COURTESY OF BALTIMORE RAVENS MEDIA RELATIONS DEPARTMENT
LBs Patrick Queen and Malik Harrison aren’t going to have the luxury of playing in preseason games – it’s completely unprecedented. How do you think those guys are going to respond on September 13 against the Browns? (Todd Karpovich) “Obviously, this offseason is quite a challenge for us – it’s different. The thing that we have to do a good job of is making sure they’re getting enough live, competitive snaps against the ‘ones’ where we can see what they can do. That’s really the best we can do at this point. I think today we had a good series there with the younger guys, but as we get going, making sure that they get the right looks [so] that we can evaluate them accordingly. But the one thing I like about those two guys – considering their age – is their maturity. They came in here – ‘P.Q.’ [Patrick Queen] just turned 21, I think Malik is 22 years old. They’ve got a great football foundation behind them, so they come in here with some linebacker pedigree considering how much time Patrick played at LSU in only a year-and-a-half. So, I like where they’re at. They’re ahead of where most rookies would be in a normal season at this point, I believe.”
Coach Macdonald, what has impressed you about the rookies? (Ximena Lugo-Latorre) “Like I said, the number one thing is their maturity. I’d say the next thing is really their competitiveness. I know they don’t make the same mistake twice – that’s something that we harp on. It’s always trying to figure out something new to mess up, and that’s going to happen as rookies. But the thing we want to make sure we’re doing is we’re flying around, we’re being physical, we’re communicating the defense, making sure everybody’s on the same page. That’s a work in progress, but those guys, once we correct it in the film room, they have a nice ability to be able to take it out on the field and then figure it out as we go and keep moving forward.”
