There?s no doubt a healthy Willis McGahee will start at running back for the Ravens in their season opener against Cincinnati on Sept. 7.
But who will share the carries with the 6-foot, 232-pound Pro Bowler still is very much in doubt.
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“Things have been going OK, we are picking everything up,” Ravens running back Ray Rice, a second-round draft pick, said. “The protection is different, the run scheme is different and everything is different coming from college into the NFL, but with time, all that comes.”
Rice is one of the favorites to share the carries with McGahee this fall. But seventh-round selection Allen Patrick and incumbents Cory Ross and P.J. Daniels also are battling for a roster spot. It is unknown how many running backs first-year Coach John Harbaugh will keep on the team, but last season Brian Billick regularly dressed three ? McGahee, Mike Anderson and Musa Smith.
Anderson, however, was waived earlier this offseason and Smith signed a free-agent contract with the New York Jets.
“Running back is a position where guys have to help each other out,” Rice, who ran for 2,002 yards and 24 touchdowns as a junior last fall at Rutgers, said. “We have been trying to study more, especially me and Allen Patrick have been in our playbook a little more.”
Patrick and Rice hope to bolster a rushing attack that has seen a dramatic dip in production the past three seasons. Since Jamal Lewis rushed for a combined 3,072 yards and 21 touchdowns from 2003 to 2004, the Ravens finished the season ranked 21st in rushing in 2005, 25th in 2006 and 16th this past year.
Even with the offseason addition of McGahee and his 1,207 yards and seven touchdowns, the team?s rushing attack was the definition of mediocre and its inconsistency was one of the reasons for the team?s disappointing 5-11 season.
But with an influx of talent this offseason, the ground game could again become the Ravens? staple.
“We work on each other,” Patrick, who ran for 1,009 yards and eight touchdowns in his final season at Oklahoma, said. “We are out here competing against each other, but at the same time we are still out here working with each other and trying to make each other better.”
And constantly improving is what Rice said is the key to getting onto the field.
“Right now, it?s passing camp and passing the ball is something we are going to do more in the NFL than in college, and I definitely think I have gotten better as a receiver,” Rice said. “I want to play special teams, I want to work on my pass protection. I have experience running and catching, but overall, I want to be a complete back.”
