Gary Lambrecht, The Examiner
2008-05-08 07:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

With training camp more than two months away, the Ravens have no choice but to hope everything is going to work out fine on the corner, which was a dangerous place to be in a Baltimore uniform last season.

With their fingers no doubt crossed, the Ravens think veteran cornerbacks Chris McAlister and Samari Rolle will overcome their age and medical issues and return to something approaching Pro Bowl form.

They think newly acquired veterans Fabian Washington and Frank Walker will bolster a depth chart that was plain sad last season. They think someone among the nondescript gang of Corey Ivy, Derrick Martin, David Pittman and Ronnie Prude will stick his head out of the sands of mediocrity and actually cover and/or tackle somebody.

Brace yourselves, and forget for a minute about the Ravens’ large question marks at quarterback and left tackle. If the Ravens fail to shore up gaping shortcomings in their secondary, the upcoming season won’t be a pretty sight.

In case you’ve blocked it out from the assorted bad memories comprising a 5-11 journey that doomed Brian Billick and brought us first-time head coach John Harbaugh, the cornerback position took a bit of a hit last year.

The Ravens gave up a league-worst 15 passing plays of at least 40 yards, were third-worst by allowing 53 plays of at least 20 yards, and ranked 20th out of 32 teams in passing defense by surrendering 222.3 yards per game.

In short, opposing quarterbacks looked forward to the weekly turkey shoot, especially after McAlister went down in midseason. Remember, for example, Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger barely using his right arm to throw five, first-half touchdown passes on that embarrassing Monday night in early November?

McAlister, who wasn’t playing great before his sore knee got the best of him, missed eight games in his ninth year, then had offseason surgery. Rolle, who missed 10 games due to a scary bout with epilepsy, never was a factor in his 10th season. And the gang of four took turns playing so poorly at times they didn’t deserve to be called nickel and dime backs.

The biggest surprise of last month’s draft was the Ravens did not add a rookie cornerback, although they wisely did not rest. They traded a fourth-round pick for Washington, who started 26 games in Oakland, but fell out of favor last year with the Raiders.

“I’m far more — I don’t know if ‘comfortable’ is the word — I think we’re in much better shape now than we were in January,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve added two quality corners [Washington and Walker, a free agent from Green Bay]. We’re assuming Chris and Samari are going to play very well this year. You can’t play without [good] corners. We had to stock up on them.”

Eric DeCosta, the Ravens’ director of college scouting, wanted to stock up via the draft. But in his estimation, this year’s rookie crop was not as good or as deep as advertised. The Ravens did not want to get stuck picking a cornerback such as Troy’s Leodis McKelvin with the eighth overall choice, and rejected the idea of trading up from No. 38 to get one such as South Florida’s Mike Jenkins, who Dallas took with the 25th pick.

“Once we had the ammunition to get Washington for a fourth-round pick, we felt that was better than moving up to get Jenkins or even taking a guy like [Virginia Tech’s] Brandon Flowers if he fell to the 38th pick,” DeCosta said. “For us to reach on a cornerback was not the right move.”

So, for this to work, McAlister and Rolle must be injury-free and regain a step they’ve lost in recent years, and Washington must play well enough to start or at least take over the nickelback role. Then, someone among Walker and the gang of four must prove he’s worthy of being on the field.

It’s still early, Ravens fans. But start crossing your fingers now.

Gary Lambrecht writes about the NFL, Major League Baseball and college sports. He can be reached at glambrecht@baltimoreexaminer.com.