Commanders-Ravens practice takeaways: Sam Howell performs like QB1, Odell Beckham Jr. shows off speed and more

rewrite this content material with complete duration and stay HTML tags OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The quarterbacks of the Baltimore Ravens and Washington Commanders are in very other scenarios. Lamar Jackson is a 26-year-old former NFL MVP coming into his 6th season as a starter. He does not want to play within the preseason to get in a position for the 12 months forward, obtrusive through him no longer enjoying in any respect closing preseason. It’ll most probably be the similar this 12 months as neatly.Sam Howell is a 22-year-old former fifth-round pick out coming into his first season as a certified beginning quarterback. Having thrown 19 profession passes, the preseason supplies important repetitions as he learns Eric Bieniemy’s offense and makes an attempt to turn the training body of workers that he will also be the way forward for the franchise. He maximum without a doubt wishes preseason video games to get in a position for the 2023 marketing campaign.These previous two days, alternatively — during which the Ravens hosted the Commanders for joint practices — have benefitted each signal-callers similarly. Jackson and Howell were given to move towards any other first-team protection forward of Week 1, seeing the place they, and their offense as a complete, these days stacks up. Each quarterback used to be pleased with how the periods opened up. “It was wonderful,” Jackson stated. “It was good to go against someone else instead of my teammates every day. It was good to get out there against another team.””They do a really good job here in Baltimore, especially on the defensive side of the ball,” Howell added, “so it was a great opportunity as an offense to come out here and get better and just try and show what we can do.”Here are some takeaways from the previous two days forward of the groups’ preseason matchup on Monday evening. Flowers continues to flourish “Zay is very shifty.”That used to be Lamar Jackson speaking about his first-round rookie wideout after Monday’s practice, however everybody who is noticed Zay Flowers at the box since he is been drafted already is aware of about his skill to make defensive backs glance foolish.That agility is magnified all through 1-on-1 drills between pass-catchers and defenders, and it is a space during which Flowers has persistently ruled. In his first rep Monday, Flowers beat fellow first-rounder Emmanuel Forbes for a protracted ball alongside the sideline. On the following, Flowers overcame the defender actually protecting onto his undershirt to make a diving catch. Flowers took NFL social media through typhoon once more Tuesday with a red-zone rep towards Commanders beginning cornerback Benjamin St-Juste. Flowers faked within off the road of scrimmage, launched out of doors and then sprinted instantly forward. As he started to curve within when he reached the center of the top zone, he planted his ft with such violence that St-Juste could not do anything else to forestall his momentum from sporting him farther and further from the large receiver. The outcome used to be a wild-open rating. It’s price noting that the receivers have the merit in those drills, however the consistency with which Flowers creates separation, each in 1-on-1 matchups and all through crew periods — he stuck a TD all through a red-zone crew drill Tuesday — may be very spectacular for a rookie. Flowers doing so towards his personal teammates is something; proceeding to win emphatically towards any other crew’s most sensible defenders shows that the twenty second pick out within the 2023 NFL Draft is able to considerably give a contribution instantly. Howell seems to be like QB1The Panthers named No. 1 pick out Bryce Young their beginning quarterback after the primary day of coaching camp. The Colts did the similar of No. 4 pick out Anthony Richardson after their first preseason recreation. With more and more groups finalizing their quarterback state of affairs as August progresses, would possibly it’s time for Ron Rivera to anoint Sam Howell because the starter in Washington? “Well, again, I said I gotta sit down with both [offensive coordinator] Eric [Bieniemy] and [QBs coach] Tavita [Pritchard] and really evaluate it and make sure he’s doing the things that we need him to do,” Rivera stated diplomatically after Tuesday’s practice. “And yesterday he had a really good day. We’re really pleased with it after having to watch the tape, and we’ll see how it is after we get a chance to watch this tape together. We’re traveling today, so we’ll sit down tomorrow and go through it and talk about Sam and really just evaluate that.”UPDATE: On Friday, Commanders head trainer Ron Rivera named Sam Howell because the crew’s beginning quarterback for the 2023 season. Following a robust efficiency towards the Browns within the preseason opener (9 for 12, 77 yards, TD, QB score of 119.1), Howell held his personal towards what is anticipated to be an overly sturdy Ravens protection. On Monday, Howell stored Baltimore’s proficient go rush at bay through making fast and decisive passes on short-to-intermediate routes. Rivera in reality stated after practice that he sought after Howell to throw even quicker on a few of the ones performs, however it is transparent he understands what he is being requested to do beneath new OC Eric Bieniemy: Read the protection, get the ball out and let Washington’s plethora of playmakers make large performs.Ironically, a few of Howell’s easiest performs Tuesday have been when he held onto the ball. Toward the top of practice, there have been two events the place the pocket began to cave in. On the primary, he have shyed away from a sack, rolled out left and, a l. a. Bieniemy’s former QB (Patrick Mahomes), uncorked a sidearm laser to Dyami Brown streaking again towards the center of the sector for an important pickup. On any other play, Howell stayed within the pocket however sidestepped oncoming force, giving him simply sufficient time to search out John Bates, who made a jumping catch with a defender draped all over the place him.  Without Howell’s ft set, the ball wobbled out of his hand on that throw, however no longer each go goes to be an ideal spiral — simply like no longer each play goes to move in line with script. The Commanders training body of workers without a doubt prefers their younger QB taking what the protection provides him and proscribing errors, however occasionally you must improvise to maximise a given play. Howell confirmed Tuesday that he is in a position to doing that, too.”He’s really poised, man,” No. 1 WR Terry McLaurin stated about Howell after Monday’s practice. “I think he sees the field really well, and he’s gonna give us the chance to make opportunities on the perimeter, which has been great. His timing … was really good with us today. As soon as we were getting out of our breaks, the ball was right there. And he gave us the chance to run with it as well. I think he did a great job, even when he had to improvise and roll out a little bit and still keep his eyes downfield.” Other notesBrawls on brawlsAs used to be to be anticipated, issues were given heated when those golf equipment were given to practice towards somebody rather then their teammates. Round 1 pitted Ravens large receiver Tylan Wallace towards Commanders cornerback Emmanuel Forbes (video right here). Round 2 integrated Ravens tight finish Mark Andrews frame slamming Commanders cornerback Danny Johnson (video). Both altercations resulted in team-wide scrums.  It did not take lengthy for issues to reignite Tuesday, with Ravens defensive take on Justin Madubuike and Commanders offensive take on Alex Akingbulu going at it all through 1-on-1 drills (photograph). Shortly after, Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen and Commanders operating again Brian Robinson Jr. exchanged swings, which resulted in the sidelines clearing.Rivera used to be happy with the paintings Washington completed during the last two days in Baltimore, however he made certain to get on them concerning the widespread skirmishes he believes are totally useless. “We didn’t need the fighting, and that was one of my biggest messages of, ‘Guys, you gotta go out there and play football. You gotta perform, do your job, do what you’re supposed to. All that other stuff’s not important. It doesn’t help us win football games,'” Rivera stated. “Just wanted to make sure they understand that. I think part of our thing is just understanding how to be a mature football team, and I think that’s important. We’ve shown some good growth, some good maturity, but this was a good test to just understand what it takes to be really good.” Ravens operating out of CBsEntering Tuesday’s practice, the Ravens have been already down Rock Ya-Sin, Arthur Maulet, Jalyn Armour-Davis and Damarion Williams. You can now upload No. 1 nook Marlon Humphrey to that checklist.John Harbaugh showed Tuesday that Humphrey could have surgical operation on a “lingering” foot damage. He’s reportedly set to pass over no less than a month, which means he may pass over Baltimore’s first few video games of…