My favorite training camp tradition is alive and kicking!

From the Carroll County Times:

The Ravens’ annual rookie show was held Friday night with skits, songs and the annual “King Ugly” contest. Ironically, there’s only money involved for the second and third-place winners and no cash for the first-place winner, who has traditionally received a crown and a scepter. “I’ve learned not to handicap that,” Billick said.

Terrell Suggs is a two-time winner (rumor has it that Ray Lewis gave him the ‘lifetime achievement award’ that excludes him from competition) and even coach Brian Billick has won.

So, who was the lucky winner this year?

Rookie linebacker Antwan Barnes!

(Hat tip to the Baltimore Sun for the results)

For a topic of this magnitude, I’ll need to write in all caps and use that monster truck smash-em-up announcer voice:

A FIGHT FOR THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF RAVEN NATION! SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY! BE THEREEEEE TO SEE UCLA STANDOUT DREW OLSON TAKE ON FORMER BUCKEYE AND HEISMAN TROPHY WINNER TROY SMITH! MAKE SURE TO BRING A SPECIALLY MARKED PEPSI CAN TO SAVE $9 OFF ADMISSION! NOT SINCE THE TRAINING CAMP BATTLE OF OLSON VS. BRIAN ST. PIERRE HAS RAVEN NATION SEEN THIS KIND OF ACTION! BEEEE THEREEEEEEEEEEE!!!!111ONE

Well, it’s the burning question — will Troy Smith make the roster? Michael David Smith over at the AOL Fanhouse wrote about this very topic yesterday.

In my opinion, it’s Drew Olson’s job to lose. While Troy Smith was enjoying his first summer after college, Olson was slinging balls in NFL Europa. The Baltimore Sun has a good article about Olson’s experiences playing in NFL Europa, which may lead to him ultimately defending his #3 job. By playing this summer, Olson stayed sharp, kept his arm in great shape, and was playing against opponents at near NFL speed — which is something that Smith couldn’t do.

If the first game is any indication - and granted, it was his first ‘live’ NFL game, pre-season or otherwise - Smith just looked bad. It could be the guys he’s playing with, it could be the first game jitters, I don’t know. What I do know is that unless Troy picks it up, he’s going to be out of a job (unless he wants to join Pac Man’s entourage).

The vibe I’m getting is that a lot of people are a bit apprehensive to cut a former Heisman Trophy winner. It happens. He won’t be out of football - I’m sure there are teams that desperately need depth under center (I’m lookin’ at you, Atlanta). Hell, Mike Martz is probably creaming his sweatpants thinking about Smith’s arm.

Unfortunately for Smith, it all comes down to timing. McNair’s arrival pushed Kyle Boller, who is making starting QB money, into the backup QB role. I’m confident that Smith is better than Anthony Wright (and some of the other re-treads we had taking snaps in the backup/#3 role), but if Olson is better than Smith, I have no problem with the roster move.

Depth is a nice problem to have.  Just ask our Linebackers.

Ah, football. The sport of the Gods. It’s been far too long since I last saw you. Sure, I’ve seen some pre-season games on the NFL Network, but I haven’t seen RAVENS FOOTBALL since that stupid hick from Nawlins (you know him - that guy in all those commercials) beat us by not throwing a touchdown pass.

Am I bitter? Hell yeah, I’m bitter.

There are a few questions going into tonight’s game that I want answered:

Who will win the third-string QB job? Former UCLA bad-ass Drew Olson or 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith? It sucks to see one of them cut because both are capable, but cuts are coming, and there will be one QB looking for a chair when the music stops.

Honestly, I really don’t want to see either cut. I really like Olson’s arm. He’s got a lot of zip to his passes and can go waaaay deep. Plus, he’s like 9 feet taller than Smith, and according to the media and ‘experts’, the size difference matters.

Look, if there’s one thing that I’ve been told numerous times, it’s that size doesn’t matter… it’s how you use it. Smith has a cannon, too. Hopefully he can use it to crack the roster.

One thing is for certain: whoever our third-string QB is, they’ll be better than Anthony Wright. That guy just flat-out sucked when he played with the ‘vens. Luckily, we’ll get to see him next week in glorious HD on NBC, when the Ravens play the vaGiants in the pre-season.

How will I be able to get game updates when I can’t watch the game live? I hate being marooned in the midwest during football season. HATE, HATE, HATE.

I’ll probably have to stream the game on the internet, which means that I’ll be stuck to my laptop in my office hoping that everything buffers ok and there aren’t any interruptions in the feed.

Did I mention that I hate being 836 miles away from Baltimore during football season?

Will Jared Gaither live up to the hype? God, I hope so. The guy’s enormous, nimble and strong. How can that combination fail?

I find it hilarious that the dude writing Baltimore Beatdown for SB Nation said that he wasn’t going to blog about the supplemental draft because it’s not important.

Uhhh…. we found JO’s replacement in the supplemental draft. But, whatever. He thinks that Gaither will only come off the bench for a few snaps to spell a veteran.

(That’s why you should come here first for your daily Ravens news, thoughts, opinions and bad Photoshopping)

Will my relationship with the soon-to-be wife survive this football season? Yeah, it probably will. She saw me at my worst while we were painting our new house during the Ravens/Colts game last year. She heard words fly out of my mouth reserved for burly truckers and lumberjacks - it got intense. That said, the seed has been planted that on our Vegas honeymoon, I’m spending all day Sunday at the Caesar’s Palace sports book in full-blown Ravens gear watching (and wagering) a full day’s worth of games.

She’s a keeper.

Mike Preston penned a great piece on the Ravens’ defensive line in today’s Baltimore Sun.

Defensive line coach Clarence Brooks and tackle Haloti Ngata are smiling a lot these days. The Ravens had several new faces on the defensive line a year ago, and they still had the NFL’s No. 1-ranked defense.

After gaining a year of experience, the Ravens could have the best defensive line in the league, too. They have two good pass rushers in defensive ends Trevor Pryce and Terrell Suggs, and a premier run stopper in nose tackle Kelly Gregg. The player with the most potential might be Ngata, still a baby as far as experience, even though he weighs 342 pounds.

With a stop-the-run-first mentality, the Ravens line is stacked. Being able to slip through and put an insane amount of pressure on the opposing quarterback is a great benefit of the system in place.

The fact that the unit is so versatile and deep only adds to the Rex Ryan magic. Preston points out a new blitz package, where the 340 pound Ngata lines up as a MLB and (hopefully) draws a blocking assignment from a puny RB.

“If that happens, that will be their fault,” said Ngata, laughing at the potential matchup.

Let’s hope it does. I’ve been dying to see that blitz package in action!

Jamison Hensley posted something very encouraging on the Sun’s Ravens Central blog:

The surprise of training camp so far has been Jared Gaither. A fifth-round supplemental pick out of the University of Maryland, Gaither has already supplanted Marshal Yanda as the starting left tackle.

Of course, Jonathan Ogden will be the starter for the season opener. But it’s impressive that Gaither is running with the first team by his fourth day in a Ravens uniform. Remember he didn’t have any minicamps because he wasn’t drafted until July.

What stands out about Gaither is that he’s big. Real big. He’s listed at 6 feet 9, 350 pounds. I know Steve McNair will be happy knowing Gaither is protecting his blind side. I know I just feel safer knowing that he’s at the team hotel.

It makes me feel really good, too - and I’m marooned in St. Louis.

A Man Mountain (I really should trademark that phrase) like Gaither will go a long way in protecting a fragile McNair.  If our line gave up the second fewest sacks in the league last year (17), imagine how few they’ll give up with Ogden on one side and Gaither on the other.  It’s just mind-boggling.

So, realfootball365.com has power rankings up on all 32 teams as they head to camp.

Where do the Ravens end up heading in to camp? #14. In the possible, but not likely (to make the playoffs) category.

Say what?!

14.) Baltimore Ravens - Because of its 13-3 record last year, many still take the Ravens seriously as a Super Bowl contender. The question is, Why? Steve McNair got worse as last season went on and is clearly a lower-echelon QB right now, the O-line is aging, and the team didn’t upgrade its ground attack. Raven fans may not want to hear it, but the hesitant, one-dimensional Willis McGahee (he’s neither a receiving threat nor a decent blocker) is not an upgrade over Jamal Lewis. Unless their defense is lights out, there’s a good chance the Ravens won’t get near the postseason.

I guess I just don’t see it like this. At all.

For starters, RF365 thinks that the Bengals will win the AFC North. Granted, it’s a possibility, but it’s more likely that the Ravens will continue to dominate. The defense WILL be lights out. Our strength is the Bengals weakness.

And don’t get me started about McGahee. If you want to look at one-dimensional players, look no further than Jamal Lewis. His inability to hit a cutback lane is what rode him out of Baltimore. He can run himself into the ground trying to gain all of those extra yards, but odds are, the opposing defense will stack the box and he’ll only pot 3 - 4 yards per carry on a good run. If he can do what he did in 2003, we made a big mistake.

However, it’s worth mentioning that I’ll happily take the talent evaluations of someone like Ozzie Newsome and the Ravens front office over the evaluations and opinions of a blog author any day of the week (and that’s meant as no slight against me or any blogger - we’re writing posts from home, work, school or the office while people are getting paid to make personnel decisions).

The Bears - the darlings of the NFC last year - are ranked higher than the Ravens:

7.) Chicago Bears - Though Chicago’s defense will once again be one of the best units in football, the team’s offense could be a disaster. The Bears traded away dependable running back Thomas Jones and will be relying on the semi-proven Cedric Benson, and Rex Grossman remains the QB. Ouch.

The Bears defense will be ONE of the best, but not THE best in football. And with an offense that’s a ‘disaster’, how in the world can they be rated so highly? Is it because the Lions, Packers and Vikings all blow?

Probably.

I have a feeling that instead of eating Crow, the staff at RF365 will be eating Raven by the end of the season.

The Baltimore Sun has a nice blurb about a sweet defensive scheme that Rex has the guys playing with:

Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan is creative as far as blitz and pressure packages, but he may have outdone himself this morning. On one play, Ryan had nose guard Haloti Ngata playing middle linebacker, and then he brought the 340-pound Ngata on a blitz.

“Nah, that didn’t happen,” said Ryan, laughing. “Anything that I can do to take out the other team’s top guns and then create mismatches for us, I’ll do it. If you want to block Ngata with a 220-pound running back after he has gathered up a full head of steam, I’ll take it.”

I would hate… HATE to be the poor back left to block a charging Ngata.  I really hope they pull this one out at some point during the season.

I was readin’ up on the Extreme Ravens message board (VISIT IT) and saw some photos posted of Ravens camp.

Take a look at T-Sizzle.  He’s enormous:

Ozzie Newsome was probably really happy to announce that Yamon Figurs, Troy Smith (5th) and Prescott Burgess signed three year deals. With Jared Gaither (5th) signed, the Ravens are actually really close to signing all of their 2007 draft class.

Only Ben Grubbs (1st) and Le’Ron McClain (4th) remain. Getting those two inked before camp starts (WHICH, BY THE WAY, CAN’T START SOON FREAKIN’ ENOUGH) shouldn’t be too difficult.

“We’ve had an ongoing dialogue on a consistent basis between all parties,” Newsome said of the Grubbs and McClain negotiations. “We definitely have hope that we can get all these deals finished by the time camp opens.”

(hat tip to BR.com & Mike Duffy)

A countdown to the end of this long, boring off-season with no football:

Oh, please, let it be tomorrow.

The Ravens web site has a very comprehensive training camp section.  If you live nearby, are a Ravens fan and DON’T GO, I will be forced to punch a yak.  I obviously can’t make it (the drive from St. Louis to McDaniel College is a bit rough), but if you can, I highly recommend going.  I’ll be going to Rams camp with some friends to do some advance scouting for the October 14th tilt (which I’m fully planning on attending).