Restocked Ravens Ready To Hit The Ground Running

The biggest difference between this camp and last, however, is that the Ravens are coming in set at the quarterback position. Joe Flacco won the job last year by default when Kyle Boller got hurt and Troy Smith got sick (not that Flacco wasn't going to claim it at some point in the season anyway). He left little doubt about the future when he drove the Ravens deep into the postseason and showed the maturity and toughness to be the franchise guy the Ravens have been searching for since the team arrived in Baltimore.

No need to wonder about a sophomore jinx. That's a baseball phenomenon, based on the notion that hot rookies fall victim to the offseason adjustments made by competing teams. Those types of adjustments take place week-to-week in the NFL, and the developmental advantage generally shifts to the quarterback between his first and second seasons.

(It's probably fair to point out here that the model might not perfectly apply in this case because the Ravens were not a full-rebuild team that picked the top big-school quarterback in the draft, which explains how somebody like Troy Aikman went 0-11 in his rookie season with the Dallas Cowboys before making that leap.)

Flacco and offensive coordinator Cam Cameron have had more than a year to get to know each other, so it takes no stretch of the imagination to believe Flacco can improve on last year's performance - especially if Oher is ready to help protect him in his first NFL season.

Throw in Willis McGahee's apparent commitment to re-establish himself as the team's top running back, and the Ravens head into camp this week with a chance to be a much better offensive team than they were in 2008 - though the odds of that would rise considerably if Mason changes his mind and decides to report to camp.

Who knows how that situation is going to turn out, but we learned very quickly last year that Harbaugh does not dwell on who isn't at camp. He fearlessly took over a team with an established veteran nucleus and wasted no time bringing a special teams mentality to the entire roster.

The only difference this year is that he won't have to prove anything to anybody.

So, I guess there's only one other thing to say:

Let's get it started.

Listen to Peter Schmuck weeknights at 6 on WBAL (1090 AM) and check out "The Schmuck Stops Here" at baltimoresun.com/schmuckblog.