Ravens quarterback Kyle Boller has been the perfect team player this training camp as he adjusts to life as a second-stringer.
He and new starter Steve McNair have gotten along great and have done all they can to make each other better players. But that doesn?t mean Boller enjoys not going into the season as the starter for the first time since the Ravens drafted him in the first round in 2003.
“I like the spotlight and I like being the quarterback,” Boller said. “At the same time, I?ll go about my business now the same way as if I was the starter.”
In 36 career games, Boller has completed 55.6 percent of his passes for 5,618 yards, 31 touchdowns and 32 interceptions. After starting every game in 2004, Boller injured his toe on opening night last year and missed the following seven games.
After returning in mid-November, he had a hard time getting on track before showing flashes of brilliance in late-season wins over Minnesota and Green Bay. In those two games combined, he threw for 542 yards, six touchdowns and one interception. He then regressed in a season-ending loss to Cleveland.
“It hurt,” Boller said of the injury. “Those were eight weeks I could have worked with [receivers] Mark [Clayton] and Derrick [Mason]. The game really slowed down for me toward the end of last year, and I will continue to slow down every year I?m in the league.”
McNair said both the team as a whole, as well as himself and Kyle individually, will only get better by continuing to work together.
“It takes two great quarterbacks to get to the Super Bowl, and I think with Kyle and myself, that?s what we?re here for,” McNair said. “I told him if there was anything I can do to help him, I am willing to do it and vice versa. He said the same thing.”
Ravens quarterback coach Rick Neuheisel said Boller has made the most out of a difficult situation.
“He?s eager to perform,” Neuheisel said. “He?s eager to show he?s a top-flight quarterback in this league. But, he also sees this as an opportunity to learn from a guy who?s done what he wants to do.”
BOLLER NOTES
» The Ravens drafted Boller with the 19th pick overall in 2003. Baltimore obtained the pick from New England in a draft-day trade for the Ravens? second-round pick that year and their first-round pick in 2004.
» In 2004, Boller became only the second quarterback in franchise history to start every game in the season. Vinny Testaverde accomplished the same feat in 1996.
» Boller posted a career-best 58.4 completion percentage in nine games last season.
