OTL: Ravens Take in the Preakness Stakes

When you’re good at something, everybody wants in on your people. That’s the case with the Ravens front office. According to The Athletic’s Ben Standig, the Commanders have had an eye on David Blackburn, the Ravens’ Director of College Scouting.

Washington is targeting Baltimore Ravens director of college scouting David Blackburn for a personnel role, sources familiar with the situation told The Athletic. The Commanders previously chose not to retain senior director of player personnel Eric Stokes.

There is a long track record of the Ravens’ brightest minds moving to big roles around the league. Eric DeCosta was mentored by Ozzie Newsome, Joe Douglas went to the New York Jets and Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers just swooped up Joe Hortiz this offseason.

Standig pointed out Blackburn’s body of work:

Baltimore promoted the up-and-coming Blackburn to director of college scouting in 2022, following two years as a national scout. Blackburn joined the Ravens organization in 2007 as a player personnel assistant and spent seven years as a West area scout.

The big highlight for Blackburn is that he came up similarly to DeCosta. He worked his way up in the franchise for a long time. It also makes sense that Washington is looking at the head of college scouting from the team that has a proven track record in the draft.

Having both the original goat Ray Lewis and the new era goat Lamar Jackson at an iconic Baltimore Preakness event is every thing pic.twitter.com/P0yf9zN3g2

— Sarah Ellison (@sgellison) May 18, 2024

The Preakness Stakes happen to be a big draw in Baltimore this time of year. The Ravens were heavily represented in the audience. Sarah Ellison pointed out how cool it was to have the leaders of two eras of Ravens football there with Ray Lewis and Lamar Jackson.

And Ray even busted out The Squirrel after his Riders Up call, much to Mike Tirico’s delight.

Baltimore Ravens legend Ray Lewis with the Riders Up for the #Preakness149 pic.twitter.com/Loprc600BI

— Dusty Baker (@DustyBakerTV) May 18, 2024

Check Charlie out #RavensFlock pic.twitter.com/Y8DHUTgNCF

— KickaStayTrippy (@TrippyKicka) May 19, 2024

The Preakness almost counts as a mini Ravens huddle. Here we see Jackson get together with Charlie Kolar and Zay Flowers. It looks like the offensive trio went with a lighter Spring-minded fashion sense and that they had fun at the event. Zay looks a bit…unsure…about Kolar’s ‘do.

Kolar is an interesting case going into the next season. It’s hard to stand out when Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely are flourishing in front of you on the depth chart. That said, Kolar has a lot of potential. I’ve always seen him as a Dennis Pitta-like player. On the subject of standing out though, if I had hair, I doubt I’d have the confidence to rock the cornrows. You have to love it.

The Ravens Gaming League, presented by @McDonalds, is back with a Mario Kart tournament!

Race for a chance to win a Fanatics prize! Beat the rest with the fastest time to win an autographed Kyle Hamilton football and more!

: https://t.co/uGPuKR7WUZ pic.twitter.com/cZHfqiaAsC

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) May 18, 2024

Sticking with racing, do you have your green shells rotating around your go-kart? The Ravens Gaming League is holding a Mario Kart tournament. Possible prizes include a Kyle Hamilton signed football. Hamilton is a star now as he is coming off his first Pro Bowl season, and made the All-Pro team. His star is only rising and he could be a foundational player for the franchise. That’s a pretty awesome prize for beating Luigi at the finish line.

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