Wednesday was redemption day for Quinn Sypniewski. The Ravens? rookie tight end dropped pass after pass the day before at the team?s training camp practice at McDaniel College in Westminster. But there he was yesterday, hauling in catches from everywhere on the field and in almost every imaginable way.
“Just about the time I?m about to stick my size 12s up his private parts, he goes and makes three or four phenomenal catches, which is good,” head coach Brian Billick said. “He?s a sharp kid and he has the maturity to fight through it.”
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Sypniewski said he knows he has made his share of mistakes, but the former University of Colorado standout knows he has to live in the present.
“I talked about it with the other tight end, Daniel Wilcox. It?s just a mental thing right now,” Sypniewski said. “If you make a mistake, you just have to try your best to make a play the second time around.”
When Sypniewski was taken in the April draft, the Ravens? upper management openly speculated that the 6-foot-6, 270-pound player would ultimately be transferred to the offensive line, possibly at guard.
“Right now, I think I am a product of the system,” Sypniewski said. “That?s something they mentioned to me when they brought me in, and it?s definitely something that will be a process, a couple of years down the road. It?s not going to happen next year or the year after. It?s going to take me a long time if they want to get me on the line.”
So far in camp, though, he has proven to have hands that look like a real threat, especially in third-and-short situations. But Sypniewski joins a team stockpiled at tight end. The most notable name is Pro Bowler Todd Heap. Sypniewski said he leans on veterans like Heap and Wilcox for knowledge.
“As much I can,” he said. “I?m on their coattails all the time.They?re taking me under their wing and helping me and offering me any sort of tidbit of advice they can give me.”
While he is gleaming information from the elder statesmen on the team, he is also hoping to avoid Billick?s size 12s.
“I?m sure as soon as he needs to motivate me or give words of advice, he?ll be the first one to put that size 12 up my backside,” Sypniewski said.
