You fam?”

Cleveland responded: “We got separated somewhere around birth I’m pretty sure.”

Cleveland is now battling Tyre Phillips and Ben Powers for Baltimore’s starting left guard job. Offensive coordinator Greg Roman raved about Cleveland’s physical presence inside and how he will help the Ravens play “big-boy ball up front."

"He was the best run-blocker in the draft this year,” Roman said. "We were able to draft him when we were, which is unbelievable. We’re really excited about developing Ben into an absolute road-grading offensive guard.”

8

Ravens LB Malik Harrison Excelled In The Preseason. Now He’s Ready To Step Into A Leading Role.

BALTIMORE SUN | SEPT. 2, 2021 | MIKE PRESTON

No. 40 is no longer the “other linebacker.”

As a rookie last season, he seemed to get lost in the fame of Pro Bowl outside linebacker Matthew Judon and the emergence of fellow rookie Patrick Queen, the Ravens’ top draft pick out LSU. But that hasn’t been a concern so far in the 2021 preseason.

The name is Malik Harrison. Remember it. He’s the Ravens’ new starting weak-side linebacker.

“I like the violence in the guy,” Ravens linebackers coach Rob Ryan said. “Once you get around him, I found out he’s one of the most intelligent guys I’ve been fortunate enough to coach, and his athleticism — he’s fast. He wants to be a contributor and a great player on defense. He wants to be a Raven.”

The Ravens have been waiting for this moment since they drafted Harrison last year in the third round out of Ohio State. They thought he might get more playing time last season, but his preparation time was cut short with the coronavirus eliminating minicamps and preseason games.

Harrison played in all 16 regular-season games, starting six, and finished with 44 tackles, but his weaknesses were evident. His subpar technique and inability to shock and shed blockers exposed him in the running game. He also struggled in pass coverage as much as Queen.

But in the first series of the first preseason game against New Orleans last month, Harrison twice stepped into the hole, plugged gaps and made tackles. That was his calling card. The Saints probably know his name now. Other teams will get acquainted.

“I think my rookie year, it was the speed of the game at first and knowing the [offensive] linemen are just as athletic as you,” Harrison said of his biggest adjustment. “They are just bigger and recognizing formations and what plays can come out of those formations.”

Sometimes an athlete’s biggest strength can also become his biggest weakness. Harrison is 6 feet 3 and weighs 247 pounds. He could easily be confused for a tight end or pass-rushing defensive end. But his height and his tendency to stand straight up allowed offensive linemen to get into his body, and he didn’t have the strength to overcome that as a rookie.

It’s different now.

“I think in most places it is teaching the physicality of the game,” Ryan said of the biggest obstacle in coaching young linebackers. “You’re an undersized guy when you are taking on a 350-pound linemen, so first you have to have the want-to to go in here and strike a big guy and then to violently go in and throw him on his face, that’s a tough thing to do.”

“He’s very physical and I just wanted him to finish more,” Ryan said after watching tape of Harrison from last season for the first time. “He does some things that just aren’t natural. He can take an offensive lineman and shove him back and do some things. I thought this guy was a piece of clay.”

Translation: Harrison is a specimen. While at Walnut Ridge High in Columbus, Ohio, Harrison played fullback, receiver, running back, quarterback, linebacker and safety. As a senior in 2015, he rushed for 897 yards and 15 touchdowns and passed for 1,161 yards and eight touchdowns. He also had 40 tackles, five of those sacks.

He got recruited to play Division I basketball by almost every school in the Mid-American Conference before he finally decided to play football after his junior season.

The combination of size and athleticism is as promising now as it was then.

“He wants to be a contributor and a great player on defense,” Ryan said. “You can see the physicality jump off the tape when you watch it, but so does his athleticism. This is a guy that’s going to be dynamic in coverage with his length, he’s going to be problems for an offense. He can play 60 snaps a game. He’s in unbelievable shape.”

Ryan said Harrison stayed at the team’s training complex so much during the offseason that it became his permanent address. There were times when he called Harrison on the phone to ask about his whereabouts and Harrison had already been in the building for about an hour.

That’s commitment. Harrison wanted to get better, but he also knew he had to make up for lost time from last season.

“I thought I had a strong year [last season], but there were some mental errors that I had throughout the year,” Harrison said. “I didn’t know the defense like the back of my hand. That’s something I wish I would have improved on. Sometimes, I caught myself being too high on a tackle or just standing up before the play. That’s just me not realizing that I have to get low.

“But starting with the OTAs, I’ve been working and building the chemistry and slowing down the game, which has made it easier for me to just go out and play.”

Besides the offseason training and constant study, Harrison had one other adjustment. He had to get used to Ryan, who can be as kind as a grandfather one moment, then light you up the next. But you can’t mistake Ryan’s sense of humor for a lack of desire to win.

“He’s like one of us,” Harrison said. “You never know what you are going to get as far as his coaching style, but he just wants everybody to be the best. He doesn’t care who you are or anything, he just loves that physicality.”

And Ryan loves being in that linebackers meeting room. He’s got Harrison on one side and Queen on the other.

“I walked into that room and looked at those young guys and said, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’” Ryan said.

9

Next In Line: Can Marlon Humphrey Rise To Level Of Ravens’ Defensive Greats?

PRESSBOX | AUG. 18, 2021 | BO SMOLKA

Pittsburgh Steelers receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster caught the pass over the middle near the Steelers’ 45-yard line in overtime, but before he could turn upfield, Marlon Humphrey sized him up, and with a move that has become his trademark, Humphrey punched the ball out of Smith-Schuster’s hands.

Humphrey took Smith-Schuster to the ground, and as the fumble bounced along the Heinz Field grass, Humphrey popped back up and grabbed the loose ball inside the Steelers’ 40-yard line. Four plays later, Justin Tucker’s 46-yard field goal gave the Ravens a 26-23 win, one of 14 en route to their runaway 2019 AFC North title.

Humphrey has been a fundamentally sound cornerback from the minute he stepped onto the field as the Ravens’ first-round draft pick (No. 16 overall) in 2017. But so-called “splash plays” like the one at Pittsburgh have elevated Humphrey to Pro Bowl status in each of the past two years.

And although the Ravens have a transcendent quarterback in Lamar Jackson, the organization’s bedrock has long been its defense. Now after signing a top-of-the market, five-year contract last fall, Humphrey figures to be the face of that defense for the foreseeable future, the latest homegrown defensive megastar for a franchise that has produced Hall of Famers Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, along with potential Hall of Famers Terrell Suggs and Haloti Ngata, among others.

Could Humphrey ascend to that level?

“Any time you’re compared to the Ray Lewises and the Ed Reeds, it’s definitely always an honor,” Humphrey said after a minicamp workout in June. “I know those guys got some Defensive Player of the Year [awards], so I probably need to get one of those in order to really try to be one of those cornerstone pieces. But definitely, it’s always an honor to be compared to those guys.”

Family Ties

For Humphrey, elite athleticism began in the womb.

His father, Bobby, was a two-time All-American running back at Alabama who went on to play four years in the NFL, earning Pro Bowl honors in 1990 with the Denver Broncos. His mother, Barbara, set the outdoor 400-meter dash record at the University of Alabama- Birmingham, a mark that stands more than 30 years later as one of the oldest on the UAB books. (Barbara Humphrey still finds purpose on the track, serving as head coach of the Speed City Summer Track Club in Birmingham.)

Marlon is the middle of five Humphrey children, all exceptional athletes. Older brother Maudrecus played football at Arkansas and UAB. Older sister Breona ran track at UAB. Younger sister Brittley was an All-American hurdler at LSU who competed in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials this summer. And youngest brother Marion Humphrey played basketball at the University of San Diego before transferring to Salt Lake Community College this spring.

That innate talent and competitive drive, along with a healthy dose of sibling rivalry, fueled the Humphreys. As Ravens head coach John Harbaugh likes to say, iron sharpens iron.

“If you played bad,” Marlon Humphrey said, “it wasn’t the most fun dinner at the house. You were definitely going to be told about it.”

Humphrey also credits his mother for mining his natural competitiveness.

“I think about track at almost every phase,” Humphrey said. “When I was [in elementary school], when I was middle school, when I was high school, there was always a kid I couldn’t beat, and my mom told me, ‘Just stick with it. Stick with it.’ She thought I could outwork those people that were beating me, and it always seemed to come true in track.”

In fact, had Humphrey decided to focus on track, he might have been in the Olympics. In 2013, Humphrey won a silver medal in the 110- meter high hurdles at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine, losing only to future Olympian Jaheel Hyde of Jamaica. Humphrey was also a seven-time Alabama high school state track champion.

But with that success came unintended consequences. Humphrey recalled that one of his high school football coaches referred to him as “a track guy,” which Humphrey translated to mean, “You weren’t trying to hit anybody.”

“It was a joke,” Humphrey said, “but I didn’t like that, and I would be lying if I didn’t say it affected me.”

Indeed, Humphrey molded his game after physical cornerbacks like Richard Sherman, who could create turnovers but also pay attention to the fundamentals of the position, such as anticipating a throw or hammering a receiver, the price to pay for making a catch against him.

“You’re not going to last long if you’re not a physical football player,” said Josh Niblett, Humphrey’s coach at Hoover High School in Alabama. “He’s a big, physical football player, and he’s always been a great tackler.”

10

Though he thrived on the track, Humphrey always had his eyes on college football, and the offers poured in for the five-star recruit who went 30-0 in his final two seasons at Hoover. After flirting with offers from Florida State and Mississippi State, Humphrey followed his father to Alabama. In addition to playing football, Humphrey also competed on the track in relays and hurdles.

After a redshirt season in 2014, Humphrey reached the national championship game in both of his on-field seasons at Alabama, winning the title after the 2015 season. He was named a first-team All-American in 2016.

But raw athletic ability can only take you so far. The careers of countless elite athletes have flamed out because of bad decisions, bad motivation or both.

That never happened with Humphrey because his family kept him, in his words, “aligned,” and because he demonstrated an almost obsessive work ethic.

“Sometimes kids can have success, and then maybe they don’t work as hard, or they don’t stay locked in on the things that helped them get to that point,” Niblett said. “Then they forget, because they get comfortable. Marlon never got comfortable. He was always working on his craft. He was always working on ways to get better.”

In offseasons, Niblett saw that firsthand with the grueling workouts Humphrey would put himself through back at Hoover — before he went off to help the track team as a volunteer coach.

During training camp practices a couple of years ago, when reserves took the field for an 11-on-11 period and many veterans would head to the water station, a sweating Humphrey would walk toward the sideline, take a knee and consult a video tablet to review plays. During the season, he has been known to take reps with the scout kickoff unit, racing down the field as hard as an undrafted rookie trying to make the team.

“The thing about Marlon, and what the other guys watch about Marlon, is when he runs a drill, he doesn’t just run a drill,” Harbaugh said. “He runs a drill as if it’s the last play in the Super Bowl. … Every single rep. When you do it like that, you can’t help but get better.”

This past spring, Humphrey could have easily opted to stay away from voluntary OTA workouts, with his $97.5 million contract signed and sealed. Instead, he was on the Owings Mills practice fields for nearly every rep, every day.

“I just wanted to get back, get some sessions in, get with my coach, work on a couple things,” Humphrey said. “It’s a long offseason, and I was ready to get to work.”

Hitting “The Lottery”

The big contract didn’t change Humphrey’s work habits, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t move him.

As Humphrey met with the media shortly after signing the deal, he choked up as he recalled how his parents and others had steered him to that moment.

“Since I was young, I told my dad I wanted play in the NFL, and he never really let me slip,” Humphrey said that day. “Getting in trouble here and there as a youngun’, my dad just never kept his foot off me. Decisions, things I wanted to do, he was able to tell me, ‘No,’ and didn’t really share explanations. But as I grew older, I was able to understand.”

Humphrey’s father had a few brushes with the law in his 20s and he was determined not to let Marlon repeat that behavior.

“I remember hearing the same stories when I was 6 all the way [to] when I was 22,” Marlon Humphrey said, “and then I’d get in those same situations and I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t think I should do this, because I feel like I’ve already lived it.'”

Humphrey recalled that one high school coach told him that if he stayed true to his craft and kept out of trouble, he would “hit the lottery,” and now Humphrey’s Twitter feed includes the descriptor “The Lottery 3x.”

“It was crazy that at that young age, he had that confidence in me,” Humphrey said.

Humphrey said his father warned him early in his career about “blowing money, people taking money from you,” and his father checks his son’s credit card statements closely enough that last year, he questioned a pizza order placed in Houston; turns out it had been placed by former Ravens linebacker Matthew Judon.

Humphrey and Judon have done plenty of bantering over social media, where Humphrey, off the field, is at his most visible. He doesn’t relish traditional interviews, but Humphrey eagerly engages his 267,000 Instagram and 128,000 Twitter followers.

“This might offend my Maryland people,” he tweeted recently, “but let me just say … you don’t need to put Old Bay on everything. Let’s stop with the experiments.”

He also had a good-natured social-media debate with golfer Phil Mickelson about coffee, but struck a more serious tone when he pleaded to NFL players over Twitter: “Get the vaccine, fellas.”

11

The Next Level

Humphrey’s story in Baltimore is still largely unwritten, but since he declared for the draft after his sophomore season, the four-year veteran is just 25 years old.

“I’ve felt like the last year and a half or so, he’s one of the top corners in the league,” Harbaugh said. “I’m talking top two, three, four in the league. Now everybody else is maybe starting to see what we’ve seen, because we watch him every single week.”

Two years ago, Humphrey made the move from outside cornerback to the slot to compensate for Tavon Young’s season-ending injury, adding to his versatility. And even though Ravens defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale generally doesn’t have cornerbacks “shadow” certain receivers, and while the Ravens have the benefit of another Pro Bowl cornerback in Marcus Peters on the other side, Humphrey is frequently tasked with locking down elite receivers.

Humphrey earned his first Pro Bowl bid after the 2019 season, when he had three interceptions, two forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries — two of which he returned for touchdowns.

That was also the year when Humphrey and Cleveland Browns receiver Odell Beckham Jr. got into a spirited scuffle at M&T Bank Stadium. Beckham had clearly grown frustrated with Humphrey after being held without a catch for the first three quarters of a game for the first time in his career, with Humphrey hounding and harassing Beckham all over the field.

In 2020, Humphrey set a career-high with 82 tackles and a team single-season record with eight forced fumbles, the most in the league. Two of those fumbles — punched out by Humphrey — were returned for touchdowns by teammates.

Assuming he can stay healthy, Humphrey would be in position for another new contract by age 30 — The Lottery 4x? — and has already spoken about his desire to be a “Raven for life.” Then, perhaps, the comparisons to Ray Lewis and Ed Reed would be more appropriate.

Lewis played 17 years with the Ravens, franchise sack leader Terrell Suggs played 16 and Reed 11. Humphrey still has work to do to match their longevity, and all those franchise cornerstones own something that Humphrey does not: a Super Bowl ring.

Humphrey has played in the postseason in each of the past three seasons, only to suffer gut-wrenching early exits. After an upset loss to the Tennessee Titans in the 2019 playoffs — his second straight one-and-done playoff appearance — a frustrated Humphrey stood at his locker and said, “This team’s identity right now is get in the playoffs and choke. … That’s just the hard truth.”

The Ravens advanced one round further with a playoff win against Tennessee last year, only to be shut down by the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round.

Moving beyond that, with Humphrey leading the way, would go a long way toward burnishing his legacy, said national NFL analyst Brian Baldinger.

“It helps to do it on a big stage, in a big playoff game,” Baldinger said.

“It would be good if they’re in a divisional playoff game with Buffalo, and he can take one to the house against Josh Allen to win a game. You need those kind of plays in the postseason.”

As for putting him in the class of Lewis or Reed? Baldinger said pump the brakes on the comparisons, for now.

“You can’t put him in Ray’s and Ed’s [class] or anything like that until he does it for the next five years at a very high level.”

That sounds like a challenge. And based on how Humphrey reacted to those childhood challenges from his mother about age-group track runners, that should fuel Humphrey for this season and beyond.

12

‘I Don’t Really Know What I Can Be’: Ravens’ Justin Madubuike Still Evolving As Talented Young Piece Of Defensive Front

BALTIMORE SUN | SEPT. 7, 2021 | JONAS SHAFFER

The greatest disappearing act of Justin Madubuike’s NFL career took less than two seconds to pull off. It happened eight months ago, inside the 30-yard line of the Ravens’ wild-card-round playoff game against the Tennessee Titans, not the place you’d expect a 300-pound defensive lineman to go full David Copperfield.

The Titans, already up 7-0 in the first quarter, were running the ball at Madubuike. Left tackle David Quessenberry and left guard Rodger Saffold converged on the rookie, a 635-pound double team blotting him out like a solar eclipse. Madubuike, his body coiled back and his front leg almost kneeling, could not see what was happening behind the human wall that had slammed into him. But he knew it was only temporary; one of the linemen, soon enough, would be looking for another target further upfield.

Saffold disengaged first, and Madubuike sprang out of his stance like a jack-in-the-box that had been cranked far enough. His separation was sudden: Quessenberry fell over, and All-Pro running back Derrick Henry, seeing Madubuike close a road that had looked otherwise open, made a sudden detour. A jump cut to his left took him off course.

“The whole point of that is to make sure that he doesn’t get in my gap, man, and gets no yardage,” Madubuike said. “And that’s what happened.”

He made sure of it, grabbing Henry by the waist and dragging him to his knees for just a 1-yard gain. In a run-stopping performance for the ages — the Ravens held Henry, the NFL’s rushing king, to a season-low 40 yards on 18 carries in an eventual 20-13 win — Madubuike was an unsung hero up front, chasing down runs from the back side and blowing them up on the play side.

No sequence epitomized Madubuike’s awesome potential more than the close-up magic that had the Titans jumping wildly, falling over themselves. It was a preview of the year to come. Madubuike has been a breakthrough performer at Ravens training camp, rarely leaving practice without a tackle for loss or sack added to his tally. Analysts have pegged him as a rising star. Teammates have raved about his growth. Defensive line coach Anthony Weaver said he has “all the talent in the world.”

Madubuike is aware of his burgeoning powers. He knows not a lot of linemen look like him (“I’m kind of skinny and thick at the same time.”) He knows not a lot of players have Calais Campbell as a mentor. He knows how much the Ravens defense needs from its young pass rushers. And yet …

“I don’t really know what I can be,” he said in a recent interview. “Just doing the same thing over and over and over and over and not getting bored — I get bored easily — I’m not disciplined — those are my kryptonite. Those are things that I’m aware that I’m not good at, and have a willingness to attack it. So it’s just all about growing up as a player and developing as an athlete and doing the right thing.”

That was hard to do at times last year, during a rookie season Madubuike called “tough.” He missed the Ravens’ first four games with a knee injury. He missed another two amid the team’s coronavirus outbreak. He didn’t post his first sack until Week 16, and finished the season with only seven quarterback pressures, according to Sports Info Solutions, just ahead of run stopper Brandon Williams (six).

Madubuike came into camp looking for a playing weight, he said, “that fits me and my skill set.” Last year, his weight bounced between 305 and 310 pounds — “I was kind of on the girthier side.” Now Madubuike’s around 295 pounds, as light as he’s been in years.

He has not played like he’s lost anything. In a one-on-one pass-rush drill early in camp, Madubuike won three straight repetitions and made each look easy, a flash of the form that led to 13 sacks over his final two college seasons. As a run defender, he’s “one of the harder people I’ve ever had to move on defense, honestly,” center Bradley Bozeman said.

“If you were going to draw up who you wanted in a three-technique, that’s how you’d draw them up,” said defensive end Derek Wolfe, referring to a lineman who aligns over a guard’s outside shoulder. “His explosiveness, his strength, his bend — he’s the full package, man. He’s going to be — once he really understands how good he is and he really grasps that — he’s going to be dangerous, and he’s a smart kid, too, so he’ll pick it up quick.”

So how did Madubuike, Pro Football Focus’ highest-rated rookie defensive tackle in 2020, last until the third round of the draft, No. 71 overall? As a prospect, there were concerns about his size — he has small hands and average-size arms for a 6-foot-3 lineman — and his power. Other scouting reports cited “off-the-field issues” and “character concerns,” though he never landed in the police blotter at Texas A&M.

Madubuike heard the naysaying during the predraft process. He just doesn’t know who the naysayers were. Maybe it was team officials trying to drive him down other teams’ draft boards, he speculated. Maybe it was because he had two defensive coordinators and two positional coaches in his three years in College Station.

“People didn’t really get to know who I really was,” he said. “I was also the guy who, for the first two years of college, I didn’t really play nothing. I didn’t really play at all. I had to make a name for myself quickly. It came with a sense of urgency and attitude at a different grit to play the game. But maybe it rubbed coaches the wrong way in college. But that’s OK, you know. I’m here where I am now, and I’m ready to just look forward in peace and get better.”

In Baltimore, he’s on a Ravens team “that accepts me, that loves me for who I am.” Veteran linemen Derek Wolfe, Brandon Williams, Justin Ellis and Campbell have taken Madubuike under their wing, sharing their combined decades of wisdom in meetings and at practice.

The son of a father who sprinted competitively in Nigeria (“This dude was like a stick”) and a stout, strong mother (“I get my size from my mom”), Madubuike is figuring out just who he is, just what he can be. He inherited a drop-top convertible from his dad but recently purchased a Chevy Silverado 1500 truck that’s more his style. He’s earned a couple of nicknames from teammates — “Madabeeks,” “Madabeast” — but goes by “Mad-Man” on Instagram. He believes that, even in a pass-first league, linemen have to “earn the right to rush the passer.”

That last credo he took from Campbell, whose wisdom Madubuike has embraced. The veteran’s best lesson has been on the value of sacrifice: The energy Madubuike could put into playing video games or partying would be more fulfilling if it’s poured into his career. There’s nothing magical about self- improvement.

“You wake up every day, having a plan: ‘This is when, every day on Monday in practice, I’m going to learn how to rake down. I’m going to learn how to swim better. I’m going to learn how to take off better,’” he said. “And you just do that every single day. You have no other option but to get better.”

13

Ravens’ Odafe Oweh’s Big-Time Moments Against The Chiefs Show Why His Penn State Stats Were So Misleading

THE ATHLETIC | SEPT. 20, 2021 | BRUCE FELDMAN

Odafe Oweh — then known as Jayson Oweh — was one of the most polarizing prospects in last spring’s NFL draft. The former Penn State Nittany Lion has been a fixture on my annual Freaks List the previous couple of seasons. At 6-foot-5 and 257 pounds, his speed and athleticism is, in a word, reeee-diculous. This is a player who was clocked at 4.33 in the 40 by the Penn State coaches I’d spoken with. That number is so eyebrow-raising, some were skeptical. Not me.

Oweh wasn’t the first Nittany Lion to produce some remarkable workout numbers only to later back them up at the NFL combine — similar to how Saquon Barkley, Mike Gesicki, Troy Apke and John Reid also did. Oweh’s other testing numbers also were really impressive. He vertical jumped 36 inches and broad jumped 10-7. He also had a pro agility time of 4.46, a 380-pound bench press and a 365-pound power clean.

But Oweh didn’t produce gaudy stats on the field. He had five sacks in 2019 but zero sacks in seven games in 2020. That triggered some doubt about how that freakish athleticism translated to the NFL. One NFL linebacker coach who had worked him out described him as “very tight-hipped” and “really stiff,” adding: “He could become a 15-sack guy or he could just as easily be out of the league in three years.”

An NFL defensive line coach I spoke to, one who also had studied Oweh’s tape beyond the stat sheet, said he saw Oweh differently and believed Oweh would be a major impact guy because he was a rare athlete and for how he played.

“I know he didn’t have any sacks last year, but he was still really disruptive,” the coach said. “He does things that don’t show up on the stat sheet. You watch their Indiana game, and he hit the quarterback, like, 10 times.”

On Monday, that same NFL coach told me he’s not at all surprised that Oweh — a first-round pick of the Ravens — is already having a big impact for Baltimore, which won at home Sunday 36-35. It was Oweh who made the defensive play of the night, darting in from the right side of the Ravens line while knocking the ball out of Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s grasp and then scrambling to also recover the fumble with just 1:26 remaining — and Baltimore clinging to a one-point lead with Kansas City in field goal range.

Earlier in the second half, Oweh also had come up huge, with Baltimore down 35-24, when the former Penn State speedster made a momentum-shifting play. Oweh had lined up across from star tight end Travis Kelce and jammed him, initially looking like he was dropping into coverage before bursting past a Chiefs O-lineman to pressure Patrick Mahomes, corralling him just as he tried to get the ball off into what became a Ravens interception.

Both plays were prime examples of Oweh’s special athleticism. The D-line coach I spoke to before the draft said on Monday he also thinks what Oweh showed is a testament to a great fit between prospect and scheme.

“It’s a great system for him,” the coach said. “They really do a lot defensively and they can line him up everywhere. This is a guy who is faster than most of the safeties in the league, so he can make up for a mistake or a bad step. He can be a stand-up OLB and defensive end. Those guys have multiple looks and move their guys around. You are not concerned with an athlete like him in coverage either.”

What we saw from Oweh against the Chiefs is why stats in college football can be so misleading. On paper, he didn’t record a sack Sunday night either, but he did help produce two of the biggest plays in the game.

14

Odafe Oweh: Laser-Focused On NFL Success

BALTIMORERAVENS.COM | AUG. 5, 2021 | CLIFF BROWN

Odafe Oweh sketches portraits during his spare time. He draws with meticulous detail, patiently working to create something special.

"I don't sell my sketches," Oweh said. "I'm a visual person. If I see something that looks cool or that I admire, I just want to sketch it. It relaxes me. It brings out my creative side."

There are similarities between Oweh the artist and Oweh the athlete. Whether using a pencil or wearing pads, Oweh has a clear vision. He is never satisfied until the picture is complete.

A first-round draft pick with enormous athletic talent, Oweh is beginning his NFL career with a blank canvas. He is passionate about creating another work of art, driven to become a dominant NFL outside linebacker though he didn't start playing organized football until the 11th grade.

Oweh plans to chase his dreams with an overachieving work ethic instilled by his family. His father, Henry, and mother, Tania, who own a medical equipment business, grew up in Nigeria before moving to New Jersey to chase the quintessential American dream. Odafe, who was born in Hackensack, N.J, has an older sister and two younger brothers, and they were all raised to be confident, determined to succeed no matter what stood in their way.

Whatever the Ravens expect from Oweh, his personal expectations are higher.

Oweh's chiseled 6-foot-5, 251-pound frame screams that he's athletic when he walks down the street. But the mental side of football often separates potential from results. Because of his late start in organized football, it may be fair to speculate on what kind of impact he will make as a rookie and beyond. But never question his desire. He believes both his mind and body have been built for success.

"From a young age, I always wanted to be the best at whatever I did," Oweh said. "I don't know if it was my father drilling that into me. But he'd call me a lion. To this day, I hate being second, I hate being inadequate. I hate losing. I hate that more than I love winning. Even when I win, I feel like there's things I could've done to be more dominant."

Claiming His Name

Some insight into Oweh's fierce pride was revealed on draft night when he announced to the world that he wanted to be called by Odafe, using the Nigerian first name given to him at birth.

Oweh was known as Jayson at Penn State and through most of his adolescence, though his family called him Odafe. It wasn't always easy for Oweh to fit in growing up in Howell, N.J., a town in central New Jersey which wasn't ethnically diverse and where some had trouble relating to his Nigerian heritage.

"Being the only tall, big black African kid, it was tough," Oweh said. "You have to maneuver, make sure you keep your identity but try to make friends. It was tough. I was determined to make something of myself. People were always looking at me like I was different. I didn't see anyone else that looked like me, anyone who talked like me, anyone who had a name like me. So, I just decided to embrace being different."

Many friends and classmates had trouble pronouncing Odafe (uh-DAH-fay), So for years, he told people to call him Jayson, largely because he got tired of hearing his name mispronounced, or in some cases mocked.

However, Oweh wouldn't allow people to play with his name as he entered the NFL. Draft night was a surreal experience for Oweh, surrounded by family and friends, engulfed by love and congratulatory hugs. But when he saw the name Jayson Oweh on the television screen after the Ravens drafted him, something powerful came over him. He hadn't planned to talk about his Nigerian name. His announcement that he no longer wanted to be called Jayson was not premeditated.

But in that moment, Oweh realized his future should belong to Odafe Oweh. He claimed the name that was already his.

"People think I was saying, 'When I get drafted, I'm going to make people call me Odafe,'" Oweh said. "It wasn't like that. I was just caught up in so much emotion. I was surrounded by my family. People were calling me Odafe. All this time, people had been calling me Jayson...."

"...But at that moment I was totally in my culture. I just wanted to be me, be who I am, embrace my Nigerian culture. It just came out." Oweh's decision about his name was emotional for his family. In Nigerian culture, names often carry a message, and Odafe means "A wealthy individual." If Oweh realizes his potential to have a long and successful NFL career, finances should not be a problem. But for Oweh and his family, there is deeper meaning to his name.

"In the Nigerian culture, wealth is not just monetary," Tania said. "Wealth is human support, it's wellness, it's more of a holistic view to wealth."

Tania has watched with pride as her son has grown from adolescence into adulthood, embracing his Nigerian heritage and gaining confidence in his identity.

She remembers arriving on campus at Penn State looking for Oweh one day when he was in college. She spotted him walking with a group of friends that included teammate Micah Parsons, the No. 12-overall pick in this year's draft by the Dallas Cowboys.

Oweh didn't see his mother approaching from behind, so she yelled out his name, "Odafe." Everyone in the group turned around with strange looks on their faces. Tania quickly realized his teammates had never heard their friend "Jayson" called Odafe before.

"Micah Parsons was like, 'Who's Odafe?,'" Tania recalled. "Then Micah was like, 'I love that name.' 15

"At some point, Odafe decided to embrace all of who he is. He hasn't discussed it much with us, but I sense a coming of age with him. To me, it's significant what he did regarding his name, because I'm a very spiritual person. When God wants to do something in a person's life, you can see places in the Bible where he'll change a person's name. I think it's symbolic. I mean, he didn't even wait to play one game in the NFL before he wanted to be called a different name? I think it's a statement. He may not totally understand it now, but he will later."

There was another emotional moment for Tania when Oweh saw his No. 99 Ravens jersey for the first time, hanging in the locker room at the Under Armour Performance Center. Penn State does not put its players' names on the back of jerseys, so this was the first time Tania had ever seen Oweh on the back of her son's football jersey. Oweh called his mother immediately and showed her the jersey over his cellphone. It was a moment they will remember.

"She was just the first person I decided to call," Oweh said. "Her reaction made it even more special for me."

Tania had not thought about Oweh having the name on the back of his jersey until she saw it. But she understands her priceless reaction.

"It was a combination of many things," Tania said. "I thought about all the work he's put in, yet it some ways, it seems like it's happened so fast. Odafe didn't cut corners, but we know he's fortunate.

There are people who have played sports their whole lives, dedicated their heart and soul, who haven't made it to the top. He's only been playing football for a short time, yet he's been able to reach this level."

The Rapid Rise

To describe Oweh's development in football as meteoric is not an overstatement. Six years ago, he was not even playing organized football.

Basketball was his love growing up, and for most of his youth, his athletic focus was on getting a scholarship to college and making it to the NBA. He played on elite AAU teams in New Jersey and never imagined football might be in his future until he transferred from Rutgers Prep to Blair Academy in the 11th grade. Rutgers Prep didn't have a football team, but Blair did. For Jim Saylor, the former head football coach at Blair, Oweh's arrival at the school was like someone giving him a winning lottery ticket.

"I was told there was a kid in the office who was coming in who had some size to him, who I might want to talk to about playing football," Saylor said. "I walked in and introduced myself. When he stood up, I was like, 'Oh my God.' He's 6-foot-5, 6-foot-6, maybe 230 pounds at the time. When I asked if he had ever played football before, his family all laughed at me. I said, 'Maybe you should give it a shot.'"

Oweh wasn't convinced. Saylor kept calling, but Oweh kept ghosting the football coach, an avoidance dance that went on for several weeks. Someone with Oweh's pride doesn't change his goals easily. If he was going to play football, he was going to be all-in, and that took some soul- searching.

"I had put 16, 17 years of my life into basketball, and now people were telling me I should focus on something new?" Oweh said. "As a 16-year old, that's disappointing. I had to switch my body, my mentality. I had doubt I was making the right decision. "But coach Saylor kept calling and calling. Finally, I answered the phone and we had a heart to heart. He told me it was okay if I played basketball, he wouldn't step on my toes with that. But he really thought I should give football a try. He thought I might be able to be special. I trusted him, and he took me under his wing. He made me look inside myself. I owe a lot to him. He gave me confidence when I didn't believe that I could make that jump and be dominant."

Oweh's introduction to football was not without painful moments. In his first high school game, the inexperienced Oweh was blindsided on kickoff coverage and it felt like he was knocked into next week. It was feared Oweh had suffered broken ribs during the violent collision. Saylor feared Oweh might quit football after one game and return to basketball.

"He ran down on that kickoff and got demolished," Saylor said. "I figured I see him Monday and he'd say, 'Coach, here's my gear. I tried it.' But he came back and kept getting better."

By the time Oweh was a senior, he was being heavily recruited and chose Penn State. He became a starter as a junior and playing a full 11-game schedule for the Nittany Lions in 2019, made 21 tackles, five sacks and five tackles for loss. In the 2020 season that was interrupted by COVID-19, Oweh had 38 tackles in just seven games and was a disruptive force as both a run defender and pass rusher.

His quickness off the snap was lethal, he was often double-teamed, and though opponents often ran away from him, Oweh displayed the quickness to chase down ball carries from side-to-side. Yet, Oweh did not have a sack last season, which was the major knock on him before the draft, a criticism that fuels him as he embarks on his rookie season.

The Prolific Pro Day

Oweh's freakish athletic ability was memorably displayed during his Pro Day performance in March prior to the draft. Ravens Outside Linebackers Coach Drew Wilkins called it the best pre-draft workout he had ever seen.

Listed at 6-foot-5, 251 pounds, Oweh ran an unofficial 4.39 in the 40-yard dash, matching what Ravens wide receiver Rashod Bateman ran at his Pro Day. Consider that Oweh outweighs Bateman by about 70 pounds. Oweh's 39 ½-inch vertical leap was in the 96th percentile among edge rushers, and his 134-inch broad jump would have tied him for fifth best among all athletes at the 2020 NFL combine.

But nobody at Penn State was surprised to see Oweh rise to the occasion. Coaches at Penn State never had to push Oweh to work harder, to focus more, to get in better condition. He was self-motivated, someone who acted older than his age.

A former linebacker with the New York Jets, Deion Barnes is now on Penn State's coaching staff and shares a close relationship with Oweh. He has the kind of approach that Barnes believes will take Oweh far.

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"He listens to everything you say, and it doesn't take long for it to show up on the field," Barnes said. "He knew I played in the NFL and whatever knowledge I could give him, he wanted to absorb."

Oweh and Parsons pushed each other prior to the draft to get in the best shape of their lives. They are close friends, yet they are competitive. That's a constant theme with Oweh. Don't hang out with him unless you're ready to compete. Order a milkshake with him, and he may race to see who can drink it the fastest.

"Me and Micah's relationship has always been like that," Oweh said. "We love each other, but we really grew closer when we saw that we were athletically gifted. He wasn't going to get better going against just anybody. I wasn't going to get better by going up against just anybody. We'd get better by going against each other.

"We competed so hard that we exceeded what we started out to do. We were both trying to get to the same place, getting to the Pro Day, getting the NFL's attention. In the weight room, who can do the most reps, who could run the fastest. Whoever lost would get mad. That helped me get ready for the draft, and what we're about to face in the NFL."

Primed For His Rookie Test

Oweh and fifth-round pick Daelin Hayes have already bonded, two rookie outside linebackers helping each other adjust to the NFL. Oweh calls Hayes "Twin," not only because they play outside linebacker, but because Wilkins often talks to them simultaneously during meetings and practices.

"Whenever Coach Drew talks to us, it's like – 'Odafe-Daelin, Odafe-Daelin,'" Oweh said. "I've learned that there isn't a second that you're on the field where you're not running. Run to the ball, chase somebody to the end zone. It's the nature of competing like you're competing in a game.

"If you practice like that, there shouldn't be any falloff in the game. We do everything at 100 miles per hour. In rookie camp, OTAs, I saw progression. It's a pride thing. I'm going against the best players I've ever seen, the best offensive linemen I've ever seen. But I just love the challenge. I just love this chance to get better."

Doubters fuel Oweh, but he doesn't need outside motivation to drive him. He has soaked up the individual coaching he has received from Wilkins and the entire staff during rookie camp, OTAs and training camp. Defensive Coordinator Wink Martindale loves having versatile players like Oweh who can morph into a pass rusher on one play, a run defender on the next play, set the edge or even drop into pass coverage.

Losing Matthew Judon and Yannick Ngakoue in free agency drastically changed the dynamic of the outside linebacker room, but the Ravens' acquisition of Justin Houston gives them a proven pass rusher to join Oweh, Tyus Bowser, Pernell McPhee, Jaylon Ferguson and Hayes in a deep outside linebacker rotation. Oweh is looking forward to Houston's arrival and knows he's another player who can help him and the Ravens get better.

"We got better – that's how I can take it," Oweh said. "It's an opportunity for me to learn from a guy that has [97.5] sacks; that's always great. I'm learning from Calais [Campbell] every day, and now you just added another guy that has a history of just getting to the quarterback. I can use help, every angle I can get. We just added another nice outside linebacker, so I just see it as competition, as well, but we got better. So, I'm good."

Oweh seems to be feeding off the intensity of training camp, and there have been times when he has whizzed past defensive tackles like a blur into the backfield. He's working on developing a signature spin move in practice that has already been effective.

"I have a lot of twitch, so I can do that pretty fast," Oweh said. "So, that's something that I'm going to try to keep on perfecting and getting better at."

Ready For the Present and Future

Saylor said that Oweh has talked about starting a youth football camp in Nigeria, where American football continues to grow in popularity. Oweh is that type of person, often thinking about giving back to others. Saylor doesn't expect Oweh to ever change much, because his family background is so solid.

"I don't think success is going to change the person he is," Saylor said. "He's so new to football and he's still learning the game. I could see him being a pro-Bowler in four years, that's the kind of talent we're talking about. He's going to have some great coaches in Baltimore. Their system seems like it's a perfect fit for him, and I know how hard he's going to work."

Harbaugh has only coached Oweh for a few months but he has been impressed by his all-business demeanor. Oweh loves football, but it's not just a game to him. After the Ravens were just four days into training camp, Harbaugh said he loved the rookie's mature approach.

"It'll be interesting to see over the long haul what kind of career he has," Harbaugh said. "I think you try to form a first impression in terms of how does his skillset translate for any player – how does it translate from college to the NFL. The way he moves, I think, has translated very well in the first four days. So, I'm very excited about that, but also the way he works. He's a very serious guy, every day. He's into the playbook and he works really hard at it."

When Oweh hears people call him raw, or a project, or having a high ceiling, he takes it as a compliment. But it's also a challenge. Will he realize the potential the Ravens see in him? How quickly and how completely will he harness his talent?

Those are questions Oweh is determined to answer, and he wants to make an impact as quickly as possible. When Oweh entered the NFL, he wanted people to know his name. When he's done playing, he wants people to remember it.

"I hate when people think that because I'm new to football, I'm not true to it," Oweh said. "I'm true. I'm as dedicated to this as people who've been doing it their whole lives. Football is now my craft."

17

How Ravens' Patrick Ricard Morphed From UDFA To Pro Bowler 'Pancake Pat'

ESPN | MAY 12, 2021 | JAMISON HENSLEY

Among his tweets about food and Star Wars, Baltimore Ravens fullback Patrick Ricard delivered this advice on the first day of this year’s draft:

"Remember, it’s not where/when/if you’re drafted, it’s all about what you do when you get there #undrafted”

Ricard’s story serves as much as a lesson as an inspiration to the hundreds of undrafted rookies who take the field this month for their first NFL practices.

He went from being an undrafted defensive lineman to the muscle of the most dominant running game in NFL history because he was going to say "yes" to every coach in order to get noticed. He went from having two scouts at his pro day in Maine to reaching two Pro Bowls because he was going to do whatever it took to make the team, even if it meant a what-are-you-thinking position change.

His aspirations of becoming the next J.J. Watt had to get reluctantly brushed aside. These days, the 6-foot-3, 311-pound Ricard, 26, is something this league has never seen before; pro football’s most ferocious unicorn ever.

Lamar Jackson watched Ricard knock so many defenders on their backs that he nicknamed him “Pancake Pat.” Tyreek Hill, one of the fastest players in the league, sent out a tweet that complimented Ricard on his agility after watching him catch passes in Baltimore’s playoff win at Tennessee.

“Throughout his life, he has shown that if you give him a chance, he’s going to thrive,” said Christian Ricard, Patrick’s older brother.

Patrick Ricard’s career pivoted on one snap at a spring workout four years ago. Ricard was a rookie who was headed to get ready for practice when he was stopped in the hallway by Greg Roman, who was the tight ends coach at the time and is now the Ravens' offensive coordinator.

“We want to give you a rep at fullback” were among the first words Roman ever spoke to Ricard.

Roman noticed Ricard’s low center of gravity when he played defense and how he was built like a tank. It was also five years earlier that Roman used defensive lineman Will Tukuafu as a fullback with the 49ers with some success.

So, Roman put his latest outside-the-box plan in motion by explaining the play to Ricard -- it’s called "90 Lead" -- a basic but nuanced run. Lining up on offense for the first time since high school, Ricard first put a block on a defensive tackle before climbing through traffic to seal off the middle linebacker. He displayed the right instincts, footwork and physicality.

Ricard ran over to coach John Harbaugh and intentionally stood right beside him to watch the next play, eagerly waiting to hear some approval. Harbaugh paused and turned to Ricard, saying, “Looked a natural out there.”

After practice, an awestruck Ricard saw his block make the highlights that were shown to the whole team and coaching staff.

“I’ll be honest -- I wasn’t good enough that year to make the team just as a defensive lineman,” Ricard said. “I’m just thankful that Baltimore needed a fullback. They had no reason to give me an opportunity at all. I mean, I’m an undrafted guy. I’m just so grateful for it because you never know what could’ve happened to me.”

Unbeknownst to Ricard, he was about to put a new spin on old-school football. He is a hitting machine who opens up the edges for Lamar Jackson and J.K. Dobbins, serving as the key cog to the only rushing attack to produce 3,000 yards in consecutive seasons. He has also proved adept at catching passes in the flat, recording the most receptions (21) and receiving yards (104) ever by a 300- pounder, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

“How often does a guy come in as a free agent on defense and then becomes a Pro Bowler on offense?,” Roman said. "I mean, come on. Tell me when that’s happened before. I’ll tell you -- it never happens.”

'The adrenalin button'

Ricard grew up in Spencer, Massachusetts, a blue-collar town that’s an hour's drive outside of Boston. Like Ricard, many marry their high school sweetheart there and generation after generation never leave. It’s so tight-knit that people knew Ricard and his wife were looking at a house in town before they even stepped foot in it.

What no one realized, at least no one outside the Ricard family, was an NFL player stood right in front of them about 20 years ago. When he was younger, Ricard was much different than the OCD-type player that Ravens coaches describe. He decided to quit Pop Warner football after his first season before going back to it a year later. In high school, Ricard would stay up all night playing video games and then fall asleep in the backseat on the drive to summer weight-lifting sessions.

The love for contact, though, has always been ingrained in Ricard. Some believe it’s in his blood. His brother Christian, who played college football at Stony Brook, broke three helmets during his junior year of high school.

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“They were hit junkies,” said Andrew Tuccio, the former head coach at David Prouty High School. “It was like they had an adrenalin button in their forehead.”

Tuccio still texts Ricard that the origin of his nickname goes back to his pancake drill. With one player holding a blocking shield, a teammate gets a three-step running start toward him. The purpose is to teach drive blocks, and the drill is supposed to end with one player laying on top of the other one.

“It used to be hilarious because especially when [Ricard would] get into his junior or senior year, he’d try to get one of the younger kids,” Tuccio said, “That way, he could just pop them and see how far he could get them up in the air.”

In what became a recurring theme, Ricard found himself disrespected by a lack of outside interest. His only scholarship offer came in December of his senior year after a meeting at McDonald’s with the University of Maine defensive coordinator.

Ricard really wanted to play linebacker as he did in high school, but he was told he wasn’t fast enough. To continue his football career at the next level, he was forced to change positions and ended up as a defensive lineman.

“When I first got there, my first day of practice, I didn’t even know how to get into a defensive line stance,” Ricard said. "I had no idea. I’ve never done it, so that’s how much I had to learn and develop.”

Staying healthy was the biggest challenge of his college career. There were three straight offseasons of surgeries. It got so bad that after his redshirt freshman year, Ricard was in a wheelchair for a month in the ice and snow of Maine because he tore the lateral meniscus in both his knees.

By his final season, Ricard was a force in the Colonial Athletic Association and was named third-team All-America. On his pro day, Ricard looked around and noticed only scouts from the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts.

He didn’t know it yet, but the Ravens were waiting in the wings.

Lured by the Ravens

Few teams can rival Baltimore’s success with undrafted free agents, from kicker Justin Tucker to running back Priest Holmes to linebacker Bart Scott. The Ravens typically don’t offer more signing bonuses than other teams, but they make up for it in their effort.

Ravens northeast scout Mark Azevedo first identified Ricard as a priority free agent, and Baltimore started the recruiting process. Ricard got calls from the Ravens' defensive coordinator and defensive line coach at the time. For more than a month, he heard from assistant defensive line coach Drew Wilkins at least a couple of times a week.

Wilkins once sent a video to Ricard that showed him performing a swim move to get a sack and then spliced in defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan, who had just left Baltimore in free agency, doing the same exact move on the same exact play. Wilkins’ voice-over narration included the message: “You’re such a fit with us. We see you in this role.”

“It’s one thing to say it, but the tape did a better job than I ever could of showing those similarities,” said Wilkins, who is now the team’s outside linebackers coach. “It’s just something being conscious of let’s make sure this guy knows we’re going to go over the top for him because we think he’s a special player.”

On the final day of the draft, Wilkins stepped out to his downtown balcony and snapped a picture of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. He texted it to Ricard, saying, “This is going to be your city.”

As the draft wound down, Ricard had come to terms that he would not be among the 253 players drafted in 2017. He got only one phone call from a head coach -- Harbaugh.

“Just the amount of interest they showed me, that was really the biggest factor to why I ended up signing with them,” Ricard said.

Ricard received a $6,500 signing bonus, and he earned a spot on the team as a rare two-way player. But the NFL's modern-day Bronko Nagurski didn’t have any role by the end of his second season. Caught in a roster numbers crunch -- four tight ends were suiting up -- Ricard was a healthy inactive for the final six games of the 2018 season, including the playoff loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in which Ravens running backs combined for 36 rushing yards.

"After that game, I was like, that was a mistake,” Roman said. "We could have used [Ricard] in that game. He could have bludgeoned some of those linebacker types they had out there.”

Ricard has played in all but one game since (his only absence was related to COVID-19) and transitioned into a full-time fullback, where he has beaten the odds to become among the league's best. He is one of five undrafted position players to reach a Pro Bowl over the past five years.

Helping all over the field

Ravens tight end Mark Andrews knows better than anyone how Ricard goes above and beyond.

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A Type 1 diabetic, Andrews started cramping badly at a practice last year because his blood sugar was low. Only Ricard noticed.

Without hesitation, Ricard ran into the facility, grabbing some Gatorades from the refrigerator and some fruit snacks from the nutritionist’s office.

“That’s the type of person that he is,” Andrews said. “He’s an incredible teammate, incredible friend.”

Ricard is full throttle, all the time. His knock-them-off-their-feet blocks are a major reason why Baltimore can "get medieval" -- as Roman likes to put it -- and lead the league in rushing the past two seasons.

The Ravens don't keep track of Ricard's pancake blocks, which is just as disappointing as knowing Ricard prefers to make waffles at home. But Jackson has taken notice of Ricard's body blows.

"'Pancake Pat' -- he's always getting him a pancake in," Jackson said in December, giving Ricard his most popular moniker. "I feel like he's got one in every game this season. If not one, then two."

Ricard doesn’t let up in practice. Teammates have experienced anxiety when he is headed their way.

"I actually thought he was coming to block me and my body just froze. Man, this is it,” Ravens middle linebacker Patrick Queen told The Pat McAfee Show. “[But] we whiffed.”

Ricard attacked expanded responsibilities in the passing game with the same intensity. He asked Roman to throw balls to him in between periods. It’s been estimated that Ricard caught 100 passes every practice.

In the Ravens’ playoff win at Tennessee last season, Ricard showed his versatility with the game tied at 10 at halftime. In the opening drive of the second half, Ricard pulled in three passes from Jackson, including a shoestring grab and an outstretched catch, before providing the lead block on Dobbins’ 4-yard touchdown run.

“Ricard should not be able to move and catch like this. He’s so good,” Hill tweeted during the game.

Ricard's popularity has grown so much that draft picks have drawn comparisons to him. Michigan tight end/fullback Ben Mason, who just happened to get drafted in the fifth round by Baltimore, was described to be "in the Patrick Ricard mold" because he's a standout blocker who has also played defensive line.

Four years ago, Ricard came to Baltimore as a fringe defensive lineman worried about whether he would make the team. Now, he’s “Pancake Pat,” a bulldozing fullback who provides hope for undrafted rookies elsewhere while striking fear in others.

"There’s nothing better [than a pancake block] because there’s nothing they can say,” Ricard said. "I have some guys say, ‘Oh, I tripped.’ Yeah, OK. That’s why you’re on your back. It’s the best. You’re physically dominating somebody that’s trying to physically dominate you, and then you put them on their back. You know, everybody saw it, and everybody is going to see it on film. It’s just so degrading as a defensive player. Yeah, it’s a great feeling for sure."

20

Ronnie Stanley Makes His Return At Home In Las Vegas

BALTIMORERAVENS.COM | SEPT. 12, 2021 | CLIFF BROWN

For Ronnie Stanley, Las Vegas is home.

It's not about the bright lights, the Vegas strip or the gambling. His parents still live there. It's where Stanley learned to play football, went to high school – the place where his childhood memories come to life.

Stanley has never played an NFL game in his hometown and neither have the Ravens. That will change when Baltimore begins its 2021 season, facing the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday Night Football.

For Stanley, the symbolism can't be ignored. The All-Pro left tackle is returning from the most serious injury of his career, a severely fractured left ankle that ended Stanley's 2020 season on Nov. 1. The past 10 months have included grueling days of rehab, pain and doubt.

"During that process, there were times when I couldn't even feel my foot under myself," Stanley said. "I was wondering, 'Am I going to be able to do the things I need to do, to play at the level I want to play?' Those thoughts definitely went through my head."

Those doubts are gone. Stanley put in the work and he's back, determined not just to return, but to immediately reestablish his presence as a dominant left tackle. Knowing what her son has endured, Stanley's mother, Juli, will have many emotions watching from the stands at Allegiant Stadium. It will be a proud moment, with at least 20 of Stanley's family and friend in the stands, rooting like crazy for her son and the Ravens.

"The ironic thing is, so many of our family and friends are Raiders fans," Juli said, laughing over the phone. "But of course, when he's here, everyone is going to be wearing purple.

"It's almost surreal. Lots of emotions. Physically, he's coming out of something he's never experienced before. I know he has internal strength. I also know he's the type of kid that wants to do everything right. I know he's going to be prepared. But this is different coming home, and it's been so long. Notre Dame never played here when he was in college. It's exciting, but it's also emotional for me."

A Deep Thinker Who's Highly Competitive

Returning to Vegas will be emotional for Stanley too, but he may not show it during the game. Stanley isn't a fist-pumper or trash-talker. He's a deep thinker, someone who decides precisely what he wants to do, then goes about the business of doing it.

Stanley's business is to help ignite Baltimore's NFL-best running game, and to protect Lamar Jackson's blindside. He does it with excellence. During his last full season in 2019, Stanley allowed no sacks during the regular season and just six quarterback pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. He had a pass-blocking grade of 93.7, one of the best PFF has ever recorded.

If Stanley has his way, former Raven Yannick Ngakoue and the Raiders' other pass rushers won't touch Jackson on Monday night. Stanley takes protecting Jackson personally. On the rare occasions when Stanley allows someone to make contact with the Ravens' quarterback, Stanley usually apologizes to Jackson. Not after the game, but immediately, before the next play.

What does Jackson say?

"He says, 'You're good man,'" Stanley said smiling. "I build up a lot of guilt sometimes. That's something I've got to work on.

"I'm very competitive. I take pride in my team winning. I take what I do seriously. I know how much energy and focus I put into it."

"It's the standard I hold myself to – play in and play out. What I deem is acceptable to me, how much I analyze myself on film, I think that helps me be the best player I can be. It's rewarding to know that. I don't need the whole world to know how focused I am. As long as I know it, I'm ok."

The sixth-overall pick in the 2016 draft, Stanley has been everything the Ravens expected and more. The seven top picks in that draft have all made the Pro Bowl at least once – Jared Goff, Carson Wentz, Joey Bosa, Ezekiel Elliott, Jalen Ramsey, Stanley and DeForest Buckner.

Stanley is the only offensive lineman in that group, which means he wasn't the sexy pick. But he was the right pick, and he has silenced critics who misunderstood Stanley's even-keeled demeanor and questioned his passion for football during the draft process.

"I remember hearing when he came out of Notre Dame that he wasn't mean enough," Juli said. "If he's going to knock somebody down, he knocks them down. What does he have to do, step on them? That doesn't mean he's not competitive. The kid is competitive as heck."

Coming Back From Injury

Stanley and her husband, Ron, a retired pilot, were not in Baltimore the day Stanley was injured. They were watching from their home in Vegas, in separate rooms as always. Stanley's parents can't sit together when they watch him play on television. They drive each other crazy.

"My husband likes to explain," Juli said. "He has his version of what happened and I have mine. To save ourselves from just going at it all game, we separate."

The moment Stanley went down with his injury, Juli sensed it was serious. She walked into the room where his father was watching and they stared at the television together.

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"I can't explain it, but I was eerily calm," Juli said. "I had no reaction. I didn't feel my heart pounding, nothing. I guess I just knew. By the time I got back to the other room, his agent was on the phone with me."

Juli flew to Baltimore for Stanley's surgery, and she knew the next months would be difficult for him. But Stanley's stoic demeanor had already kicked in.

"'I'm good, Mom,' That's the answer I got, that's the answer I always get from him," Juli said. "He was already beginning his emotional comeback from this. That's him. You're not going to get a lot of words. Not a whole lot of emotion. He tends to be very philosophical about life, but he has strong opinions."

Every year, Stanley has become a better player and more depended upon for leadership on the offensive line. That has never been more true than this season.

Bradley Bozeman is moving to center, veterans Kevin Zeitler and Alejandro Villanueva were signed during free agency to anchor the right side, and there will be a new starting left guard Monday night to replace Bozeman. Stanley is the only starting lineman from last season returning to the same position, the anchor of a front five whose performance is crucial to the team's success.

Not only is Stanley helping his offensive linemates, he's giving pointers to rookie pass rushers Odafe Oweh and Daelin Hayes, giving them an offensive lineman's perspective to help them develop moves.

Stanley signed a five-year contract extension just two days before he was injured, another twist of fate that is difficult to ignore. His financial future is secure, and he is glad to be tied to the Ravens long-term. He loves the culture in the locker room and wouldn't want to play anywhere else.

"We don't have a bad apple in the room," Stanley said. "It's amazing."

How Vegas Shaped Him

Stanley had the same close-knit culture growing up in Vegas with his parents as the oldest of three children. His brother, Robert, and sister, Raychel, who lives in California, will also be at the game – the first time the entire Stanley family will watch him in person since he joined the Ravens.

He is a man of many interests, always open to new things, like his passion for making ice cream.

Talk with Stanley or follow him on social media and the topics can quickly change from sports, to social justice, to his love for dogs, to food. He credits growing up in Vegas for giving him an eclectic view of the world, one that helps him connect easily with people although he's rarely the loudest voice in the room.

"Vegas is a big melting pot of cultures and people," Stanley said. "We have the fun side, the strip, the gambling, all the shows, but there's a lot of real culture spread out throughout the city. They have great food variety. You get exposed to a lot of different people there. People from all walks of life will come to Vegas, retire, and set their roots down there. I've hung out with people who barely have any money and people who are billionaires. I've seen many different personalities and learned from many different people. Being closeminded is something I don't understand."

Stanley won three high school state championships playing at Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas, and he longs for another championship. He believes the Ravens have what it takes. He understands the legacy of the left tackle position with the Ravens that was started by Hall of Famer Jonathan Ogden, and Stanley would love to join Ogden in Canton one day. But what he wants most to share with Ogden is owning a Super Bowl ring.

"I told all the scouts during the draft process that I'll never get used to losing," Stanley said. "I was never okay with coming up short. I always felt like I had to do more, even if it wasn't my fault.

"I used to think about Hall of Fame, Pro Bowl. Now, I really just want to win. If those things come, I'll be appreciative. I believe the more I focus on winning, those things will fall into place."

When Stanley joins his teammates running out of the tunnel Monday night, his life will be back in place. Despite the presence of his family, this is a business trip for Stanley, although he says he'll figure out a way to place an order from Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers while he's in Vegas.

"Their sauce is the boss," Stanley said. "Some people try to hate on it, act like it's average. It's great. That's my spot."

His spot is also on the left side of the offensive line, and returning to regular-season action in Vegas will become a new hometown memory that will be forever etched in his memory. Stanley will be back home, in every way, and he's ready for the moment.

"I'm super-excited, but I've learned how to handle that," Stanley said. "For me to be consistent, I can't be too high or too low. If you're going to play a whole game and be consistent for three hours, you can't just be up all the time. There has to be a balance.

"But never in my whole life did I think I'd be playing a football game in my home city. I think it's going to be really cool, especially with my family there. I'll appreciate being in that moment. Coming back from the injury, it's going to be an overwhelming feeling."

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Brandon Stephens Switched Schools And Positions, All To Get The Opportunity That He Now Has

THE ATHLETIC | SEPT. 8, 2021 | JEFF ZREBIEC

The seats were mostly empty at M&T Bank Stadium and the activity on the field was limited to a handful of players and coaches milling about and getting pre-game workouts in. About three hours before the Ravens opened the preseason against the New Orleans Saints, rookie defensive back Brandon Stephens walked onto the playing surface and scanned the field.

Stephens made his way to the far end zone and took a seat, his back resting against the base of the uprights. There he stayed for a good while, his eyes fixated on his future that lay in front of him, his mind undoubtedly wandering to how improbable it was that he had even gotten to this point.

“Every day I come through the parking lot and go through the gates, I always just think about my journey and how blessed I am to be here,” Stephens said last week. “It’s been a long road. Still have work to do. The job is not finished.”

They told him that he was making a mistake, that it was much too late in his college career for such a jarring change. Some even questioned his sanity for giving up a scholarship and a spot as a running back for a celebrated Pac-12 program in exchange for what ultimately amounted to a tryout to play cornerback for an American Athletic Conference team.

Stephens had no other options, no other programs willing to take a chance on him. There was no tape out there of him playing cornerback, so it required a leap of faith that schools were reluctant to make. They were more than happy to take on the graduate transfer from UCLA if he was willing to play running back. That, Stephens made clear, was not an option. Those days were over.

With doors shut elsewhere, Stephens called a staff member at SMU, a school less than 30 minutes away from his Plano, Texas, home and made a proposal.

“He called us and said, ‘Hey look, I already graduated from UCLA. I really think I’m a defensive player,’” said SMU coach Sonny Dykes, who was familiar with Stephens from his time as the coach of California. “I knew his size, I knew what kind of athlete he was. I knew there would be a little bit of a transition. But he just said, ‘Let me try out and if I’m good enough, put me on scholarship. If I’m not, tell me and I’ll get out and do something else.’”

Dykes said that he realized five minutes into Stephens’ first practice that he was good enough to help the Mustangs at cornerback. Within two weeks, Dykes concluded that Stephens was worthy of a starting job. Before long, the SMU coaching staff believed that the novice cornerback was easily one of the team’s best players.

Stephens’ meteoric rise culminated on April 30 when the Ravens selected him with the penultimate pick of the third round. When general manager Eric DeCosta told Stephens that “we’re going to make you a Baltimore Raven,” Stephens wiped tears from his eyes and broke down as family members and friends celebrated in the background. Known for being quiet and composed, Stephens stayed true to the former and struggled to live up to the latter.

“That day was really such a blur. Really that moment was such a blur,” Stephens said. “I really couldn’t put into words what I wanted to tell Coach Harbaugh and Eric DeCosta. Just hearing them on the call saying that they were going to pick me, that was everything I dreamed of. I just really had a flashback of everything that me and my family went through the past three or four years. I was trying to listen to what they were saying, but I just felt everything, man.”

Stephens is one of seven Ravens in line to play in their first NFL regular-season game Monday night against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium. Stephens had a strong training camp and figures to play special teams and potentially be used in three safety looks with Jimmy Smith still dealing with an ankle injury.

Two years after he changed schools and positions, Stephens’ bet on himself is paying off like few could have imagined.

Ravens wide receiver James Proche jokes that he was the guy who discovered Stephens on the SMU campus. Proche ran into Stephens on the way to a Mustangs football practice early in 2019. Stephens asked him where the football facility was located. Proche didn’t know if he was responding to a recruit, a teammate or a non-football-playing student.

“I was thinking he was just some random guy,” Proche said. “The next thing you know, he’s out at practice. A few more days go by, he’s making plays. Then, a few more days go by, he’s starting. I was like, ‘What? What happened?’”

It wasn’t the first time that Stephens’ play had spurred curiosity. Clay Mack, a Texas-based athletic skills coach who works with some of the top defensive backs in the NFL, helped tutor Stephens in his transition from running back to cornerback. Mack had Stephens training with many of his established NFL players and it wasn’t long before one of the league’s best safeties took notice.

“I remember one training session where Jamal Adams was like, ‘Man, who is this guy?’” Mack said. “I was like, That’s B-Steve.’ And he said, ‘Man, I like him.’ Jamal is kind of finicky with the compliments. He’s one of those types. But he kept looking at B-Steve and he was kind of whispering to me. He was like, ‘I like him, man.’”

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Mack could tell early on that Stephens was capable of making a successful transition. He noticed the ease in which Stephens moved laterally and backward, how balanced he always seemed to be and how strong his base was. Stephens had plenty to learn, but he certainly didn’t look like a guy who had never really played the position before in a game of significance.

“I was taken since Day 1, by how determined he was with it,” Mack said. “That’s why the transition with him was so seamless. He bought in. In fact, he doesn’t even really talk about his running back days. It’s not really even a topic of conversation for him. He fully bought into the fact that he’s a DB.”

Stephens said that the extent of his defensive back experience came in high school seven-on-seven games over the summer. At Plano Senior High School, Stephens was a running back and a productive one, too. He rushed for nearly 2,657 yards and 36 touchdowns over his final two high school seasons. He was widely considered one of the top-25 prep running backs in the country and he garnered interest from powerhouses like Alabama, Oklahoma and Ohio State. Ultimately, Stephens chose to attend UCLA after decommitting from Stanford.

Stephens got minimal opportunities as a UCLA freshman, but he finished his sophomore year strong, rushing for 83 yards and a touchdown in a win over Cal that helped the Bruins secure a bowl bid. However, when Chip Kelly arrived at UCLA ahead of the 2018 season, he let Stephens know that he wasn’t prominent in the team’s running back plans. Stephens didn’t get a single carry during his junior season and appeared in just two games on special teams.

Even before his drop on the UCLA depth chart, Stephens’ mind was on the other side of the ball. He stayed after practice and worked out with the Bruins’ defensive backs any chance he got. He felt that cornerback was a better fit for his mentality and skill set. He also thought the position represented a better path to the NFL.

He actually wanted to change positions following his sophomore season, but that was tough to do with a new coaching staff coming in. The timing, though, was better following his junior season. He played so sparingly for the Bruins that he still had two years of eligibility left. He also was on his way to graduating from UCLA in three years.

“Honestly, it kind of just happened,” Stephens said. “There wasn’t anything that made it happen. It was basically just a mutual understanding between me and the coach. I really just loved the (cornerback) position. I just felt that’s where my heart was at, and I wanted to go pursue it. I didn’t have a lot of experience at the position, but I knew with constant training, I could gradually improve my technique and understand the position.”

With his mind made up, Stephens went to work. He’d hook up with Bruins’ defensive backs and future pros Darnay Holmes and Adarius Pickett for workouts. Whether the training session was early morning or late at night, Stephens made sure that he was there. When he wasn’t running through drills with Holmes and Pickett, he was bombarding them with questions about different techniques and movements.

Stephens heard from doubters, but those around him couldn’t recall a single instance when he questioned his decision.

“He wasn’t too caught up in a sea of opinions. Pretty much, when he made that transition, he wasn’t too caught up with his past history,” said Holmes, a cornerback for the New York Giants. “We welcomed him in with open arms and we knew that he could be something. He had God-given talent and it was pretty much his destiny.

“He was the prototype of what you want to see in DB — a guy who is aggressive, a guy who has the skills and body structure. Once he got out there, he had the basic instinct that you want as a DB. He had a quick twitch and disciplined eyes. From there, we just started crafting on the fundamentals and the basics and principles of playing DB.”

Working with Mack accelerated Stephens’ transition. Mack’s teaching focuses on movement and the kinetics and biomechanics involved. Stephens had muscle memory built up as a running back. Certain types of movements and skills carried over and gave him a good base for making the transition. Stephens is 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds, described by Mack as “bottom heavy” because he has really strong legs. But Mack marveled at how Stephens was able to hold his posture, leading to sharp, smooth movement.

Other things Stephens had to learn. Mack kept Stephens around NFL players as much as possible. When Stephens wasn’t involved in a drill, he’d be off to the side, going through the rep as if he was. At night, he reviewed tape of his workouts and texted Mack questions and areas he wanted to work on the following day.

“Once Brandon saw that his movements still could be efficient no matter what angle he had going on, I think he really became a student of the game with it,” Mack said. “Not only were we working on movement stuff, we also were talking about football IQ stuff. He was just merging the two and seeing, ‘OK, this skill set here fits this particular football situation.’ Once he started kind of putting his faculties together, he just really took off.”

Mack would have his NFL clients stop by and they’d notice Stephens on the field and ask what team he plays for. “He’s still in college,” Mack would say. “And they’d be like, ‘Damn, how is he moving like that? Everything he does is just so balanced and crisp.”

Stephens just needed to find a college program that believed in him. Multiple top-25 schools made him scholarship offers as a running back. He declined. That, however, became harder and harder to do without an opportunity in his pocket to play cornerback somewhere.

SMU was at least intrigued and vetted Stephens like any other recruit or transfer, but they had their share of questions as well.

“You start to go through the checks that you go through and there’s some kind of red flag normally. With Brandon, there just wasn’t,” Dykes said. “Certainly, we called around. We wanted to make sure he left UCLA in good standing and everybody there had nothing but great

24 things to say about him. We checked with the high school coaches, people he’s worked with, trainers. They all said kind of the same thing. ‘Just a really good kid who felt like he was playing a position that probably he wasn’t best suited for.’

“Typically, when those things fall into your lap, it’s almost too good to be true.”

Stephens proved quickly that he could cover and tackle and before long, he was on scholarship. In two seasons with the Mustangs, Stephens started all 23 games, made nearly 100 tackles, broke up a conference-leading 23 passes and had an interception. SMU, a program that had one winning season in six years before Stephens arrived, went a combined 17-6 during that span and Dykes cited Stephens’ ability to solidify the team at the cornerback position and the maturity and professionalism he brought to the program as major reasons why.

As April’s draft grew closer. Dykes started getting more and more calls on Stephens. The more NFL teams talked to Stephens, the more they studied his tape and learned his story, the more they liked him. Dykes could relate.

Proche was talking to a reporter during training camp when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye that brought him great amusement. He spotted Stephens, hauling several sets of teammate’s shoulder pads back toward the team facility after a long practice. It’s a duty rookies shoulder for their veteran teammates.

“You could be around him for 10 minutes and know that he’s a Raven. He’s that type of guy. Everybody here fits that mold pretty much,” Proche said. “He just believes in his work, in God’s plan for him. Me and him always talk about that, trusting your journey, trusting the path God has already laid out for you, following his steps and having the ultimate faith in the work you put in.”

Proche describes Stephens as the type of guy you’d want your sister to date. Stephens has two degrees. He once spent a summer interning at a real estate firm. He plays the saxophone and is extremely close with his family. He’s soft spoken and has a strong belief in himself, the latter quality helping him weather the storm on some personal challenges that he’s dealt with along the way and the number of people who questioned the changes he made from a football standpoint.

“Nowadays, everybody wants to score touchdowns on offense. I had some people ask me if I was sure and whatnot. I understood where they were coming from, but at the end of the day, I just had to better myself. That’s been my motto since Day 1, kind of how I’ve approached everything,” Stephens said. “There’s just things that happen in life that you don’t want to doubt yourself and doubt the opportunity that is coming.”

Stephens sat down with his mother, Charlotte, on the morning of Day 2 of the draft, and she asked him how he was feeling. Stephens told her that he had a premonition that he was going to the Ravens. Unbeknownst to him, his mother had the same feeling. She had bought the flags of two teams she believed her son was most likely to get drafted by.

After Stephens spoke to DeCosta and Harbaugh, he turned around to see his mother unfurl a purple flag with the Ravens’ logo on it.

“We going to B-More,” Stephens said after the reality had set in. “They don’t even know what’s coming.”

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