Ray Rice said the game slowed down a little more for him with every handoff and kick return the running back handled during the Ravens? rookie camp this week.
Rice, a second-round draft pick, said that wasn?t the case a month ago, as the former Rutgers star tried to learn the intricacies of offensive coordinator Cam Cameron?s schemes while getting used to playing against seasoned NFL players during the team?s offseason workout schedule.
“I do feel it was better,” Rice said. “We kind of were thrown into the fire when we first got here. We learned on the run. But after you learn it, it kind of all slows down. It wasn?t new to us anymore. We just went out there, and the practices went pretty fast and smooth. It wasn?t as much teaching as it was going out there and working.”
First-year Ravens coach John Harbaugh moved the rookie camp to accommodate first-round pick and quarterback Joe Flacco, who would have missed the camp last month due to an NFL-NCAA agreement in which a rookie can only attend one offseason mini camp while his school is in session.
“I guess, as coaches, you just get in a certain habit of doing things ? you have the draft and then you have the rookie mini camp,” Cameron said. “There?s no doubt in our minds that this is probably the best time to have it. Whether the overall schedule allows you to do that every year, I don?t know that we know that yet. But I think they absorbed a lot more now. Things were really starting to sink in, which is the important thing.”
Rice and his fellow rookies won?t practice in front of the coaching staff until they join quarterbacks and injured veteran players on July 21, when the team opens training camp at McDaniel College in Westminster. The rest of the team will arrive on July 23 with the first full-team practice set for July 25. The Ravens have scheduled 43 practices during their 26-day camp, which breaks on Aug. 15. The team opens the regular season Sept. 7 against the Cincinnati Bengals at M&T Bank Stadium.
“I think our football team is on its way,” Harbaugh said. “We couldn?t have worked any harder. We couldn?t have done any more with them. We took advantage of every day, and our guys responded. I would say that, as a football team, we?re on our way.”
