Joe Flacco’s Footwork Improving, Terrence Brooks Thinking Too Much

Jul 24, 2014; Owings Mills, MD, USA; Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak (left) watches Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco (5) throw during practice at Under Armour Performance Center. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to lunchtime links, where we round up all the latest Ravens news from around the web for your convenient consumption.  Today we talk about Joe Flacco’s improving footwork, what we have learned from the first week of training camp, why Terrence Brooks needs to think less, and how Marlon Brown has improved from his drop filled minicamp.

In Gary Kubiak’s new offense, the quarterback has to be somewhat mobile, not exactly a quality we would assign to one Joe Flacco.  But quarterbacks coach Rick Dennison is praising the way Flacco is adapting to the system and says his footwork has improved.  Instead of the five and seven step drops he executed last season, Flacco must cut back to three step drops.

“Watching Joe, it has been a great adjustment,” Dennison said. “He’s done a very good job at it. I think some of the things that we’ve seen, he’s a great athlete. He’s got good feet. He does a good job on the edge when we ask him to do some movement, all this play-pass.  He’s done a good job with the fakes. I don’t know if you say how much of a tough adjustment, it’s not much for him. He’s done a very good job.”

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The adjustments to Flacco’s game should make him more accurate, though he might never be Drew Brees.  He will be more focused on getting rid of the ball and picking up yards underneath as opposed to just slinging the deep ball all the time.  With the way the league had adjusted and added big bodies to their secondary, this should help him cut back on interceptions as well.

Shehan Peiris has some lessons from the first week of training camp, including the improvements along the offensive line and Tyrod Taylor’s improvement.  Kubiak’s system is a better fit for Taylor than previous offensive schemes as he is a more athletic quarterback.  Perhaps the new system will finally allow him to break out of his shell this season, which would be fantastic news.  The Ravens truly need a legitimate contingency plan behind Flacco.

Aaron Wilson tells us that rookie safety Terrence Brooks is still thinking more than reacting out on the field.   This may help explain why Brooks hasn’t managed to unseat Darian Stewart for the starting job as he was expected to do, and perhaps why we haven’t been hearing his name mentioned much in camp.  Brooks has plenty of natural ability but he seems to be having a harder time adjusting to the mental side of things.

Marlon Brown had a horrible minicamp, dropping multiple balls.  This was a surprise considering he had such a stellar rookie season, but it appears that he is moving on and looking more like the promising WR3 he was last year.  Brown has settled in at training camp and has made some head turning plays.  And not a minute too late, as several young guys are making an impression at the wide receiver position in camp.