August is a Liar!

Will Ja’Kobi Lane be Another of the Ravens’ Long History of WR Camp Mirages?

There’s a certain magic to training camp in Owings Mills. The sun beats down on the fields behind One Winning Drive, the pads pop (occasionally), and every summer — every single summer — some wide receiver makes a one-handed grab in 7-on-7s and the media eats it up like the free pizza on Wednesdays.

I’ve been standing on those sidelines for a long time now, and if I’ve learned anything, it’s this: August is a liar. A charming, sweet-talking liar.

Before we anoint the next great homegrown wideout, let’s take a stroll through the graveyard of camp darlings past — the receivers who looked like world-beaters in shorts and shells, only to vanish when the games started counting.

Yamon Figurs (2007, Round 3)

Brian Billick fell in love with the stopwatch. Figurs was electric as a rookie returner — a punt return touchdown, a kickoff return touchdown, an All-Rookie nod. And every summer, he’d flash that 4.3 speed in camp, blowing past corners and hauling in fingertip grabs that had the McDaniel faithful buzzing. He even told reporters he was running “4.2 consistently.”

The problem? Speed in spandex doesn’t catch footballs in December. Figurs finished his entire NFL career with 5 receptions. Five. The Ravens cut him loose before the 2009 season, and the league’s fastest man spent the next few years sprinting through five more organizations and eventually into the CFL.

Tandon Doss (2011, Round 4)

I’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating because it might be the most instructive camp tale I’ve ever witnessed. Doss, handpicked by Joe Flacco, was flashing all over the practice fields in the summer of 2012. Catches everywhere. The buzz was real. After one particularly impressive session, Cam Cameron was asked about his young receiver’s development.

Cam’s answer still hangs in the air for me:

“Let’s see what happens when we introduce the threat of contact.”

Ouch. And prophetic. Doss caught 7 passes in 2012 and 19 in 2013 — the final season of his career. The threat of contact, it turns out, WON!

Tommy Streeter (2012, Round 6)

Six-foot-five. A 4.40 forty at the combine. On paper, Streeter was Vincent Jackson waiting to happen. And in the summer of 2012, he’d occasionally uncork those long strides, sneak behind the defense, and remind everyone why the Ravens took the flier — including a 33-yard touchdown in the third preseason game that had the message boards humming.

Then came a foot injury, an IR redshirt, and a 2013 camp in which — as The Baltimore Sun put it — the Streeter experiment simply fizzled out. He never made it. The lesson: there’s a difference between track speed and play speed. Ironically, the guy who beat him out that summer, undrafted Deonte Thompson, was himself a camp sensation — and he too never became a factor in Baltimore.

Jaleel Scott (2018, Round 4)

The 6-foot-5 New Mexico State product was a red zone monster in the summer of 2018, out-leaping defensive backs for fade after fade in one-on-ones. Then a hamstring injury landed him on IR before he’d caught more than a single preseason pass. No matter — he came back in 2019 and did it all over again. Two touchdown grabs in a single OTA session. Jump-ball scores at minicamp. John Harbaugh publicly praised his offseason.

And when the lights came on? Nothing. Scott never recorded a regular-season reception as a Raven. The fades that torched camp corners faded to black on Sundays.

Jordan Lasley (2018, Round 5)

Scott’s draft classmate might be the ultimate cautionary tale. Lasley generated real buzz in rookie minicamp and early in his first training camp. Then he caught 6 of 16 preseason targets, spent his entire rookie season as a healthy scratch, and returned in 2019 to author one of the strangest exits in team history: a practice skirmish with Cyrus Jones, followed by catching a touchdown and celebrating by hurling the football into the pond behind the practice fields.

Days later, he was gone. Zero regular season snaps as a Raven. The pond, presumably, kept the ball. I’ll check the next time I visit.

Miles Boykin (2019, Round 3)

Boykin is the most painful entry on this list because he was the talk of camp — twice. With Hollywood Brown sidelined in the summer of 2019, the chiseled Notre Dame product with the 4.42 speed and the freakish combine numbers was the star of the show, the most-targeted receiver in the preseason opener. In 2020, he did it again, catching back-shoulder fades over Marlon Humphrey — an All-Pro, mind you — and looking every bit the ascending WR2.

Three seasons in Baltimore produced 33 catches. His career ended with 38 receptions and 498 yards, most of his value coming as the league’s best blocking wide receiver and a solid special teams player — an honorable trade, but not what you dream about when a third-round pick is torching your best corner in August.

The Moral of the Story

Notice a pattern? Big frames. Blazing forties. Highlight-reel grabs against air, against backups, against corners who won’t be employed by Labor Day. Camp is a controlled environment. There are no exotic pressures, no game-planned double teams and, in the early days, no threat of contact — thanks for the reminder, Mr. Cameron.

Which brings us to the present.

Ja’Kobi Lane with the one handed catch from Lamar Jackson.

He’s been showing out in training camps of far.

High hopes for the rookie going into preseason. pic.twitter.com/OS6jb5fDxM

— Ravens Nation ð™‡ð™„ð™‘𙀠(@LiveRavenNation) August 4, 2026

Ja’Kobi Lane has been a human highlight reel this summer. But maybe Lane is different. Maybe those tractor-beam hands travel to September.

Nobody in Owings Mills has generated more buzz this summer than rookie wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane. In offseason workouts, the third-round pick out of USC looked like an afterthought in the passing game, but when camp opened, it was Lane earning first-string reps.

The highlights started early. On the second day of camp, Lane climbed over safety Malaki Starks and cornerback Marlon Humphrey for a 30-yard, full-extension grab from Lamar Jackson, and they haven’t stopped. Lane has since produced one-handed catches along the sideline, leaping grabs in the back of the end zone, and smooth put-aways over the middle. On Sunday, with Zay Flowers sidelined, he ripped off two explosive gains and drew a pass-interference penalty — most at the expense of Humphrey (is this a pattern?).

Ja’Kobi Lane GOES UPpic.twitter.com/tI1sz7YvBy

— Underdog NFL (@UnderdogNFL) July 30, 2026

Lane just feels different than the aforementioned failed experiments. He has a swagger that oozes confidence. He believes in himself and perhaps even more importantly, so too does Lamar Jackson. Players know players and Lane has captured the attention of teammates. CB1, Nate Wiggins, sought to line up opposite Lane in 1-on-1’s. Maybe he wanted to shut Lane up. Maybe he subscribes to the notion that iron sharpens iron. Maybe it’s both. Another young player who has shown well in camp, TJ Tampa, had this to say about Ja’Kobi:

“He is very good. [He’s] just being really competitive. He comes down with a lot of contested catches, and that is good for us, and it is good for him. He is helping the team out. [I’m] just helping him get better and [he is] helping me get better.”

The buzz about Lane is real. The coaching staff, teammates and the media see it. They feel it. On Saturday, Ja’Kobi takes the next step and will look to carry his momentum from the fields at the Under Armour Performance Center to center stage at M&T Bank Stadium against the Philadelphia Eagles.

In 27 years of covering the Ravens, I’m not sure I’ve seen a rookie have a training camp quite like wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane.

Every day, Lane produces a highlight-making catch. And today, he has Derrick Henry leaping in the air in celebration. pic.twitter.com/o86oFdqfmj

— Jamison Hensley (@jamisonhensley) August 8, 2026

This Ravens franchise is due to hit on a mid-round receiving prospect. Two-plus decades of drafting and developing receivers has produced more Streeters than Smiths (Torrey or Steve, take your pick, and the Ravens signed one of those as a free agent).

But forgive an old scribe for keeping his powder dry until the games count. I’ve seen this movie before. The summer sun in Owings Mills makes everything look golden.

Including fool’s gold.

Hopefully this time around things will be different.

And then one day we’ll look back upon this August in Owings Mills and label it not as a liar, but the start of a promising career.

Just stay in your lane, Ja’Kobi.

The post August is a Liar! appeared first on Russell Street Report.

Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2026/08/13/camp-notes/jakobi-lane/