Tag: Baltimore Ravens training camp

As NFL teams head back, Ravens not opening their training facility yet

The Baltimore Ravens are not among the NFL teams reopening their training facilities following their closure due to the coronavirus pandemic

Many NFL teams are heading back today as the league allowed facilities to open on a limited basis. But the Baltimore Ravens will not be one of them.

In a memo released to teams on Friday, obtained by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell laid out the necessary steps for the reopening of training facilities following their closure due in March to the coronavirus pandemic. While limited to only a small number of staff, teams could open their facilities as long as they did so in fitting with local rules. With Maryland’s regulations, Baltimore’s Under Armour Performance Center is considered non-essential and thus remains closed.

But all is not lost, either. With coaches barred and only rehabbing players allowed into the buildings under the restrictions laid out by Goodell, the Ravens aren’t really missing much. Baltimore has been holding virtual meetings, which have been working out well enough.

“My understanding from talking to [Head Coach] John [Harbaugh] and others is that those meetings are going OK,” Ravens president Dick Cass told “The Lounge” podcast. “They wouldn’t be much better if the players were remote and the coaches were in the office rather than in their homes.”

Baltimore has already missed their rookie minicamp, which was set to take place over the first two weeks of May. OTAs, which were scheduled to begin tomorrow, will at least be handled differently if the training facility isn’t open. But the big date circled on the calendar is the start of training camp, which typically begins in mid-July.

While the Ravens are confident training camp will occur, it will take a lot of testing as well as vigilance by the players, coaches, and on-site staff to pull it off. Though training camp is still two months away, it’ll likely look dramatically different than in previous years.

“We believe by the time of training camp, we’ll be able to test players and coaches, and those who meet together a lot, multiple times a week and be able to get results fairly quickly,” Cass said.

“If the infection rate is really low, as I expect it will be by late summer, and we have adequate testing, and people are careful when they leave the building, I think there’s a really good shot that we’ll be OK.”

These are unprecedented times and no one knows completely how things will look a week from now, much less in two more months. But with a cautious plan to return, Baltimore could still adequately prepare for the 2020 season, even if they take a little longer to come back than other teams.

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Ravens hopeful to keep training camp in Maryland but considering backup plans

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and regional restrictions, Ravens president Dick Cass said the team is open to moving training camp

The Baltimore Ravens have held training camp at their Under Armour Performance Center in Owings Mills for the last nine years. After moving from McDaniels College in Westminster to their palacial training facility all those years ago, it seemed as though the Ravens would never have a reason to move again. But with the coronavirus pandemic raging on and social distancing restrictions still in place, Baltimore is having to think of some backup plans. And that could mean training camp isn’t held in Maryland at all, much less at their facility.

“We’ll consider all options,” Ravens president Dick Cass said in a conference call with the United Way of Central Maryland on Thursday, per PennLive’s Aaron Kasinitz. “When we think about the option of trying to move our training camp outside of Maryland, we don’t like that option. We think that we can conduct training camp safely in Maryland. We know that our building will be absolutely pristine, and we think the safest place to conduct our training camp will be in Maryland at our facility. But if circumstances don’t allow that, we will explore the circumstances that are available to us.”

With the 2020 NFL Draft and the biggest portions of free agency now completed, teams are turning their attention to preparing for the regular season. And that means getting players and coaches ready with things like rookie minicamps, training camp and the preseason. But as the NFL continues to monitor the coronavirus pandemic and various regional restrictions, any form of offseason workouts are far from guaranteed.

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The league has thus far worked around the restrictions, creating a schedule for virtual offseason programs, recently extending it through May 29. But there’s little to no way to virtually simulate on-field work for an entire team, which is where training camp comes in. When asked how much time players would need to get ready for the regular season, Ravens running back Mark Ingram said he believed training camp and the preseason was essential.

“It has to be something around that – three, four, five weeks. The preseason and three or four weeks. Teams just being together, going through training camp, and being able to scrimmage other teams and play against other teams – I think all of that is crucial to the camaraderie of a team, and the development of your players on the team. I think it is all necessary in order to prepare yourself mentally, physically, individually and collectively, to have a successful season.”

Cass said he didn’t anticipate Baltimore would be able to hold in-person offseason programs or minicamp, according to Kasinitz. However, he did say the Ravens were “preparing to open training camp on time in late July.” While there are no guarantees and the situation is constantly evolving, that’s a good sign for a return of real football.

“The key thing for all of us is to have football games,” Cass said, per Kasinitz. “The community needs them, we need them and we’re expecting to play our games.”

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