OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Baltimore Ravens hosted the Washington Commanders for a joint practice at their Owings Mills facility Wednesday, the second such session of training camp after a trip to Minnesota last week.
Quarterback Lamar Jackson said practicing against another team brings out a higher level of play that internal practices simply cannot replicate.
"We play better against competition because our guys, they see us each and every day and they pretty much get familiar with our schemes and stuff like that and it makes it harder for us to complete the ball, make certain runs and stuff like that but going against another opponent, they don't know what we can do," Jackson said.
Head coach Jesse Minter said facing an outside opponent shifts the team's mindset closer to what players experience on game day.
"When you get a chance just to go against somebody else, it sort of gives your mind a little bit of that game mentality, getting ready to defend something, being able to look at tape and look at things. So I think we got a lot out of it. We were able to try some different things," Minter said.
Almost all Ravens starters are not expected to play in the preseason, making joint practices like Wednesday's session the closest thing to game action for much of the starting roster. Tight end Mark Andrews said the opportunity was valuable.
"For the guys that aren't going in the games, it's a great opportunity for us to kind of take it up a notch, play against somebody else, compete, and I thought it was great work that we had out here today. I think there's a lot of good and a lot of things to work on, and it's a beautiful thing," Andrews said.
The Ravens will hold a closed walkthrough Thursday before hosting Washington in the preseason finale Friday night. Following the game, the roster will be cut from 90 to 53 players as the team turns its attention to the regular season.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
