NOTES: WI-FI FOR FANS; RAVENS HEALTHIEST IN '11; TORONTO TRIP IN '13?

By Joe Platania

OWINGS MILLS -- For the most part, sixth-year NFL wideout Jacoby Jones has made a positive impression during the Ravens' first set of organized team activities (OTAs).

During Wednesday's practice alone, he made several noteworthy plays by using his speed to get to the spots where quarterback Joe Flacco was putting the ball.

During one red-zone play, the 6-foot-2, 212-pound Jones -- an unrestricted free-agent pickup from the Houston Texans -- darted to the middle of the end zone and was in position once Flacco had discarded his first read. The subsequent pass zipped into Jones' hands for a touchdown.

Another repetition featured Jones leaping high over second-year cornerback Jimmy Smith -- no easy task considering Smith is practically the same size -- to haul in another bullet-like throw from Flacco.

It's no wonder that one of the first things Jones told a small group of local reporters at his locker was that he was already loving Baltimore.

"It's something I have to get used to, one day at a time," Jones said. "I just have to make the reads and follow the ball and make the plays."

It was the lack of big plays made toward the end of Jones' tenure in Houston that hastened his departure from a team that made its initial playoff appearance in 2011, winning its first AFC South Division title after nine seasons spent in obscurity.

After getting a home win against Cincinnati during Wild Card Weekend, the Texans took on the Ravens during the Divisional round at M&T Bank Stadium.

Two misplayed punts by Jones didn't help the Texans' field-position fortunes, particularly with backup T.J. Yates having to deal with the ferocious Ravens defense and an intimidating home crowd. The Ravens won, 20-13, ending the Texans' season and Jones' career with the team.

Smith recovered a first-quarter fumble at the Texans' 6 and ran it back to the 2, setting up a Flacco touchdown pass to Kris Wilson three plays later and a 7-3 lead the Ravens did not relinquish.

Three possessions later, Jones muffed another punt that he fell on back at the Texans' 14. One play later, Lardarius Webb picked off Yates, a turnover that preceded an Anquan Boldin touchdown, which stretched the Ravens' lead to 17-3.

Despite those big-game problems, Jones had averaged nearly 14 yards per catch and scored 11 touchdowns for Houston since he was a 2007 third-round pick from Lane College.

Not only that, but Jones' return skills -- something the Ravens definitely had their eye on when they signed him to a two-year contract earlier this offseason -- translated into a 10-yard average on punt runbacks and a 23-yard pace on kickoff returns.

But it was easy for Jones' performance to get lost underneath the avalanche of numbers elite wideout Andre Johnson put up, as well as teammates such as running back Arian Foster, wideout Kevin Walter, and tight ends Joel Dreessen and Owen Daniels.

Jones' arrival in Charm City enabled him to team up with two more former Texans, fullback Vonta Leach and strong safety Bernard Pollard. But it's his rapport with Flacco -- not to mention the fact that he is one of only four receivers on the 13-man position unit that has caught an NFL pass -- that will determine if he will succeed here.

"He's another big guy, and he can run," Flacco said. "He can track down a ball, too. He's got great skills and he's a great guy, too."

Head coach John Harbaugh also approved of the new acquisition.

"(Jones) has a great attitude," the coach said. "He's a real, real hard worker and very fast. He's a big, physical guy and he's done a great job so far."

Because it was the offseason's first OTA, the first for all NFL players in two years because of last spring's lockout, there were bound to be a few timing issues. For instance, Jones dropped a ball thrown behind him during a seven-on-seven drill.

"We've been off a couple of months now," Flacco said. "It was good to see a lot of the guys and get a lot done. Last year's (OTAs) were good in that we didn't have to be here.

"But it didn't affect us that much. We came out last year and got all the way to the AFC Championship Game."

Jones' newness to the team hasn't seemed to affect his chemistry with Flacco, so a similar season-ending result will have the newest wideout loving Baltimore even more.

***

JOEY P'S TRIVIA TIME: Today's question:

Former Alabama linebacker Courtney Upshaw, the Ravens' top 2012 draft pick (35th overall) has been issued jersey No. 91, because the 41 he wore in college doesn't conform to the NFL's numbering system for linebackers.

If he continues to wear that number into the regular season, he would become the eighth principal Raven to wear 91 in a game.

Can you name the first-ever Raven to wear that number during a regular-season contest?

The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today's column.

***

PRACTICE REPORT: The middle day of this week's three-day OTA, the only one to which the media was admitted, featured mostly cloudy skies and warm conditions.

A few notes and highlights:

- Not surprisingly, those not in attendance included out-of-contract running back Ray Rice, as well as veterans Ed Reed, Ray Lewis, the injured Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata and Matt Birk. Two other injured players were on the grounds, but not working out, cornerback Cary Williams (hip) and wideout/returner David Reed (knee).

- The roster is filled to the brim at the 90-man offseason limit. A few jersey changes: ex-Florida quarterback John Brantley is wearing No. 9 and ex-Alabama linebacker Chavis Williams, in his second year with the Ravens, has switched from 47 to 56.

- The ever-vexing left-guard spotlight fell on second-round rookie Kelechi Osemele, who got most of the repetitions at the position. Fourth-rounder Gino Gradkowski worked more at center, with Jah Reid returning to his old right-tackle spot for the time being. Safety Bernard Pollard ripped his way through Reid on a pass-rush play.

- Before the Suggs injury, second-year linebacker Albert McClellan had been moved back to an inside position on the depth chart. But he is outside again, putting himself in the path of fullback Vonta Leach on edge runs, with the veteran winning most of those battles.

- Third-string tight end Davon Drew did a fine job sealing the point of attack against edge linebacker Sergio Kindle.

- Former New York Jets safety Emanuel Cook was playing free safety in Reed's absence, so tight end Ed Dickson was able to position himself just out of his reach to make catches.

- Inside linebacker Dannell Ellerbe fell on a fumbled snap. The team has a deep veteran rotation there, even without Lewis, with Ellerbe, Jameel McClain and Brendon Ayanbadejo.

- Thanks to a pre-snap shift by his linemates, top draft pick Courtney Upshaw found himself all alone in space on a short pass play.

- Backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor took few steps on his drops, and none at all on a few plays. Smith and Corey Graham picked off two of his passes, but Taylor did find Tandon Doss over the middle.

- Linebacker Josh Bynes broke up a pass for tight end Dennis Pitta and Lardarius Webb got in the way of a Flacco pass to Boldin.

***

GAMEDAY WI-FI: The league's spring owners' meeting in Atlanta ended with the three major bylaw and playing initiatives being approved.

But another by-product of the meetings came when the NFL announced that it will attempt to make Wi-Fi wireless access easier for fans within the stadium walls.

"The initiative is to get WiFi in all of our stadiums both for mobile devices including telephony," commissioner Roger Goodell said. "We want to make sure fans when they come into our stadiums don't have to shut down -- they can bring their devices.

"We want them to have access to the same amount of information, have access to our RedZone channel, have access to highlights, and be able to engage in social media, including fantasy football. When you come to our stadiums, we want to make it a great experience. That is what it is about."

Goodell said one or two stadiums would have operational Wi-Fi this year, but it would probably take until 2013 to equip all 31 NFL venues.

Also, starting in 2013, players will be required to wear knee and thigh pads. Plus, the league's trading deadline will be moved back two weeks, from the Tuesday after Week Six to the Tuesday following Week Eight.

A rather significant change involved the injured-reserve rule, by which one player per team -- usually a marquee-type star -- would not have to sit out the season even if he were placed on IR.

But he would have to be practicing for 21 days after returning from the injury before a team determines whether to shelve him for the season.

The rule appears to be targeting those situations in which a player is injured during the season. Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs will likely be put on the Physically Unable To Perform (PUP) list before Week One because of his Achilles injury, which means he will already be out for at least the first six weeks, and the new statute will likely not affect Ravens' roster situation .

***

RAVENS WERE HEALTHIEST: According to FootballOutsiders.com, the Ravens actually had the NFL's healthiest team even though they didn't reach the Super Bowl last year.

The site uses data that it turns into a statistic called Adjusted Games Lost, but it's not merely a raw number of how many players missed how many games.

"The key ideas underlying AGL are that all players don't affect winning and losing equally," Danny Tuccitto wrote. "Missing a game isn't the only way a player injury affects winning and losing. Injuries to starters, important situational reserves (e.g., nickel cornerbacks), and injury replacements (i.e., new permanent starters) count towards AGL, whereas injuries to benchwarmers don't.

"Similarly, injuries that land a player on injured reserve affect AGL more than injuries that force a player to be listed as 'questionable,' which in turn affect AGL more than injuries that lead to a 'probable' game status."

The most serious absences for the Ravens during the 2011 season were guard Ben Grubbs' six-game tenure (toe), the four games linebacker Ray Lewis and cornerback Jimmy Smith each missed, as well as a pair of late-season games by wideout Anquan Boldin.

That's a lot of big names, but using their formula, Football Outsiders calculated that the Ravens had a mere 18.8 AGL reading last year; it was the league's lowest number and a marked improvement from Baltimore's 50.9 number in 2010, which put the Ravens in 15th place.

Elsewhere in the AFC North, Cincinnati posted a 51.8 AGL (13th-healthiest team), while Pittsburgh was at 60.5 (17th) and Cleveland came in with 71.8 (22nd).

***

GOING NORTH?: Here at Ravens Report, we're always looking at scheduling patterns and trends to spot possible Ravens involvement.

For instance, we can always tell whether the Ravens are going to play one of the traditional Thanksgiving afternoon games because an AFC team has to go to Detroit or Dallas every other year so that CBS can air the contest. If current patterns hold, Baltimore won't be playing at either of those sites on Turkey Day during the near future.

Also, the fact that the St. Louis Rams are going to give up a home game to play in London for the next three years means the Ravens won't be going there, because they aren't scheduled to play a road game against the Rams until 2019.

But, thanks to the owners' vote this week that the Buffalo Bills will continue to play one home game per year in Toronto through 2017, Ravens fans might have to book a trip north for a 2013 road clash with the Bills. But the Bills' opponent for that Toronto game won't be known until this time next year.

This season, Buffalo will play Seattle at Toronto's Rogers Centre (formerly Skydome) Dec. 16.

Next year, the Ravens will play the entire AFC East, with road games against the Bills and Miami and home contests with the New York Jets and New England. This year's home game with the Patriots is a placement game, because both the Ravens and Pats won their divisions in 2011.

***

QUOTE OF THE DAY: After Wednesday's practice, Harbaugh received an Outstanding Civilian Service award from U.S. Army General Raymond T. Odierno, whom he accompanied on the 2009 USO tour of the Middle East.

But before the coach left town to head to Virginia to receive that award, he was asked the inevitable question about a "hangover" from last year's AFC title-game loss.

"That's not the word I would use," Harbaugh said, before telling his questioner, "Just take two aspirin. Is that what you would do?"

***

TRIVIA TIME ANSWER: Here's the question we asked earlier in the column:

Former Alabama linebacker Courtney Upshaw, the Ravens' top 2012 draft pick (35th overall) has been issued jersey No. 91, because the 41 he wore in college doesn't conform to the NFL's numbering system for linebackers.

If he continues to wear that number into the regular season, he would become the eighth principal Raven to wear 91 in a game.

Can you name the first-ever Raven to wear that number during a regular-season contest?

ANSWER:

You could hardly be blamed if your guess was Lional Dalton, the happy-go-lucky, cello-playing defensive tackle who was a Raven from 1998-2001 and won a Super Bowl ring in the process.

But although Dalton was one of the Ravens that chose No. 91 -- a group including Brandon McKinney, Aubrayo Franklin and Marques Douglas, among others -- he wasn't the first to don those digits.

Second-year Georgia Tech product Elliott Fortune was the first Raven to wear No. 91, but he didn't do so for very long.

Fortune had played on the last Cleveland Browns team to be located there before the move to Baltimore in 1996. The first-ever Ravens defensive line was beset by injuries all year long, so Fortune got to play in 14 of the team's 16 games during a 4-12 season.

According to coaches' video, Fortune recorded 16 tackles that year, 11 of them solo stops. He also got a sack during the final game of that season, a 24-21 home loss to the Houston Oilers at Memorial Stadium.

Posted May 23, 2012