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6h
BO SMOLKA
The Ed Reed saga seems to be heating up again.

Speaking with SiriusXM NFL Radio's Adam Schein on Thursday, the Ravens safety said he isn’t sure about playing this coming season.

Of course, retirement talk and Reed seem to go hand in hand. He said in the radio interview that he has considered retirement for “three years straight.”

Yet as recently as last month Reed said he thought he could play for four or five more years. He also told 105.7 The Fan last month that, “I plan on playing, but everybody in the world knows plans can change.”

Confused? Welcome to Ed’s World.

Maybe that’s why NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal calls Reed “the new Brett Favre. Every year, he mentions retirement. But no one takes him too seriously.”

This could be nothing more than posturing by Reed, 33, who has implied in past interviews that he felt disrespected by the Ravens when they didn’t renegotiate his six-year, $44.2 million contract, which expires after next season.

Reed said on the SiriusXM show that he has a “totally different focus now, trying to take care of my son, spend time with my son and my family. … Other things have taken priority.”

When asked whether he is 100 percent committed to playing this season, Reed said, “not at the moment, honestly.”

“Can I play at this level? Yes, I can play at the level,” he added. “But committed to doing it right now? It’s still May. I know time is kind of inching away at me. We do have a mandatory camp coming up that I’m still in deep thought about, because other things are important to me now.”

If Reed were to walk away after 10 NFL seasons, rookie Christian Thompson would likely be first in line to replace him. The Ravens already will be without Terrell Suggs for much of the season with an Achilles injury. The absence of Reed would be a further blow to one of the league's top defenses.

Reed was asked by Schein whether the Ravens know he’s feeling that way.

“I doubt it,” Reed said, adding “I think they will know it after this interview.”

You can hear the Reed interview here.



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9h
JOHN EISENBERG

The Ravens have promoted Eric DeCosta to assistant general manager, they announced Thursday. His previous title was director of player personnel.

The Ravens gave DeCosta a raise last year when he surfaced as a possible candidate for several vacant GM positions. Now it turns out they have given him a new title, too.

“When we extended Eric’s contract earlier this year, we changed his title to assistant GM,” Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome said in a statement. “As Eric continues to grow in the personnel department, he is becoming a vital part of the decision-making process.”

A Boston-area native, DeCosta, 41, joined the franchise at an entry-level position in its inaugural year in Baltimore in1996. He moved through the personnel ranks as an area scout, director of college scouting and since 2009 director of player personnel.

If he remains in Baltimore, which now seems assured, DeCosta almost surely will succeed Newsome as the head of the team’s football operation whenever Newsome, 56, decides to retire.

But when asked earlier this year if he felt he was nearing the end of his tenure in Baltimore, Newsome said, “I enjoy coming to work. I don’t know if I have a bad day. I make a lot of mistakes, but I don’t know if I have a bad day at the office. With the people that are in this building, I really enjoy what I do. I don’t know how long (he will stay). I want Super Bowls. Steve (Bisciotti) and I talk about two Super Bowls and three Super Bowls. Once I get to that point, then I’ll start deciding.”

Whenever the Ravens reach that point, the reigns of their front office will pass from Newsome to DeCosta.

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12h
By Ray Frager
CSNbaltimore.com

When some players get drafted, they say the moment is kind of a blur. Maybe it didn’t go quite that quickly for new Raven Gino Gradkowski, but he wasn’t even ready to hear his name called on television.

In fact, he didn’t hear his name called on TV.

That’s because the TV wasn’t tuned into the draft at the time at the draft party in Gradkowski’s Pittsburgh home.

“I just got done playing a game of NHL PlayStation against my cousin Carmen,” Gradkowski recently told The News Journal of Delaware. “He actually beat me, which doesn’t happen often. I didn’t even have time to get anxious about the draft, because I was still mad about losing in that game.

“I knew Baltimore had two picks in that [fourth] round,” Gradkowski said, “and I knew that was a good opportunity for me and a good chance I would go there. But I didn’t think it would happen with their first pick. It was beautiful it happened that early.”


Gradkowski became the second offensive lineman from the University of Delaware ever chosen in the NFL draft.

“Delaware, I’m just so proud to be a part of that family. I can’t wait to represent the Blue Hen name.”

Gradkowski may be headed into a three-way battle to replace departed free agent Ben Grubbs at guard.





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20h
By Ray Frager
CSNbaltimore.com

The Ravens won’t be opening training camp for a while. In fact, you’ve probably still got your trip to Ocean City ahead of you before they start knocking each other around behind the Castle in Owings Mills.

(By the way, when you’re there, would you pick up some Fisher’s caramel corn for me? That’s “there,” as in Ocean City. I’m not figuring you can get boxes of popcorn at the Castle.)

However, Bleacher Report already has identified five Ravens roster battles to watch. Here they are, with excerpted comments:

*Left guard: Jah Reid vs. Kelechi Osemele vs. Gino Gradkowski. With Ben Grubbs departed via free agency, “the Ravens clearly weren't comfortable just handing Reid the job however, as they drafted Kelechi Osemele in the second round and Gino Gradkowski in the fourth, both of whom should provide intense competition for the job.”

*Third wide receiver: Jacoby Jones vs. Tandon Doss, Laquan Williams or David Reed. Three’s a crowd, as in, there’s a crowd vying for the No. 3 receiver job. “The Ravens must expect Jones to earn the third receiver spot, but he will have to fight off a host of young receivers.”

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23h
BO SMOLKA
The kicking battle already figured to be one of the more enduring storylines of training camp: Could Billy Cundiff rebound from his awful miss on the final play of the AFC Championship Game? Would the Ravens turn to someone else after Cundiff struggled both on the road (11 for 20) and from long-range (1 for 6 from 50+ yards) last season?

The story got more legs, as they say, over the weekend after former Texas kicker Justin Tucker opened eyes at the Ravens rookie minicamp.

Tucker, who has not officially signed with the Ravens but was involved in the minicamp on a tryout basis, opened some eyes over the weekend when he nailed a 55-yarder and nearly hit from 60. That is the kind of range that has been lacking from Cundiff, who has made just one of his past 10 kicks of 50+ yards.

Tucker, “gets really good lift on the ball, very accurate. He had a very good camp,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said.

Tucker, who also punted for the Longhorns, made 40 of 48 field-goal attempts in his Texas career, and was 2-for-4 from 50+ yards. He has proved he can hit in the clutch, too: Tucker’s 40-yard field goal as time expired gave the Longhorns a 27-25 win over Texas A&M last season.

To be sure, the Ravens kicking job belongs to Cundiff for now. There wasn’t a person in the Castle who didn’t feel for Cundiff after the AFC title game. He’s a standup guy who didn’t shy away from the microphones after that miss.

The Ravens also have considerable money invested in Cundiff, who was signed to a $15 million contract after the 2010 season, when he hit on 26 of 29 field-goal tries and tied an NFL record with 40 touchbacks. However, his value as a touchback machine diminished last season; with kickoffs moved up 5 yards, many more kicks by many more kickers were not returned.

Harbaugh loves to say that everyone competes for every job, and Cundiff presumably will be no different.

It was thought the Ravens might bring back Shayne Graham to challenge Cundiff, but he has signed with Houston.

When asked whether any other veterans would come in to challenge Cundiff, Harbaugh replied, “I’d say right now we have who we have, and we’ll just play it by ear. That’s always unpredictable.”

What is predicable is this: If Tucker can keep hitting from 55, he will get a long, long look from the Ravens.


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