Speaker 1: Welcome into Ravens press pass. Today we heard from head
Speaker 1: coach John Harball and defensive lineman Travis Jones and Brent Urban.
Speaker 1: First up, here's Coach Harbaugh.
Speaker 2: Good to see everybody, appreciate you being here. Military and
Speaker 2: First Responders Day maybe our most cherished special group day
Speaker 2: that we have out here in training camp. We love
Speaker 2: what those two groups do for our country. They are
Speaker 2: the heroes, the sacrifices the families make when they're loved.
Speaker 2: Ones are overseas or away all night, pulling shifts to
Speaker 2: help keep us all safe. So we love this group
Speaker 2: of people. We're so glad to hear you can see
Speaker 2: all of our players are over there signing autographs and
Speaker 2: taking pictures. So thank you very much to the military
Speaker 2: and first responders. What question do you have.
Speaker 3: Don you didn't see Tyl flinderbaumb out there?
Speaker 2: Anything minor soft tissue kind of thing. We just pete
Speaker 2: keep him out today, We'll keep him out tomorrow and
Speaker 2: then he should be back sometime next week and we'll be,
Speaker 2: you know, very patient with Tyler. He's having a great
Speaker 2: camp and and some of those young guys need need
Speaker 2: a little more work anyway, So it kind of works
Speaker 2: out for US.
Speaker 4: Coach Joe Only Davis.
Speaker 5: Guy's back injuries over the past two seasons.
Speaker 2: But I really can't the next knocked down one hand yesterday.
Speaker 2: If he stays healthy, we can contribute to the secondary, right,
Speaker 2: I mean he can. He's he's been here, he's he
Speaker 2: knows what he's doing. He's very talented, he's playing, he's playing.
Speaker 2: You know, he's always played very good football, and uh
Speaker 2: he's had nicks and things like that, kind of unfortunate situations.
Speaker 2: But man, we expect him to have a really good year.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think he's playing like a starter, and
Speaker 2: he'll be on special teams and he'll be playing in
Speaker 2: our secondary and packages and expecting to have a great year.
Speaker 6: As his gold in front of early special teams. I
Speaker 6: grow up.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean yeah, I can't say there's no concern.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, we want to have all our
Speaker 2: guys out here. And he's got a nagging, you know,
Speaker 2: soft tissue lower leg deal. He's had those in the past.
Speaker 2: It's something he does deal with. I think he'll be
Speaker 2: fine and get plenty of reps. He's had so many
Speaker 2: return reps generally, But you would want him out here
Speaker 2: and these this new deal, getting a feel for the
Speaker 2: timing of it.
Speaker 6: Sure, John, We're gonna talk to Brent Irvin in a
Speaker 6: little bit. When you think back to the beginning of
Speaker 6: his career, I mean he missed most of like three
Speaker 6: of his first four seasons and to be playing all
Speaker 6: these years later, what kind of lesson is that for?
Speaker 6: You know, whether you're talking about Armor Davis, David Ajabo,
Speaker 6: guys who've had some injuries early in their career, early
Speaker 6: Cam right now, sure, just that they can overcome that
Speaker 6: and still have a long, productive career.
Speaker 2: Such a great point. I'm I'm gonna start using him
Speaker 2: as an example for those guys because it's a perfect point.
Speaker 2: And I can remember him right over there. We were
Speaker 2: doing an inside run drill against the forty nine ers.
Speaker 2: We had the joint practices all those years ago, and
Speaker 2: he tore his acl right at the end of practice.
Speaker 2: He's just like, he's so heartbreaking and missed that whole year.
Speaker 2: We had high hopes for him coming out. We thought
Speaker 2: he was a an odd front defensive end in the
Speaker 2: in the old Pittsburgh Steeler kind of realm, you know,
Speaker 2: like the Brett Keezels of the world, and and he's
Speaker 2: turned out to be just that. You know, he's just
Speaker 2: that kind of a player. He plays so well, But
Speaker 2: those first couple of years were tough, and here he
Speaker 2: is now he's got a testimony, uh you know, as
Speaker 2: a result of all the tests he's been through.
Speaker 7: Well, I guess that's another guy found in that situation
Speaker 7: of being.
Speaker 3: Injured beginnis career, Ardarius Washington, you were replusting.
Speaker 8: Them after many here now you guys have Eddi Johnson.
Speaker 6: But how are you kind of looking at the situation
Speaker 6: at or the same day one of these themes for medicines.
Speaker 2: He's in Champa, right, He's a great point, you know,
Speaker 2: ar Darius is is definitely played at the highest level.
Speaker 2: He's I think bringing Eddie Jackson is one of these
Speaker 2: things that you just wouldn't expect as a possibility to happen,
Speaker 2: and so it just makes us better. But Ardarius is
Speaker 2: very capable of going after playing great football in the secondary,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure he will this year. He's just a
Speaker 2: really good football player. Love his energy, his athleticism is
Speaker 2: off the charts. He's tough as nails. It's uh, he's
Speaker 2: not gonna He's not gonna disappoint anybody when he's on
Speaker 2: the field. John.
Speaker 7: Same being with ar Darius.
Speaker 9: Last year he was about the fourth choice at slot corner,
Speaker 9: but it seemed like he really hadn't played everyone there
Speaker 9: before him. Do you see a possibility place either slack
Speaker 9: corner or stayety.
Speaker 2: He absolutely he can go down in there and play slot.
Speaker 2: We haven't put him there much. He's played there a
Speaker 2: little bit a lot in the past, a little bit
Speaker 2: in the spring. I know he can go in there
Speaker 2: if we needed him to. Just right now, we've got
Speaker 2: so many guys you're trying to get those guys the reps.
Speaker 2: But I think that's kind of indicative of our depth
Speaker 2: back there. It kind of demonstrates it more curiosity.
Speaker 4: We're about on those two weeks for the camp. I
Speaker 4: don't think there's been a vet day for going now.
Speaker 4: Is that just how the schedules work and the off
Speaker 4: days built in and taken you know, shortened exerted practices or.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we're kind of building that stuff in
Speaker 2: individually by guy. You know, we haven't felt the need
Speaker 2: to give guys all days off, you know, and we
Speaker 2: haven't really done too much of that except for the
Speaker 2: really the really you know, the ray lewis ti older
Speaker 2: type guys when they get to that stage. Uh, And
Speaker 2: we got you know, our older guys. You know they're
Speaker 2: pretty young. You know Rose pretty young.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 2: You got Kyle and you see he took, he's taken.
Speaker 2: He had a couple of days, and he's taking fewer
Speaker 2: reps here and there. So we kind of, I would say,
Speaker 2: probably we're more doing it with reps than we are
Speaker 2: with days at this point.
Speaker 7: Probably John two weeks into it. Now, what's two things?
Speaker 7: What are you sort of the most at least specifically,
Speaker 7: whether it's tight ends off of whatever. And then secondly,
Speaker 7: what's the challenge of when you do get to the
Speaker 7: back end of all these practices. Obviously next week's of
Speaker 7: game week to probably a little more normal build up
Speaker 7: for you guys. But but what's the challenge I guess.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we'll still be in camp mode all the
Speaker 2: way through.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: In terms of our preparation, it's it's situational football install
Speaker 2: We'll be working trying to get reps in all things
Speaker 2: that we're gonna have to do throughout the course of
Speaker 2: the season. We won't be getting ready for the game
Speaker 2: per se. Uh. But and and so it really doesn't.
Speaker 2: The mindset really doesn't change, is camp mode. You know,
Speaker 2: through all these games, we will be thinking about yardage
Speaker 2: and speeds and rest and different things to get our
Speaker 2: guys ready to roll when they need to be ready
Speaker 2: to roll. Whether it's certain guys for the preseason games,
Speaker 2: certain guys for the regular season. Well, most pleased with
Speaker 2: probably is just the mindset of the team. I love
Speaker 2: the mindset of the team. How hard they work, how
Speaker 2: good their attitude is, how how up for anything they are,
Speaker 2: and how hard they practice, and how locked in they've been.
Speaker 3: His camps so far, and.
Speaker 6: What do you envision the next steps game for him?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think I've said before I expect his
Speaker 2: next step to be a breakout season. You know, he's
Speaker 2: he's a dominant guy in there right now, and whenever
Speaker 2: somebody blocks him, I just think it's like a it's
Speaker 2: a superhuman feed almost when somebody blocks him in there,
Speaker 2: he's like a superhuman player. So we'll see if it
Speaker 2: pans out in the games. It's I know it's a
Speaker 2: high tag to put on them, but let's go for it.
Speaker 1: Another defensive Lindman that seems to he's really stitting out
Speaker 1: is Robert Washington. Seen him improve his game from last
Speaker 1: year take it into this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Broaderck's always been very steady player. I think he's
Speaker 2: really he's up his strength levels ridiculous. I mean he's
Speaker 2: so strong and I think he's a really good job.
Speaker 2: Was like his his twitchiness, you know, his ability to
Speaker 2: kind of tear off the blocks and move laterally really quickly.
Speaker 2: It's done a really nice job with that. He's playing
Speaker 2: at a high level.
Speaker 4: It seems like we have to ask you kick off
Speaker 4: rush every time we meet. But did you learn anything
Speaker 4: from I have even got a chance to review the
Speaker 4: film on how they're handled, and is there anything that
Speaker 4: surprised you?
Speaker 2: No? Actually, I mean it looked about like we thought
Speaker 2: it would look. It was pretty, you know, tough to
Speaker 2: block those guys, but the field position is going to
Speaker 2: be there unless you just bobble the ball or the
Speaker 2: ball gets on the ground, then it's gonna be a
Speaker 2: problem for the kick return team. The one thing I
Speaker 2: did jump out at me was it's confusing for the fans,
Speaker 2: like where does the ball go? You know, if you
Speaker 2: kick it out of bounds, where does it go? What
Speaker 2: about after a penalty you kick it out of bounds.
Speaker 2: What about if it's in the end zone when it
Speaker 2: lands there? What if it rolls into the end zone?
Speaker 2: Where does the ball go? All that stuff is like,
Speaker 2: he got the ford, you got the thirty, you got
Speaker 2: the twenty five, you got the twenty. That's confusing to me.
Speaker 2: So we'll all get it. But you know, I want
Speaker 2: to make sure we either educate the fans and that's
Speaker 2: I understand why the ball is being spotted where it's at,
Speaker 2: or you know, they still could tweak those things and
Speaker 2: simplify that a little bit too. So that jumped out
Speaker 2: of me just from watching the TV copy of it.
Speaker 5: Moving back to the Travis for a second, do you
Speaker 5: see him still as a guy who can kind of
Speaker 5: either be a nose or a three technique situationally? I mean,
Speaker 5: does he not really one.
Speaker 2: Or the other nose three technique or four four I
Speaker 2: or five technique? Yeah, he can play anywhere in there. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Next up is Travis Jones, who's gotten off to a
Speaker 1: hot start this season. The Ravens expect big things from him.
Speaker 1: Here's Travis.
Speaker 4: Playing a big behind.
Speaker 3: So just go out there putting my best be four
Speaker 3: and just uh improve them off the things I did
Speaker 3: last year being consistent with it.
Speaker 2: Where do you.
Speaker 1: Feel like your past rush game has gone?
Speaker 4: How have you improved that aspect.
Speaker 1: Of your game?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: For me, just having a uh A rush plan, a
Speaker 3: rush plan in mind and executing it all there ready
Speaker 3: through and and not panicing and confer just going straight to.
Speaker 1: Power, working with Chuck really taking into another Yeah.
Speaker 3: Chuck Beaks or the or the all the guys been
Speaker 3: helping me out a lot dis camp.
Speaker 5: Really did you've done in particular to like kind of
Speaker 5: get more pass rush moves or is it just kind
Speaker 5: of trust.
Speaker 3: Your instincts or trust my instincts and going into my
Speaker 3: third year having more confidence and experience.
Speaker 6: It's valuable? Has it been for you? With uh a
Speaker 6: veteran defensive line group to mentor you? And for the
Speaker 6: most part, other than kalais moving on last year, it's
Speaker 6: it's been the same guys. I mean, how how does
Speaker 6: that help you as a young play out?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, for a young player going to my third year,
Speaker 3: I only have m O. Only having one guy leave
Speaker 3: doesn't mean it. Uh, it's a lot to me. Brody
Speaker 3: still here and me and became real close. We work
Speaker 3: out every day together and he helped me improve my game. R.
Speaker 7: So you a guy that that writes down goals or house,
Speaker 7: you know, like a super specific on then write him down.
Speaker 2: Or anything like that for Yeah.
Speaker 3: For me, of course, I put in my UH in
Speaker 3: my iPhone right own notes plans, things I want UH
Speaker 3: comms out the year, the personal person.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Brent.
Speaker 5: If Travis wants to see a model of looking me
Speaker 5: a breakout as a defensive lineman league he hasn't here
Speaker 5: each year.
Speaker 2: Is that has Has that been helpful to sort of
Speaker 2: watch him? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Uh? Since I got here, Matik been a big uh,
Speaker 3: big role model for me. I've been looking up looking
Speaker 3: up to him for the past two years and seeing
Speaker 3: what he did last year because gave me more division. See,
Speaker 3: I wanna follow his footsteps.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us about your workouts that you deal
Speaker 1: with Robert Washings look in Atlanta in the year and
Speaker 1: how much stronger are you as compared to the last year?
Speaker 3: Yeah, last year, I've always been one of the strongest,
Speaker 3: but just building off that, trying to work on my
Speaker 3: flexibility against things like that to approve my been When
Speaker 3: it come to pass rush, it wasn't.
Speaker 4: Really like, hey, I'm gonna go get strong.
Speaker 3: It's about the flexibility and stuff.
Speaker 9: Now, which do you appreciate the Ravens that now they
Speaker 9: do stunts and twist games on the inside later talk.
Speaker 4: A little bit about that.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah. Uh with coach Dennis coming in, he got
Speaker 3: his uh in Chuck, they just they masterminds at it,
Speaker 3: putting us in the right positions and make plays.
Speaker 2: Before you know, and mostly.
Speaker 1: Nose tackle kind of pain yourself.
Speaker 9: And it's working behind legel.
Speaker 1: But now coach Carvel said, hey, you can play a
Speaker 1: lot of different positions.
Speaker 7: Is that an off season focus for you and it?
Speaker 7: What's your view pointing on playing along the line?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 3: I feel like towards the end of the last season,
Speaker 3: I started playing more three tech and defensive defensive en
Speaker 3: so I'm pretty comfortable playing out there. Yeah, I'm ready.
Speaker 4: I supposed to have been like competing against you know,
Speaker 4: some of the interior offensive buying guys andrews in particular
Speaker 4: literators impressions.
Speaker 3: Yeah, going against Lennon Brom you know, he went to
Speaker 3: the Pro Bow last year, so he won the best
Speaker 3: centers in the league, and going going against him every
Speaker 3: day gonna get me better before he's uh strong, He's strong,
Speaker 3: real strong. Aggressive, so and you're just gonna keep working
Speaker 3: every day and make each other better.
Speaker 4: Wondering how how do you handle how him?
Speaker 1: Any hype right, like a lot of people are coaches,
Speaker 1: players and what teamates are saying. Man, I think Travis
Speaker 1: is really going to break out the year, right, Like,
Speaker 1: coming from Connecticut a programmer, there wasn't a lot of
Speaker 1: hype around the program what not, and kind of.
Speaker 4: Being never looked in the draft.
Speaker 1: How do you deal with that?
Speaker 2: How do you handle him?
Speaker 3: I feel like hype I expect a lot for myself,
Speaker 3: so when people do the same for me, it's really
Speaker 3: not no extra motivation or anything for me. I just
Speaker 3: go out there and put my head down at work.
Speaker 1: And lastly, it's big urb Brent Urban talking about the
Speaker 1: Ravens defensive line.
Speaker 4: That people coached, playing a couple of former coaches. You
Speaker 4: want to stay here in Baltimore?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, you know, Baltimore just feels like home
Speaker 8: for me as far as football goes. You know, I
Speaker 8: have like so much familiarity with everyone in the building.
Speaker 8: It's been a great fit for me football wise too.
Speaker 8: So you know, I obviously appreciated the interest and have
Speaker 8: a ton of respect for those guys, But you know,
Speaker 8: my heart was here and it's made a ton of
Speaker 8: sense for me to stay.
Speaker 6: Remember just talking to John about this. But the start
Speaker 6: of your career, I mean, you miss basically three of
Speaker 6: your first four years or big portions of them. Could
Speaker 6: you have ever thought at that point in time that
Speaker 6: you'd still be playing all these years later and end
Speaker 6: up having the career You've had?
Speaker 8: No chance, man, it was. It was tough times, a
Speaker 8: lot of dark days and a lot to fight through.
Speaker 8: And I think guys like trell Suggs Marshall Yonda, you know,
Speaker 8: they dealt with a bunch of injuries throughout their career
Speaker 8: and they were kind of there to lift me up
Speaker 8: and to be like a benchmark on like what to
Speaker 8: work on coming off of injury, you know, kind of
Speaker 8: how to have the right mindset like going into the
Speaker 8: whole thing. So there's a lot of sitting back and
Speaker 8: watching and you know, trying to figure out how I
Speaker 8: fit in and that sort of thing. But you know,
Speaker 8: relying on those vets and stuff like that helped me
Speaker 8: a ton, you know, and allowed me to get through
Speaker 8: that and you know, turn that into a career. You know,
Speaker 8: it was just one year at a time, and thankful,
Speaker 8: thankfully worked out.
Speaker 9: You've now been an NFL survivor by the definition I use.
Speaker 9: You've been in the NFL for a long time, playing
Speaker 9: on the fringe of the roster a lot of that,
Speaker 9: and obviously been on the handshake group for now several years.
Speaker 9: What do you talk to other young players about in
Speaker 9: terms of, you know, not everybody gets a big second
Speaker 9: contract to you, somebody who would be able to on time.
Speaker 8: That way, Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, just
Speaker 8: being in the league as a privilege man, like every
Speaker 8: single day you just got to relish it because you know,
Speaker 8: you see so many guys in and out, and just
Speaker 8: even looking at my class now it's you know, nobody's
Speaker 8: still around. So just just finding your own role, just
Speaker 8: appreciating it, appreciating it. Like as I get older, I've
Speaker 8: started to be able to take like a seat back
Speaker 8: and really just appreciate, like how thankful I am to
Speaker 8: be here. You know, when you're young, you like noses
Speaker 8: on the grindstone. You're just like hustling every day, You're
Speaker 8: stressed out all this stuff. And now I feel like
Speaker 8: I can kind of be at a luxury to sit
Speaker 8: back and just really appreciate things each and every day,
Speaker 8: and I think that's kind of helped me, like, you know,
Speaker 8: continue to play well in this I guess, you know,
Speaker 8: later stretch of my career.
Speaker 5: Bro we've been kind of asking some of the more
Speaker 5: experienced lignment about Travis Jones. You've actually you've got to
Speaker 5: see him grow. I mean, to your mind, what specific
Speaker 5: thing has to happen for him to go from the
Speaker 5: good player we saw last year maybe something.
Speaker 4: More than that.
Speaker 8: I think he's doing it, man, Like you know, he's
Speaker 8: a guy like justin to look at you know, Broderick Washington,
Speaker 8: who works so so hard, Like he's up with them
Speaker 8: early in the morning working out. You know, he kind
Speaker 8: of sees the model of what to do. And I
Speaker 8: think you guys can see it. Like out in the field.
Speaker 8: You know, his his like past rushing ability has gone
Speaker 8: so so much better, the way he moves, his quickness,
Speaker 8: his size, speed, just the way he thinks about the game.
Speaker 8: Now you know, it's at a more mature level where
Speaker 8: you know, I think he's going to take off this year.
Speaker 8: You know, I think he's done a great job and
Speaker 8: looked at those guys how they've done it and Yeah,
Speaker 8: this guy's the limit for him. I think he's going
Speaker 8: to take a huge step this year.
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