With Tuesday’s deadline fast approaching, we’re tracking the roster cuts one player at a time.
The Ravens and 31 other teams have begun the painstaking process of trimming their training camp rosters from 90 players to the NFL’s required 53 ahead of Week 1.
Baltimore is a loaded team with Super Bowl aspirations, meaning there aren’t many available roster spots, and few of the players on the bubble will make the cut. The Ravens have decisions to make at the reserve running back and backup offensive line positions, among others.
With Tuesday’s deadline fast approaching, we’re tracking the roster cuts one player at a time.
The Ravens will look to add to their historic preseason winning streak against the hometown Cardinals this Sunday.
The Arizona Cardinals will be playing their second preseason game at home against the Baltimore Ravens this Sunday. The team is expected to primarily play the starters from last week’s blowout win against the Bengals, while continuing to sit key players like Kyler Murray and company.
Similarly, the Ravens will certainly not risk the likes of Lamar Jackson and other starters. That means it will be Trace McSorley for Arizona and Tyler Huntley for Baltimore.
The Ravens come into this game with one of the craziest statistics in recent memory. They are on a 21-game preseason winning streak, with their last loss dating back to 2015. Their 23-10 win over the Titans last week broke the all-time preseason win streak record previously set by Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers.
While preseason games don’t mean anything come September, the streak is still extremely impressive. The Ravens have won these 21 games without playing key starters. It’s a great credit to their scouting department as the organization continues to find quality talent in the late rounds of the draft and into unrestricted free agency. They have also been one of the best teams early on in the regular season under John Harbaugh.
Trace McSorley, a former Baltimore Raven, looked sharp in his Cardinals debut against his old team. He was efficient moving the ball, going 13-for-22 for 163 yards and a touchdown. McSorley and Greg Dortch connected on a few highlight reel plays and both figure to play a lot this Sunday.
Perhaps McSorley, the former Raven turned meme icon from a popular TikTok trend, will end the team’s iconic preseason run. The odds don’t favor the Cardinals, as they are almost 7-point underdogs. Regardless of outcome, however, the Cardinals will be debuting their new all-black helmets.
The NFL has cut the preseason in half as the country continues to see spikes in the number of infected with COVID-19.
An already tumultuous offseason will continue to be modified due to the coronavirus pandemic. The NFL is canceling two preseason games — specifically the first and last scrimmages — according to ESPN’s Kevin Seifert and PFT’s Mike Florio.
For the Baltimore Ravens, that will mean preseason games against the Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins will be scrapped. However, it does mean Baltimore will play against the Dallas Cowboys and Carolina Panthers this preseason, with the Ravens meeting the Cowboys again in the regular season (Week 13). It will also be the first time since 2016 that Baltimore and Washington haven’t squared off in the preseason.
By removing the first game of the preseason, the NFL’s decision will give teams more time to prepare. With in-person minicamps canceled this offseason, training camp marks the first time coaches and players will be on the practice field together since last season. In Baltimore’s case, their first preseason game will be on Aug. 22, nearly a month after the start of training camp. The decision to shorten the preseason this year also limits the amount of travel being done as the country continues to see the number of cases of infected rise.
The last preseason game is often the one that fans dislike the most. Because it’s closer to the regular season, teams don’t often play their starters at all and leave those reps for players on the bubble. For fans, that ultimately watching a bunch of third and fourth stringers, many of whom aren’t going to be one the team days later when rosters get trimmed to 53 players.
While the regular season hasn’t yet been impacted by these changes, training camp and the preseason will be the league’s first real test of their protocols.
The NFL has taken a look at shortening the preseason with the coronavirus still going in an effort to better prepare for the regular season
The NFL is still currently scheduled to start the 2020 regular season on time despite the coronavirus pandemic. However, there has been discussions between the NFL and NFLPA about the possibility of shortening the preseason in some capacity, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
The catalyst behind a potentially shortened preseason would be to allow teams, players, and coaches more time to prepare for the regular season, per Pelissero. Though the NFL has allowed coaching staffs to return to their respective training facilities, players are still prohibited from returning barring for injury purposes. There’s hope training camp will start on time, with the league setting protocols earlier this week. But with limited knowledge of the virus and the potential for it to further spread, the NFL seems like they want to get some backup plans in place in case they have to further limit teams from getting together.
Shortening the preseason would allow for a longer “ramp-up” period, regardless of whether players agree to report a week or two early, and provide extra time for medical experts to finalize game-day protocols for testing, etc. More at the top of the hour on @nflnetwork
The Baltimore Ravens previously released their preseason schedule, starting with the Buffalo Bills on Aug. 14. The regular season begins for Baltimore against the Cleveland Browns on Sept. 13.
