Early in practice Wednesday, Lamar Jackson found his voice — or, maybe more accurately, his voice found Odafe Oweh.

The Ravens outside linebacker was lined up over left tackle Ronnie Stanley, listening to Jackson roll through his presnap cadence, raring to get into the backfield, when the green light flashed.

“HUT!” Jackson yelled. Something told Oweh to go. He burst across the line of scrimmage, before anyone else. Stanley mirrored his pass rush. Everyone else on the field turned to stop and watch. Then they pointed fingers — the offense at Oweh, the defense at Stanley. The ball hadn’t been snapped. Oweh was offside.

Jackson is perhaps the NFL’s most gifted improviser, capable of turning nothing into something on any given play, but the Ravens’ focus at organized team activities and this week’s mandatory minicamp has been on what more he can do before the snap. So much of what makes Jackson special cannot be taught. His offseason voice lessons are a welcome exception.

The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.

“We’re doing a lot with cadence,” coach John Harbaugh said after practice Tuesday. “We’re doing a lot with at-the-line communication, and it’s challenging, so we understand there are going to be those moments [of indecision], and you have a choice. … We want to get good at it, because we think cadence is a weapon, and we want to be able to communicate at the line, and we want to be able to protect our communication.”

Quarterback cadence — the verbiage a quarterback uses at the line of scrimmage to organize and then start a play — is more art than science. Every QB has his own taste in the medium, but only the most exceptional are recognized. Jackson does not have verbiage as distinctive as Dak Prescott’s or a hard count as effective as Patrick Mahomes’, but his first year under offensive coordinator Todd Monken started with more presnap empowerment and ended with his second NFL Most Valuable Player award.

In Year 2, the Ravens are demanding more from Jackson, more from the offense. At Monken’s suggestion, offensive players guilty of false starts in minicamp — even backup quarterback Josh Johnson — have had to do a lap around the practice field as punishment.

“You can’t have cadence as a tool unless you do it and go through the growing pains of it,” quarterbacks coach Tee Martin said Wednesday. “Guys are going to jump offsides here and there. With the amount of communication we’re doing upfront, with the amount of play changing we’re doing upfront, it’s going to come with some of that, but we have to have that in our division, especially for home games with the pass rushers that we’re facing. …

“It has been a tool in the past, and we’re just going to continue to take it to the next level. Lamar is outstanding at it, whether we’re going nonverbal on the road or whether we’re going verbal at home. We have a lot of different ones that give us an advantage so that people don’t know when we’re snapping the ball and slowing them down a little bit.”

The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Jackson has drawn five offside penalties since 2019, according to TruMedia, tied for 10th most in the NFL among quarterbacks. (Prescott and Mahomes have been by far the league’s best in that stretch, drawing 17 and 14, respectively.) But the value of cadence goes beyond penalty yardage. The NFL’s best presnap operators change plays effectively and efficiently. They get defenses to show their hand before the snap. They cut through the din of opposing crowds.

The Ravens’ hope for 2024 is that Jackson can be as hard to pin down before the snap as he is after it. Martin called Wednesday’s practice “probably the best day in a long time of him really just having the freedom to do what he wants to do” at the line of scrimmage.

“My cadence has been pretty good, I believe,” Jackson said after practice Wednesday. “I haven’t heard anything about it. But right now, for the new terminology, it’s been going well. It’s been getting better.”

Wide receiver Nelson Agholor catches a pass with resistance from Rashod Bateman during Ravens minicamp Tuesday. (Ulysses Muñoz/The Baltimore Banner)

Attendance report

Cornerback Marlon Humphrey, whose participation in team drills Tuesday was limited, did not practice Wednesday. Harbaugh said last week he expected Humphrey to be “ready to practice” in minicamp, though he was noncommittal about whether Humphrey would be a full participant. It’s unclear whether Humphrey, who worked out on a side field, is recovering from an injury.

Rookie center Nick Samac, whose participation in offseason practices has been limited as he recovers from the broken fibula (lower leg) he suffered last season at Michigan State, also did not practice Wednesday after suiting up Tuesday.

The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Wide receiver Deonte Harty (personal), running back Keaton Mitchell (knee), defensive lineman Rayshad Nichols, rookie outside linebacker Adisa Isaac (hamstring), defensive back Christian Matthew and safety Kyle Hamilton (elbow) remained sidelined. Isaac continued to work on his conditioning on a side field.

Offensive lineman Patrick Mekari and defensive lineman Michael Pierce left practice separately after about an hour. Neither appeared to be injured.

Stock report

  • Unofficially, Jackson went 19-for-26 in 11-on-11 action and 9-for-11 in seven-on-seven work, avoiding interceptions one day after a three-pick performance. His best throw came in a seven-on-seven drill, when he found wide receiver Zay Flowers, running a stop-and-go route against cornerback Trayvon Mullen, for a leaping touchdown near the right side of the end zone. Jackson also connected with tight end Isaiah Likely for another acrobatic one-handed catch over the middle.
View post on X
  • Wide receiver Rashod Bateman has had a quiet start to minicamp. He had a short catch early in Tuesday’s practice, but his snaps seemed to dwindle later in the session. On Wednesday, Jackson targeted him just once, when Bateman was well covered by Mullen on a shot play and his deep pass fell incomplete. After an end-zone pass from Johnson to Bateman in another 11-on-11 session ended with an interception by cornerback Ka’Dar Hollman, the fourth-year wide receiver took his helmet off and walked back slowly to the offensive sideline.
  • Wide receiver Tylan Wallace had a forgettable start to practice, watching a would-be touchdown pass from Johnson glance off his outstretched hands in an early 11-on-11 period, then dropping an easy pass from Jackson in the left flat a few periods later. But Wallace heated up again for the second straight practice, following his second drop with a leaping catch over the middle, showing good hands in another close-quarters connection with Johnson, and earning some oohs and aahs from fans after separating easily from cornerback Brandon Stephens on a curl route for a solid gain. Wallace went on to make a few more catches, though he did have to run a lap near the end of practice after a false-start infraction.
  • Tight end Charlie Kolar has added good weight to his frame over his two-plus years in Baltimore, but at 6 foot 6, he remains an enticing option over the middle. Kolar caught three passes from Jackson, all for solid gains.
  • Undrafted rookie wide receiver Isaiah Washington had to settle for just one highlight-reel catch a day after he had two, but the Rutgers product made it count. Washington had a toe-tap touchdown at the front left corner of the end zone after beating Hollman for a 50-50 ball from Johnson late in practice.
  • Undrafted rookie cornerback Bump Cooper Jr. — who played under the less memorable name of Ryan Cooper Jr. at Oregon State — jumped an out-breaking route in a half-field passing drill to intercept a pass from rookie quarterback Devin Leary early in practice.
  • Defensive lineman Justin Madubuike had a would-be sack of Jackson and helped end another drive by the first-team offense by batting down a pass at the line of scrimmage.