The first drop-back of the first open practice of Ravens organized team activities wasn’t memorable, but it was revealing.

At quarterback Wednesday was Lamar Jackson, who missed the majority of the voluntary OTAs last year. His target was tight end Mark Andrews, who’s entering the final year of his contract and whose playoff history has made him a lightning rod for criticism. In coverage was cornerback Marlon Humphrey, another well-paid veteran who could’ve spent the day training wherever he pleased.

In recent winters, the Ravens have made a habit of losing heartbreakers in the playoffs. In recent springs, a handful of veterans have exercised their right to opt out of OTAs, waiting until mandatory minicamp to report to Owings Mills. But on Wednesday the Ravens had power in numbers, apparently driven to work by their latest playoff heartbreak. Only a handful of players were missing from one of the best-attended OTA practices in recent years.

“It’s great,” coach John Harbaugh said. “Coaches, we want to coach. We want players to be here. We talked about it today. We all know what we’re here for, and we have a mission that we’re trying to accomplish. To see the guys out there working as hard as they are and as hard as they have been means a lot. I love the way these guys work. I think they’ve been very intentional about every aspect of what we’ve done.”

Just six players on the Ravens’ 91-man roster were missing or sidelined at the indoor practice: offensive linemen Daniel Faalele and rookie Emery Jones (labrum), outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy, inside linebacker Jake Hummel, cornerback Chidobe Awuzie (illness) and safety Ar’Darius Washington (torn Achilles tendon). Faalele was unavailable because of “physical things,” Harbaugh said, but is expected to return soon. Washington, who tore his Achilles a couple of weeks ago in offseason workouts, told Harbaugh he expects to return in November.

The most important presence was Jackson, whose attendance at OTAs is always scrutinized. (He attended an early practice last year, too, but missed enough of the Ravens’ 10 total workouts that he reportedly lost a $750,000 bonus.) The first-team All-Pro was one of the most impressive players on the field, finishing with an unofficial mark of 10-for-11 in competitive 11-on-11 work. Jackson worked the sidelines effectively, connecting with wide receivers DeAndre Hopkins and Tylan Wallace several times, and his only incompletion in full-team work came on a drop by wide receiver Zay Flowers on a deep cross.

“He’s the best in football, so he works hard at it,” Harbaugh said of Jackson, who was not made available to reporters. “It means a lot to him. He’s been studying it. He’s been training. You can tell the kind of shape he’s in right now. You can see by the way he threw the ball. You guys all saw it today. He was on point with the offense. He’s ready. He’s ready to get going and had a heck of a day today and will just keep building on it for tomorrow, but I think what you saw today with him is probably indicative of everybody.”

Andrews, whose drops loomed large in the Ravens’ divisional-round loss to the Buffalo Bills, said he wished that “we didn’t have to go through that again last year.” But the misery seemed to galvanize the Ravens this offseason.

“I feel like everybody got the memo after the last game of [last] year,” tight end Isaiah Likely said. “When you don’t reach your ultimate goal, which is to win and hold that trophy and smile with everybody, everybody’s always hungry [to] get back to the next season and really get done. Knowing the team we have, the chemistry we have and the leaders that we have, everybody’s always itching to come back, play football and really just get the job done.”

Notes

• Hopkins caught all three of Jackson’s targets in 11-on-11 work, settling into an intermediate zone before making a diving catch on a throw, separating from cornerback Nate Wiggins and making a full-extension grab near the right sideline on an out-breaking route, and finally beating Humphrey on an out route along the left sideline. “He’s a gifted guy,” Harbaugh said. “He’s a talented guy. He’s going to be a big-body, contested-catch receiver for us, certainly. He’s moving great. Plus, he brings all that experience. He’s been in big games before. He’s made plays in the big games. He knows how to make plays. There’s not going to be any situation that’s going to be too big for him, but I just thought he and Lamar looked really good today out there together. It was nice to see.”
• Wide receiver Devontez Walker had a quiet rookie year, but he stood out Wednesday. He made catches on the move, over the middle, outside the numbers, as a screen target and in the end zone. Walker, a fourth-round pick in 2024, had one of the better catches at practice, beating rookie cornerback Robert Longerbeam to the back of the end zone for a toe-tap touchdown pass from backup quarterback Cooper Rush.
• Running back Keaton Mitchell, who had just 58 yards of total offense last year as he recovered from his season-ending knee injury in 2023, beat rookie inside linebacker Teddye Buchanan on a wheel route down the right sideline and connected with Rush for a nice over-the-shoulder catch in seven-on-seven work. “I saw the burst,” Harbaugh said. “It looked like he had the speed and then just the ability to adjust and track and just not have any ... last year, probably, you could tell he was thinking through the knee [injury] a little bit, it seemed like. I haven’t seen any of that so far this spring, so it’s good to see.”
• Rookie kicker Tyler Loop was mostly a bystander Wednesday, part of a schedule in which the sixth-round pick will kick every other day, Harbaugh said. Undrafted rookie John Hoyland handled the kicking workload instead.
• Defensive lineman John Jenkins, who agreed to a one-year deal with the Ravens in mid-May, wasn’t practicing with the team because he’s technically not on the team — yet. Harbaugh said the Ravens are waiting to process defensive lineman Michael Pierce’s offseason retirement as a post-June 1 transaction, after which a roster space will become available.