Ravens center Jason Brown is reminded of his hard work this offseason every time he looks at the patch above the No. 60 on the front of his jersey.

The patch is of a flexing arm holding a hammer, given to players by first-year Ravens coach John Harbaugh for making 85 percent of the offseason workouts. The fourth-year player out of the University of North Carolina knew he had to work harder this offseason because he has to prove himself to a new coaching staff.

“I came back up from North Carolina and it was a big sacrifice spending a lot of time away from my family, and my new born son, J.W. ‘Jason’ Brown Jr.,” he said. “But you have to make that sacrifice if you want to be great.”

The 6-foot-3, 320-pounder mainly played left guard the past two seasons, starting 28 of 32 games, but his ability to snap and understand how to play center increased his value to the team.

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When two of the team’s top linemen, center Mike Flynn and left tackle Jonathan Ogden, retired during the offseason, Brown was shifted to center. Now, he’s calling the blocking assignments, not listening. He’s dictating when the ball is snapped, not reacting to it.

“[Brown] might be a natural center,” Harbaugh said. “He played center in college and I think he’s excited about doing it and he’s working really hard at it.”

Former linemen Ogden, Wally Williams, Spencer Folau and Flynn gave advice to this year’s unit as it drilled for more than two hours in sweltering heat at McDaniel College.

“When you are playing center, automatically all eyes are on you and depending on you for the efficiency of every play,” Brown said. “I knocked off a lot of those cobwebs from not playing center for awhile. I can’t feel like I have arrived in any area of my game play, it’s always going to be progressive and my goal is to get to a Pro Bowl.”

dcarey@baltimoreexaminer.com