Ravens place 6 more players on Reserve/COVID-19 list Saturday, including D.J. Fluker

The Ravens added six more players to the Reserve/COVID-19 list on Saturday, including D.J. Fluker, making the offensive line even thinner

The Baltimore Ravens have not had a single day without a player and/or staff member testing positive for COVID-19. That trend continued on Saturday, marking the sixth consecutive day of the Ravens’ COVID-19 outbreak growing. According to the team’s Twitter account, they’ve placed the following six players on the Reserve/COVID-19 list:

  • OLB Jaylon Ferguson
  • OL D.J. Fluker
  • OL Will Holden
  • DT Broderick Washington Jr.
  • CB Tavon Young
  • CB Khalil Dorsey

Baltimore placed four more players on the Reserve/COVID-19 list Friday, bringing the total to 14 total players on the list prior to these latest additions.

Though players like Dorsey and Young were on injured reserve already, negating some of the impact it’ll have on the team immediately, that’s not the case with everyone. With Fluker and Holden going on the Reserve/COVID-19 list, Baltimore is really thin along an offensive line that is already dealing with two starters on injured reserve.

The NFL has already postponed Baltimore’s Week 12 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers twice and moved its Week 13 matchup against the Dallas Cowboys as well. With the Ravens continuing to see people test positive for COVID-19, it creates some doubt about Tuesday’s game against the Steelers.

 

Players who test positive for COVID-19 are held out a minimum of 10 days per the NFL’s protocols. Those that are considered a close contact during the league’s contact tracing following a positive test are held out a minimum of five days. Since the Ravens have been battling this outbreak all week, there’s the potential some players added early in the week could be eligible to play Tuesday against Pittsburgh. However, positive tests would not only miss Tuesday’s game but potentially miss Week 13’s game against Dallas as well.

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6 takeaways from Ravens’ 28-24 loss to Steelers

The Baltimore Ravens lost a physical game to the Pittsburgh Steelers by a final score of 28-24. What can we take away from the game?

The Baltimore Ravens lost a heartbreaker to their biggest rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers, by a score of 28-24. The game came down to the wire despite Baltimore repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot with costly turnovers and penalties. At the end of the day, the Ravens just didn’t have enough to pull out a decisive victory.

The win moves Pittsburgh to 7-0 while Baltimore falls to 5-2. While that 5-2 record is nothing to scoff at, there are clearly still areas the Ravens need to work on and adjustments that need to be made. Lamar Jackson had a rough day, as did the offensive line and the defense seemed to have lost a step in the second half after playing lights out in the first half.

Let’s take a look at six takeaways from the game and what Baltimore can do with them moving forward.

What Ronnie Stanley’s injury means for Ravens’ offensive line moving forward

Baltimore Ravens LT Ronnie Stanley’s injury will end his 2020 season. But what does it mean for the Ravens moving forward?

The Baltimore Ravens lost 28-24 to the Pittsburgh Steelers in an extremely tough and physical game in Week 8. That physicality played a part in a number of injuries that took place throughout the course of the contest, none bigger than left tackle Ronnie Stanley, who left the game in the first quarter with what has been confirmed as a season-ending ankle injury.

Stanley got rolled up on by Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt and went down to the ground in serious pain. The cart was brought out and Stanley’s leg was put in an air cast. While he was in good spirits leaving the field, the precautions the trainers were using pointed to it being Stanley’s last time on the field in pads this season.

Stanley, who just signed a massive five-year extension with the Ravens a few days ago, is a massive loss for Baltimore. He is one of, if not the best left tackle in the league. For a unit that was struggling even with Stanley on the field, his subtraction will be felt immediately. The question is just how much will it impact the Ravens, both on the ground and through the air.

Stanley was dominating in 2020 and showed why the Ravens invested a lot of money into him. What makes Stanley so valuable is his elite run blocking as well as amazing pass protection. He’s a versatile player who doesn’t have many weaknesses, as ESPN analytics writer Seth Walder pointed out.

During the game against Pittsburgh, Baltimore moved starting right tackle Orlando Brown Jr to left tackle while inserting backup tackle D.J. Fluker on the right side at right tackle. It was the plan they used in Week 4 when Stanley missed the game against the Washington Football Team.

Moving forward, Baltimore will most likely keep things in-house when looking to replace Stanley. The Ravens were able to still find room on the ground with Stanley out, rushing for a combined 265 yards and a touchdown against the Steelers. Like we saw today and in Week 4, Baltimore will most likely roll out Brown at left tackle and Fluker at right tackle for the remainder of the season. Fluker is a good run blocker who’s physical at the line but can struggle at times in pass protection.

Fluker will be relied upon to fill a big spot on the Ravens’ offensive line. Against the Steelers, he played well, although there were a few times where he struggled to sustain blocks. However, going up against a very stout Pittsburgh front four, some struggles were to be expected. However, Baltimore has games against the Indianapolis Colts (third-fewest rushing yards-per-game allowed heading into Week 8), Steelers (2nd-fewest), Cleveland Browns (5th-fewest), and New York Giants (8th-fewest) remaining on their schedule.

Baltimore’s offensive line is in trouble right now. Center Matt Skura looks nowhere near the player he was in 2019 and is struggling badly. There is a revolving door at right guard that has seen Tyre Phillips, Patrick Mekari, and Ben Powers all get playing time. With Phillips suffering an ankle injury of his own against Pittsburgh, it’s unclear if he’ll be able to play next week or beyond. Left guard Bradley Bozeman seems to be the only one playing their normal position at a high level with Brown Jr. now moving to the left side.

The loss of Ronnie Stanley hurts and there’s no wishing that away. The Ravens have lost their best two offensive linemen from 2019 in a span of about eight months with Marshal Yanda’s retirement and now Stanley’s injury. Baltimore will have to weather the storm and work with what they have, although yet another position of depth at the beginning of the season is beginning to fall apart alongside the team’s injury woes at cornerback.

However, just because the Ravens lost Stanley doesn’t mean the season is over. Baltimore has an extremely talented roster and their offense is still capable of big things. There are issues that need to be sorted out after losing an All-Pro-caliber talent like Stanley, but this injury doesn’t define their season . . . It’s how they respond to it that will.

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Report: Ravens T Ronnie Stanley not expected to start vs. Washington

The Baltimore Ravens appear that they’ll be without starting left tackle Ronnie Stanley for Week 4 against the Washington Football Team

The Baltimore Ravens look like they’ll have to go into this crucial Week 4 game against the Washington Football Team without one of their best players. According to Jonas Shaffer of the Baltimore Sun and
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, left tackle Ronnie Stanley looks to be a scratch today with a shoulder injury.

Stanley was listed as “questionable” on the final injury report of the week along with seven other Ravens players. Stanley has been battling various injuries since Week 1, including ankle and hip injuries as well as this most recent shoulder issue. If Stanley is actually unable to play, it appears as though D.J. Fluker will take his place at left tackle.

That’s a major concern for Baltimore in this game. While Washington is clearly behind the Ravens in terms of talent, they do have a very good defensive line that has been able to get pressure without blitzing a lot. While Fluker has been in the league for some time and played at tackle, it has been some years since Fluker has manned the most important position on the offensive line and the results haven’t been great anywhere.

According to Pro Football Focus, Fluker has a terrible 48.0 overall grade on 24 offensive snaps this season. He had a 60.4 overall grade as a starter for the Seattle Seahawks last season, giving up six sacks and seven penalties over 14 starts in 2019. Luckily, Fluker won’t have to fend of Chase Young, Washington’s top pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, due to an injury of his own that has ruled him out already.

Partner of Ravens’ D.J. Fluker arrested on child kidnapping charge

The partner of the Ravens’ D.J. Fluker was arrested on a child kidnapping charge.

A strange and scary story out of Baltimore as the Ravens’ reserve lineman D.J. Fluker’s partner, Kimberly Davis, was arrested last week on a child kidnapping charge.

Davis already faces charges for an alleged assault of the former first-round pick of the Chargers in 2013 earlier this year.

The offensive guard said in the complaint that he fears for the safety of his daughter and doesn’t “feel safe during this time.”

Per The Baltimore Sun:

According to Fluker’s written complaint, Davis, who is his daughter’s mother, is only allowed to have supervised visits with the child but kicked Fluker’s sister out her apartment during a supervised visit on Sept. 19 and refused to relinquish their child to Fluker when he returned home from Houston.

Davis was arrested Sept. 22 and charged with kidnapping a child younger than 16 years old in state, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a $250 fine if the person is related to the child. She was released the same day after posting $2,500 bond.

The case is set to go to trial in January, the newspaper reported.

Davis was charged with second-degree assault in July after being accused of punching Fluker in the nose. According to charging documents from that incident, Davis told investigators she poked Fluker in the nose during an argument but did not intend to injure him. She is scheduled to face trial in that case in November, The Baltimore Sun reported.

 

Ravens start 2020 season behind Chiefs on USA TODAY Sports’ power rankings

The Baltimore Ravens have tried to make themselves better than last year’s 14-2 team but sit in No. 2 in the first NFL power rankings list

The Baltimore Ravens were the best team in the NFL during the 2019 regular season. While the playoffs were a different matter for Baltimore, they enter the 2020 season as one of the favorites to win Super Bowl LV. So it should come as no shock the Ravens are near the top of the power rankings ahead of Week 1’s showdown against the Cleveland Browns.

Nate Davis of USA TODAY Sports placed Baltimore at No. 2 on his first power rankings of the 2020 regular season.

While the Kansas City Chiefs are rightfully at the top of the power rankings list due to winning Super Bowl LIV, the Ravens have made a serious case themselves. With the disappointing loss to the Tennessee Titans still in their minds, Baltimore went out and remedied their biggest problem this offseason.

Before free agency even opened up, the Ravens had pulled off a deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars to land defensive end Calais Campbell. Baltimore would eventually sign defensive tackle Derek Wolfe after a deal with Michael Brockers fell through. Further gains to the defensive line came through the 2020 NFL Draft, with Justin Madubuike and Broderick Washington Jr. adding much-needed youth to the unit.

Offensively, the Ravens are largely the same as they were last year, though they’re trying to replace the recently-retired Marshal Yanda at right guard. But a motivated and in-shape D.J. Fluker looks to be a solid answer to Baltimore’s problems. With rookie wide receivers Devin Duvernay and James Proche added to help reigning MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson and running back J.K. Dobbins brought in through the 2020 NFL Draft, the Ravens’ offense has the makings to be even better than last year’s record-setting unit.

With the Ravens recently jettisoning safety Earl Thomas from the roster following his fight with fellow safety Chuck Clark, Davis wondered if Baltimore actually got better. All eyes will be on Thomas’ replacement, DeShon Elliott, to see if that’s the case or if the Ravens should have swallowed the bitter pill and kept the Pro Bowl safety.

With the very first live-action football in months coming this week, we’ll see exactly where Baltimore and the rest of the league stands.

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Ravens in good health as they go into regular-season mode

As the Baltimore Ravens finish up training camp, the team is in good health and should have everyone on the practice field next week.

The Baltimore Ravens are just about ready to flick the switch from offseason mode to the regular-season version. While there are still two weeks until the Ravens take on the Cleveland Browns to kick off Week 1 of the regular season, training camp is nearly over. That means they’ll go from getting everyone up to speed and in game shape, and instead turn their focus on preparing for the Browns.

With the regular season so close you can nearly taste it, Baltimore is in pretty good shape. Though there are a few players dealing with some nagging injuries and the Ravens are being a little extra cautious with some others, coach John Harbaugh said everyone should be practicing next week.

This is great news after the Ravens have seen a few key players miss some of training camp due to injury. Quarterback Lamar Jackson — the biggest name on the team — missed a few practices with a sort-tissue injury but returned to action earlier this week. Cornerbacks Anthony Averett and Marcus Peters, and right guard D.J. Fluker have also missed recent practices due to undisclosed injuries.

If Baltimore is able to get their entire starting lineup onto the field for Week 1, that will be a great sign for a team that has Super Bowl aspirations. But more importantly, with only a handful of practices remaining before the Ravens have to trim down the roster to 53 players, having everyone on the field should give Baltimore a chance to build the best possible regular-season roster.

It’s been a tough offseason but we’re nearly done and the Ravens are heading in the right direction.

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D.J. Fluker underwent insane body transformation in offseason

Guard D.J. Fluker completely transformed his body this offseason and entered Ravens training camp in the best shape of his life.

As I noted on the first day of training camp practice with pads on, Baltimore Ravens guard D.J. Fluker is a massive human being. Even among the ridiculously large offensive linemen, Fluker stands out like an adult at a kid’s birthday party. But for how big Fluker is, he used to be a lot larger.

Fluker posted videos of his workouts this offseason and they’re clearly intense. Between hill runs in the heat, footwork drills, and lifting weights, Fluker has been working hard to completely transform his body this summer. And he’s done exactly that. According to Fluker, he only lost around 10 pounds in total but dropped 22% of his body fat from the end of last season to now.

The end result is a slightly thinner but far more toned Fluker, who said he’s coming into training camp in the best shape of his life. It’s not just talk though, it certainly looks like a brand new version of Fluker. Just take a look at him from training camp this week compared to how he looked at this time last year:

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

Fluker believes the improved physique has him moving “like water,” while improving his explosiveness, reach, and ability to get to the next level on run plays. If what Fluker said translates to the field, he could be in for a career resurgence after a few injury-laden years with the Seattle Seahawks.

For the Ravens, Fluker showing up in great shape gives them hope they can at least manage Marshal Yanda’s retirement. Though Fluker acknowledged there’s no replacing a guy like Yanda, Fluker’s renewed vigor should make the competition for the open right guard job better. At this time of the year, that’s all a team can hope for.

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Ravens give first hint at starting offensive line at training camp

Baltimore Ravens center Patrick Mekari posted a photo that hints at what the Baltimore Ravens’ starting offensive line looks like at camp.

The Baltimore Ravens have been ramping up at training camp for the last few weeks. While reporters aren’t yet allowed at the facility, the team has given little glimpses of what’s going on at the Under Armour Performance Center. One such glimpse included the first hint of what the offensive line could look like in Week 1.

Center Patrick Mekari posted a photo of practice for his birthday, showing four of the five offensive linemen lined up to snap the ball. With Orlando Brown Jr. manning right tackle and Bradley Bozeman at left guard, this looks to be the very first starting lineup Baltimore is putting on the field.

Though we shouldn’t take this image as definitive proof since the Ravens are holding competitions for both starting guard jobs and potentially at center as well, it’s pretty much what many expected the starting lineup to look like. With veterans finally getting on the field for the first time this week, Brown and Bozeman being in their respective spots in the photo point to it being the current starting lineup at Ravens training camp.

Left tackle Left guard Center Right guard Right tackle
Ronnie Stanley Bradley Bozeman Patrick Mekari D.J. Fluker Orlando Brown Jr.

As the most experienced of the guards on the roster, Fluker was expected to get the first crack at replacing Marshal Yanda at right guard. Though he’ll also be competing with Ben Powers, Tyre Phillips, and Ben Bredeson; it seems like it’s Fluker’s job to lose right now.

With Matt Skura still on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, Mekari would be the next obvious choice at center. Mekari played well in Skura’s stead after he suffered a gruesome knee injury last season. Though Skura would likely hold the starting job once he returns, Mekari getting the nod right now is a good sign for a guy who could be on the roster bubble.

We still have several weeks remaining before the regular season starts and there is nearly an infinite number of things that can happen between now and then. This very well might not be anywhere close to what the Ravens’ starting offensive line looks like in Week 1, but for now, it seems to be what Baltimore is rolling with.

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Ravens grab starting guard in Todd McShay’s early 2021 mock draft

The Baltimore Ravens find the answer to Marshal Yanda’s retirement in the 2021 NFL Draft’s Wyatt Davis, according to ESPN’s Todd McShay.

One of the top battles happening this training camp for the Baltimore Ravens is at right guard. But ESPN’s Todd McShay has the ultimate answer for the open starting spot: the 2021 NFL Draft.

In McShay’s early mock draft, he has the Ravens picking Ohio State guard Wyatt Davis. Though Baltimore has some other needs as well, Davis was the first true guard taken off the board in McShay’s mock draft, giving them the best guy at the position.

McShay specifically notes Davis didn’t allow a single sack or hit last season, a truly impressive feat for any offensive lineman. With “above-average foot quickness and mobility” as well as “the power to open lanes in the run game,” Davis seems like an ideal fit as Yanda’s eventual heir if the Ravens don’t find the solution this year.

Now vacant with the retirement of Marshal Yanda, the Ravens are looking to patch up the hole at right guard through competition at training camp. Though seemingly every offensive lineman is being thrust into the fight for the open starting spot, the competition appears to really be between D.J. Fluker and Ben Powers this year. While Fluker brings experience, Powers was seemingly drafted in the fourth round last year with this vacancy in mind.

If neither player excels this season or if Fluker does but wishes to cash in during free agency, the 2021 NFL Draft seems like a viable spot to fix the issue for cheap. At least if the draft goes the way McShay is predicting right now.

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