Tight End

John Mackey changed the game of football on and off the field. The former Baltimore Colt brought grace to a position that had been known for its brutality, and he made the first real headway in the NFL players' fight to earn a more equal share of the pie. That battle continues as the NFL lockout drags on this summer. Mr. Mackey, one of the game's great tight ends, a Hall of Famer and one-time president of the NFL Players Association, died Wednesday of frontotemporal dementia, a disease he had battled for 10 years, at Keswick Multi-Care Center in Baltimore.

As the third and final day of the draft gets underway with the Philadelphia Eagles selecting USC quarterback Matt Barkley to kick off the fourth round, the Ravens have seven total picks remaining and a host of positions that they'd still like to fill. The Ravens have two picks in the fourth round (numbers 129 and 130), one in the fifth round (168), two in the sixth round (200 and 203) and two in the seventh (238 and 247). The picks at 130, 168, 203 and 247 are compensatory meaning that they can't be traded.

Tight end Jay Novacek, one of the three Dallas Cowboys whom the Washington Redskins are pursuing in the free-agent market, will visit Redskin Park today.The Redskins also are interested in Cowboys safety James Washington, who visited Monday, and wide receiver Alvin Harper, who has yet to schedule a visit.Gary Jones, a Pittsburgh Steeler safety, visited yesterday.San Diego Chargers safety Stanley Richard will visit tomorrow along with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Derrick Walker.

The Ravens did us beat reporters a minor disservice on Saturday afternoon, drafting Harvard fullback Kyle Juszczyk, whose surname will leave behind many red squiggly lines as we learn to spell it, in the fourth round. It's too soon to say that this did a disservice to Pro Bowl fullback Vonta Leach, whose future could be in doubt . “I couldn't ask for a better mentor,” Juszczyk said Saturday. “I think he's been the best fullback in the league.” As we have seen for two years, Leach is probably the best blocking fullback in the NFL, and he has the dented facemasks to prove it. But Juszczyk appears to be a better fit for the future as the Ravens, with quarterback Joe Flacco, continue to modernize their offense.

Ozzie Newsome was so vexed in his attempts to obtain a quality tight end, former Ravens tight end coach Pat Hill used to joke that the Hall of Famer didn't want to acquire a player who might eclipse him. Newsome, the Ravens' vice president of player personnel, ended years of personal and organizational frustration last night, agreeing to contract terms with a tight end who could break his NFL records for receptions (662) and receiving yards (7,980) at the position. Shannon Sharpe, 31, needs just 110 catches and 997 receiving yards to catch Newsome.

Playing tight end is no longer a laughing matter for Edgar Jones. Jones, a second-year player, has been switched from linebacker to tight end, reviving an offseason experiment that seemed to end before training camp. "During the offseason, I took it as a joke," said Jones, who has also switched from No. 91 to No. 46. "They were working me in, so I didn't take it too seriously until coach [John] Harbaugh called me [three days ago] and told me they were moving me. Then I saw No. 46, so I took it real serious after that."

The Ravens have not declared a tight end state of emergency yet, but they are keeping a cautious eye on the position. Who is the Ravens' starting tight end? Is it Todd Heap or L.J. Smith? Maybe it's Edgar Jones. No one knows for sure, and the answer might not come until after training camp when coach John Harbaugh takes a body count at the position. As of right now, Heap appears to be No. 1, followed by Smith. But if the Ravens had a game today, those two probably couldn't play because of injuries, and neither could blocking tight end Quinn Sypniewski, who had surgery last week to repair an aggravated knee injury.

Ravens tight end Eric Green has been listed as doubtful for Sunday's game against the Oakland Raiders because of a dislocated left pinkie suffered during practice Wednesday.Green injured the finger after getting his hand caught in a jersey while blocking on a running play. It was initially believed to be jammed, but because of the twisting way in which it was hurt, Green ended up needing surgery Wednesday night.In the operation, performed by team physician Dr. C. T. Moorman III and Dr. Andy Eglseder, a hand specialist, at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, the bone had to be extricated from soft tissue that had twisted around it.Green's finger was put in a cast to hold it in place.

The Maryland football team received three oral commitments over the weekend, including one from a highly touted in-state tight end, the players' high school coaches each confirmed yesterday. Drew Gloster, a 6-foot-2 wide receiver/tight end from Good Counsel High School in Wheaton, told the coaching staff Sunday that he would attend Maryland. Should current junior tight end Vernon Davis decide to enter the NFL draft early, Gloster could play right away. The Rivals.com recruiting Web site gave Gloster four out of five stars.

In the Pittsburgh Steelers' world view of offense, tight ends have been considered not so much a third option in the passing game but rather a third tackle on running plays. With the tight end merely a cog in the Steelers' battering-ram, run-oriented attack, no starter at the position has caught more than 20 passes in a season in nearly a decade. So when Pittsburgh took Virginia tight end Heath Miller with the 30th pick in this year's draft, it signaled a significant shift in the way coach Bill Cowher plans to do business on offense.

Each weekday through April 24, the day before the first round of the NFL draft, The Sun will look at where the Ravens stand at each position, the likelihood that they will address that spot early in the draft and some of the prospects that they may consider. Today we'll examine wide receivers and tight ends: Current wide receivers under contract : Torrey Smith, Jacoby Jones, Tandon Doss, LaQuan Williams, David Reed, Deonte Thompson, Tommy Streeter, Tori Gurley Current tight ends under contract : Dennis Pitta, Ed Dickson, Alex Silvestro, Steve Watson Chances that the Ravens draft a WR or TE in first three rounds : Good chance for wide receiver, unlikely for tight end. The trade of veteran slot man Anquan Boldin created a big hole within the Ravens' receiving corps and they opted not to fill it in free agency.

Facing a third-and-long early in the third quarter against Duke, Dave Stinebaugh made the biggest play of his young career. The Maryland tight end hauled in a 19-yard pass from quarterback Danny O'Brien, keeping the Terps ' drive alive in an eventual 21-16 win. That was two years, six months and 11 days ago. And it was the last time Stinebaugh recorded a catch for the Terps . The Baltimore native tore his MCL not long after that...

NEW ORLEANS - The first time John Harbaugh and Jim Harbaugh coached against each other in the NFL, the game came down to a catch by a young tight end. The first touchdown of Ravens tight end Dennis Pitta's career happened in the fourth quarter of that 2011 Thanksgiving game against the San Francisco 49ers. It broke a 6-6 tie and helped the Ravens secure a 16-6 victory in Pitta's second NFL season. Pitta had three touchdowns last season, but this year he has become a key part of the Ravens' offense and a favorite target for quarterback Joe Flacco.

SANTA CLARA -- So which Vernon Davis will we see in Super Bowl XLVII? Will it be the man who made just six catches for 61 yards over the final six regular-season games? Or the guy who in two postseason games has caught six balls for 150 yards and a touchdown while being targeted 11 times? It's probably a better question for the Baltimore Ravens and how they choose to defend the 49ers' dangerous tight end, but to date, they haven't been forthcoming with answers. In NFC Championship game, though, the Atlanta Falcons clearly didn't make Davis a major focal point of their pass defense and paid dearly as a result.

Switching his commitment to Maryland from Boston College was “the most difficult decision” Andrew Isaacs said he's made in his life. He had a good relationship with the Eagles' coaching staff, thought the team was filled with “great guys,” and liked the fact that Chestnut Hill is less than two hours away from his Manchester, Conn., home. “That was one of the schools that stuck with me after my [ACL tear junior year],” Isaacs said. “A lot of schools don't want to recruit anyone injured.

The last time Ed Dickson tangled with Taylor Mays, the Ravens tight end was on the receiving end of a blow from the Cincinnati Bengals strong safety that an official called “helmet-to-helmet with a defenseless receiver.” The two will meet again Sunday, but Dickson said he has no beef with Mays, who was fined $21,000 for the infraction. “I'm actually really cool with Taylor Mays off the field,” said Dickson, who has been friends with Mays since Dickson played at the University of Oregon and Mays played at USC. “I know what type of player he wants to be. He wants to be a hard-hitting safety and stuff like that.

The three-day Ravens minicamp at Owings Mills is an audition for many free agents but especially for those at tight end. With Quinn Sypniewski out for the season after suffering a freak knee injury at an organized team activity three weeks ago, and Daniel Wilcox still recovering from toe surgery, rookies Joe Reitz and Scott Kuhn are looking for a chance to fill the role of the team's third tight end. Kuhn, who played at Louisville, broke his thumb during...

INDIANAPOLIS -- In the ever-shifting offensive landscape of the NFL, tight ends are back in vogue. Benefiting from the mismatch of speed against linebackers and size against safeties, pass-catching tight ends - such as the Ravens' Todd Heap, Kansas City's Tony Gonzalez, San Diego's Antonio Gates and Pittsburgh's Heath Miller - are increasingly important weapons. All of which bodes well for ex-Maryland standout Vernon Davis, who is giving up his final year of eligibility with the Terrapins to enter the NFL draft April 29-30.

The general rule of thumb in the NFL is that it takes about three years for a wide receiver to develop into an everyday contributor. The same could apply to Dennis Pitta. The Ravens' fourth-round selection in the 2010 NFL draft, Pitta has begun to assert himself as the franchise's tight end of the future. He is tied with wide receiver Torrey Smith for the team lead in touchdown receptions (seven), ranks second in catches (57), and is third in receiving yards (613). With two more regular-season contests remaining, Pitta needs just one more score to break a tie with Todd Heap for the most touchdown catches by a tight end in a single season.

It's hard being Dennis Pitta right now. Grading all those term papers, monitoring all those final exams, attending all those faculty meetings - it can wear on you. Plus there's another guy in town with the same unusual name and people keep getting the two of you confused, even though THAT Dennis Pitta is someone you've never even met. But that ended Tuesday when Dennis Pitta, long-time University of Baltimore marketing professor, finally found...