Practice squads serve two purposes for NFL teams as they continue to grow in size.
They offer immediate veteran depth as a taxi squad of sorts at areas of immediate need. And the squad also provides a developmental bullpen for assets who will need longer to fully blossom and offer NFL assistance, but who the team wants to retain a contractual check over and who can benefit from their daily meetings and practices in the interim.
The Ravens have already initiated a bevy of transactions with their squad, losing players and signing players, and there are four individuals who appear bets poised to help the Ravens very soon, some of them perhaps by Week 1. Not just because they are only an injury away from activation but also because the coaches still have some things to sort through at certain position groups.
It would be surprising if one of these players broke through before they face the Colts . But not entirely shocking.
The Ravens don't want to give up on their evaluation from the 2025 draft about Tyler Loop . They have given the young kicker all the support - internally and outwardly - as possible and stood by him longer than some might have. And they certainly avoided bringing in real competition longer than they should have.
But you could hear a tone shift in the voice of general manager Eric DeCosta when he spoke about this kicker competition this week. There is a little bit more of a dry harshness as he sized up Loop's summer, which included three missed field goals in two home preseason games. Rookie head coach Jesse Minter took a softer approach and tried to pretend like signing Moody was simply insurance for down the road, but DeCosta seemed a little miffed that Loop's 44-yard miss to keep Baltimore from the playoffs has carried into this summer.
"Fresh set of legs to look at, evaluate, compare, see how it all works out,"; DeCosta stated. "In the end, it is a performance business, right?"
Moody, who has bounced around and struggled from distance but finished strong with Washington last season, could simply beat out Loop. Or Loop could struggle in a game early in the season and they'll be that. Kicking coach Randy Brown will play a heavy role here.
Nov 10, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Tennessee Titans tight end Nick Vannett (84) during pregame warmup before an NFL game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect
He's played for like a third of the league and can hold up for a spell and understands life in their trenches in a way the rookie right ends on this active roster simply don't. We expect the Ravens to open the season with quite a bit of 11 personnel leaning into receivers in the passing game HYPER, but that might not work. They might want to get heavier and tougher in how they operate and they are carrying no fullback and just three running backs and might want a sturdy tight end body besides free agent Durham Smythe , with Mark Andrews clearly their top move tight end.
This guy can't get downfield, but he's 6-foot-6, 260 pounds and if the Ravens want to run heavy stuff he makes infinitely more sense behind Smythe than either rookie or even alongside Smythe, depending on what they want to do.
The Ravens appear quite thin to me at OL. We'll see about Carson Vinson and Emery Jones Jr. are true replacement starters if called upon. They've barely played in the NFL. They are the next guy up at tackle or guard. Or at least in theory they were until Edoga was singed a few days ago.
He's far more experienced and more versatile and is a 2019 third-round pick who has 25 career starts and could give it a up inside of on the edge. He played under Ravens run-game coordinator/OL coach Dwyane Ledford in Atlanta and well, I bet he's better than back-up guard Andrew Vorhees right now. He should be on your radar.
He was tricky to evaluate in the preseason, because sometimes the backups manning the offensive line were just not good. So you get swallowed up before anything can develop. It got pretty ugly at times. But he also showed some burst and a bit of an industrious nature and clearly they like something about him.
And with fifth-round running back Adam Randall on Injured Reserve - Designated To return and out at least four weeks, and the Ravens carrying just those three running backs, it's hardly out of the question he debuts before most of the other candidates on this PS.
The Ravens are really deep in the secondary. It's the biggest strength of the roster in terms of quality and quantity. But I like this guy and evaluators I have asked about him like him. He has some coverage skills and a bit of a nose for the ball and experience in this system under former Ravens coordinator Mike Macdonald in Seattle . He's stuck in a numbers game but things happen in this league and in a rotation role in a scheme like this he could make some plays.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/ravens/onsi as The 5 Ravens Practice Squad Players Closest To Making An NFL Immpact .
