Some more opening day notes

May 7, 2010 8:08 PM by Dan Kolko View Comments

Anquan Boldin's first Ravens minicamp did not feature any spectacular one-handed grabs, any backflips over defenders or any leisurely strolls over bodies of water.

Despite reports to the contrary, Boldin's not Superman. Or at least he's not Superman all the time.

The seventh-year wide receiver did open the OTAs with a nice grab on an underthrown Joe Flacco pass, coming back to the ball and corralling it just before it hit the turf. He also made a couple of plays over the middle, but all-in-all it was a fairly uneventful day for the Ravens' newest No. 1 receiver.

One thing that I thought was interesting, however: On the very first red zone rep of the offseason, Flacco looked for Boldin over the middle in the back of the end zone. The pass fell incomplete, but you can bet we'll see that Flacco-Boldin connection in the red zone quite a few times this year and in years to come.

After the session, Boldin was asked if today was the first time that he's worn the Ravens' purple practice jersey.

"Yeah," Boldin replied. "I look good in it."

Here are some other quick-hit notes from the first minicamp of the 2010 offseason:

- As is the case in pretty much every practice under John Harbaugh, it was a fast-paced session today, with players being urged to run to new locations on the field at the completion of the previous drill. After the session, a few rookies made note of how fast everything moved and how they had a little trouble keeping up.

- Even though today was the first organized team session of the offseason and players won't be playing a meaningful road game for another four months, the coaches had artificial noise pumped in through the on-field speakers during red zone drills.

- Ed Dickson, the third-round tight end out of Oregon, looked sharp today, and flashed some of the explosiveness that had team officials raving during draft weekend. Dickson isn't as wide a body as I imagined he would be, but at 6-4, he's got good height and showed the pass catching potential that the Ravens are looking for.

- Rookie free agent signee Mike McLaughlin, who played linebacker at Boston College, is officially listed as a fullback on the roster. McLaughlin and Dennis Pitta (the fourth-round tight end) both saw time in the backfield this afternoon as a lead blocker.

- Despite being somewhere in the neighborhood of 360 pounds, Terrence Cody showed good speed today, getting into the backfield on a few occasions. Harbaugh complimented Cody after practice, saying that the massive nose tackle appears to be in good shape and picked up the defense quickly in his first day in a Ravens jersey.