The Baltimore Ravens will reportedly make some rather interesting changes to their practice schedule as they prepare for the 2022 NFL season. 

The Baltimore Ravens over the past few years can best be described as the ‘nearly men’ around the National Football League, because despite being arguably one of the best-run teams in the NFL and having some impressive players at their disposal, they haven’t been able to turn what is a very promising team into any sort of success in the postseason.

The regular season has been where they have operated best. From 2016-2020, the Ravens never finished lower than second in the AFC North, went to the playoffs three times and managed to grab the AFC’s #1 seed back in 2019, a year that saw quarterback Lamar Jackson win league MVP, John Harbaugh win Head Coach of the Year and Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman win Assistant Coach of the Year.

But despite all of that, the furthest that they have been in the playoffs has been the divisional round and last year were out of the playoffs altogether, although some of that can be attributed to the staggering number of injuries that they sustained in 2021. 

Either way, it seems as though Ravens head coach Harbaugh wants things to be different this year, and he is instilling those changes right from the get-go as the players get ready to enter the July portion of the preseason.

What is he doing?

According to NFL reporter Lindsey Ok, the Ravens are set to make some changes to the time that they do a lot of their work this summer, working during the hottest part of the day rather than early in the morning:

Harbaugh had hinted at these sorts of changes earlier in the year, stating that as a result of the injuries that the team sustained last year he was going to look to switch things up in order to try and not go through those problems once again in 2022:

A method in the madness?

On the surface, working in the heat might be one way to go about it, working shorter times but in more extreme conditions could help the players and their bodies get ready for the grueling season ahead.

The Ravens have all the ingredients to be a dominant team in the NFL, with one of the most electrifying quarterbacks in Jackson, and a defence that impressed last season, ranking 1st in terms of yards given up against the run and should look to be better in the passing game this season with the addition of safety Kyle Hamilton through the draft. 

Whether or not these changes end up making a difference, we’ll just have to wait and see how the season unfolds before we can get a definitive answer.