The Ravens will begin arriving at the Best Western Hotel in Westminster on Monday to open training camp for the 2009 NFL season, and I've got only one thing to say:
I'm still wacko for Flacco, though I'd feel a lot better about the whole situation if Derrick Mason decides that he is, too.
The Ravens are coming off a terrific first season of the John Harbaugh era. They reached the AFC championship game with a rookie coach and a rookie quarterback and served notice that they could become a Super Bowl team at any moment, but they also experienced the kind of rapid turnover during the offseason that leaves you to wonder whether the same hungry team will show up this year.
Well, it might still be hungry, but it isn't going to be the same team. Defensive coordinator Rex Ryan is now the coach of the New York Jets, and he took two of last year's heart-and-soul players - Bart Scott and Jim Leonhard - with him. The Ravens also lost center Jason Brown to free agency and now must ponder the possibility that Mason was serious about his abrupt retirement announcement.
It's kind of funny, actually. When the Mason news first broke, it was dismissed by a lot of people as nothing more than a contract ploy. Now, after Harbaugh's recent conversations with his most productive receiver, the Ravens don't think it is and probably wish it were.
We'll all know soon enough, but the Ravens are moving forward in their typical "next-man-up" fashion. They just added veteran Drew Bennett to beef up the wide receiver position, and Harbaugh is saying a couple more evening prayers that Demetrius Williams still has big-play possibilities after missing most of last season with a bad ankle.
The draft seemed to go well again, with the addition of talented offensive tackle Michael Oher in the first round, and general manager Ozzie Newsome quickly filled the void left by Brown's departure with the signing of free-agent center Matt Birk.
Remember how much uncertainty was hanging over the supposedly suspect offensive line coming into training camp last year? Now, the Ravens look very solid lining up on both sides of the ball, which - everybody knows - is where it all pretty much begins and ends.
