All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton was in street clothes on the sideline during the first day of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday.
After practice, Head Coach John Harbaugh provided an update on the third-year pro.
“Kyle had some loose bodies in his elbow that they went ahead and just plucked out,” Harbaugh said. “So it’s a two-to-three-week deal.”
Harbaugh added that Hamilton will be ready by training camp. Hamilton had been practicing at the start of Organized Team Activities.
Harbaugh Provides Deonte Harty Update
After missing all of Organized Team Activities, Deonte Harty wasn’t at the first day of mandatory minicamp.
Harbaugh provided an update on the wide receiver/returner.
“I’ve talked to him a few times in the last couple of days: his baby is in the hospital. [He has] a five-week-old daughter,” Harbaugh said. “They brought her back in the hospital this weekend, and now – the last couple of days – and he felt like he couldn’t really leave his family, so we understood, and we excused him for that.”
Harty signed with the Ravens this offseason after spending last season with the Bills. He spent his first four NFL seasons with the Saints and as a rookie was named an All-Pro punt returner.
Harty could be an option as a kickoff returner this season with the new rules and will certainly be in the mix with Tylan Wallace for the punt returner spot.
Harbaugh Prefers O-Line Competition Settled ‘the Earlier the Better’
The top competition for starting spots this season is on the Ravens’ offensive line, where there are openings at both guard positions and right tackle.
Without divulging who is playing where, the Ravens have given multiple players reps with the first-team unit to get a good look at the options.
The primary contenders are Josh Jones and Andrew Vorhees at left guard, Ben Cleveland and Sala Aumavae-Laulu at right guard, and Daniel Faalele and Roger Rosengarten at right tackle. Veteran Patrick Mekari can play anywhere.
On Tuesday, Harbaugh said he would like to know “the earlier the better.”
“It would be nice if we could kind of [know] by the first into the second week of training camp, [that] would be a goal to have a good idea,” Harbaugh said. “If it goes into the [preseason] games, it could go into the preseason games, but maybe just one spot up for grabs or something like that. That would be OK, but the sooner the better.”
The Ravens had several false starts during Tuesday’s practice, which led to laps for the offenders. Harbaugh said part of that is by virtue of working on different snap counts and that the lap rule will stay in effect “as long as we [need].”
“There’s a really easy way to stop it: don’t be jumping offsides,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve been going through the offseason, and we’re doing a lot with cadence. We’re doing a lot with at-the-line communication, and it’s challenging, so we understand there are going to be those moments, and you have a choice. You either always go on one, or you push through it [and] say, ‘We’re going to live with the mistakes, but we’re going to get good at it,’ so we want to get good at it, because we think cadence is a weapon.”
Harbaugh Rules Out Wacky Returners Idea
The new kickoff rules have led to some outside-the-box ideas on who could make for a good returner. One pundit even suggested Lamar Jackson as a possibility. Harbaugh shot that notion down Tuesday.
“It’s a lot of no’s,” Harbaugh said, ruling out a host of star players including wide receiver Zay Flowers. “We have guys who can do it. We have returners that can do it and some young guys that want to do it, so we’ll have the guys.”