CAMP NOTES DAY 1: Offense Wins The Day

Training Camp 2026 is officially underway and while I wouldn’t say it was action packed, there were some observations worth sharing. So here we go…

Lamar Jackson looked great. He was decisive, climbed the pocket well, bought time with lateral movement in the pocket to create spacing to deliver on point fastballs, particularly inside the numbers. At least during this practice, Lamar seemed to take a large percentage of snaps directly under center. The speed with which the offense broke the huddle was noticeably different from past seasons. Declan Doyle’s offense has a lot of pre-snap movement so tempo to the line of scrimmage is key.

Wide Receivers

Zay Flowers was menacing on intermediate crossers, finding holes in zones or just beating a defender assigned to man-up with Zay…Rashod Bateman was sharp. He moves gracefully and hits another gear effortlessly which can catch defenders off guard. Bate had a couple of nice catches including a sliding grab in the middle of the field…Ja’Kobi  Lane has size, hops, good speed and surprising change of direction skills. He snared a couple of balls high out of the air…Elijah Sarratt looked a bit sluggish. At first glance, he doesn’t appear like a tough assignment for any DB.

Running Backs

The King is King – nothing that you don’t already know. He looks no different than the 2024 and 2025 iterations of Derrick Henry. That said, a running back’s effectiveness is tough to determine when tackling isn’t in play…Justice Hill looks like 2024 Justice. Quick, decisive, with a burst…Rasheen Ali showed good patience and vision inside the tackles…Rookie Adam Randall looks like a bruiser. It will be interesting to see him in preseason action.

Tight Ends

Mark Andrews looks the part although he didn’t have a great session. He had a drop and then had another short gain denied by Trenton Simpson who punched out a would-be catch…Rookies Matt Hibner and Josh Cuevas did nothing of note in their training camp debuts.

.@NnamBuike1 pic.twitter.com/yRTsyvE8PL

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) July 29, 2026

Defense

There weren’t any standout plays from Anthony Weaver’s unit. Zion Young has the size and hand strength to be a good edge setter. As far as pressure goes, I didn’t see much from the defense but that has a lot to do with how quickly Lamar distributed the ball…Mike Green had a couple of plays that he strung out to the sideline for minimal gains…Trenton Simpson played with confidence and purpose. He has top end speed, and the hope is that the Weaver/Minter defense will employ that asset effectively in 2026…Punter Ryan Eckley hit a few bombs early in practice but if today is any indication, Eckley won’t be leaned on all that much this season. The offense clearly won this day of practice.

The post CAMP NOTES DAY 1: Offense Wins The Day appeared first on Russell Street Report.