With mandatory mini-camps starting yesterday, the Baltimore Ravens are feeling pretty confident with their Off-season additions on Offense. Sure you’re likely to hear the names of Steve Smith and Owen Daniels as the prize pieces of the bunch, but there is a player who has a nastiness about him in run-support that is noteworthy. For years, the Ravens’ run support has been bolstered by one or two blocking TE’s that Ozzie Newsome and John Harbaugh saw talent in. This year is no different. I believe the Ravens may have stumbled upon another super-grinder in TE Phillip Supernaw.
Harbaugh is a huge advocate of players who put on a “hard-hat” and go to work in the trenches. Supernaw is one of those guys who puts on the hat and puts that hat on a head the second he clocks in. Bleacher Report’s Scott Bischoff had this to say about the promising young talent “Supernaw is a very versatile football player who can help an offense in multiple ways.”
This 6-5, 248lb monster spent his 2013 season with the Houston Texans and was waived in May before signing with the Ravens in the same month. This is a fortuitous pickup because it appears the Ravens have parted ways with Billy Bajema. While players like Ed Dickson and Dennis Pitta were the pretty boys of this offensive scheme, players like Bajema did the dirty work. He was one of the reasons the Ravens had such an impressive ground game before last year. The team is looking for Supernaw to fill that blocking specialist role. He has experience in delivering punishing blocks, driving defenders to the turf in run-support. While he may fill in the role once had by Bajema, he has more to bring to the table.
The Katy Texas native was All-Conference for three of his four years at college. You don’t get All-Conference for just pushing a few guys around as a TE. Supernaw posted 64 catches for 810 yards and 10-TDs during his tenure and Ouachita Baptist University. While these aren’t eye-popping numbers, they are enough to show he’s more than a blocking TE.
Surely the Ravens are convinced; they dropped TE Matt Furstenburg in favor of the 2nd year player. The Ravens also picked up Colorado State TE Crockett Gilmore in the 3rd round of the Draft and he’s not going to sit idly by as Supernaw attempts to unseat him on the depth chart. Supernaw will have to be convincing enough with his performance to push the Ravens into carrying 4 TEs on the active roster. I look forward to this particular position battle in training camp.
Jermaine Lockett is a writer for CouchRiderReport.net. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.
