By Joe Platania, PressBox Staff

Remember when the Ravens first came to town? Remember how footballs filled the air?

That was a time when strong-armed quarterbacks like Vinny Testaverde and Eric Zeier rocketed passes all over Memorial Stadium to wide receivers such as Floyd Turner, Derrick Alexander and Michael Jackson, not to mention tight ends Eric Green and Brian Kinchen.

Derrick Mason and the Ravens' receiving corps plan to improve the passing game which ranked 22nd in the league in 2005. (Photo Courtesy of Sabina Moran)

The Ravens' passing game was ranked in the top ten leaguewide. It was averaging a league-best 5.6 yards per play and each pass attempt traveled an average of nearly eight yards.

But football is a bottom-line business, and all that firepower did was burn a hole in the bottom of the standings thanks to a young and leaky defense.

Such productivity couldn't continue, and it didn't. However, the dropoff was not only surprising, it was downright precipitous.

From 1998-2004, the Baltimore aerial attack went through a seven-year malaise during which receivers passed through a revolving door that wasn't as noticed as much as the one the better-known quarterbacks passed through. In fact, only three times in those seven years did a wide receiver lead the team in catches (Qadry Ismail, 1999, 2001; Kevin Johnson, 2004).

The Ravens never ranked in the league's top half in passing over that span. Only once did they average more than 200 yards per game through the air, in an era when the best passing teams routinely pass for 275 or more yards each week.

And even though the passing game showed signs of a renaissance last year -- it ranked 22nd in the league, up nine spots from 2004 -- it's still noteworthy that the receiving corps has had more assistant coaches (six) than any position unit in Ravens history.

"There's a lot of different reasons why teams struggle," new wideout coach Mike Johnson said. "It's not always just one thing or one person. It's a group effort.

"Maybe someone doesn't run the right routes, quarterbacks not making the right reads, a combination of things."

Johnson has worked with passing games at the college level (Oregon State) as well as at the NFL level (San Diego, Atlanta) and has seen successful results. While quarterback Doug Flutie was with Johnson in San Diego, he posted career highs in yards and completions in 2001. With Johnson on the sideline in Atlanta, quarterback Michael Vick was named to two straight Pro Bowl appearances in 2004 and 2005.

With the Ravens, Johnson will be taking over a receiving corps that last year gained more definition and momentum than it had since 1997.

The "X" (split end) position is the one opposite the tight end and is better known as the "home run" spot due to the breakaway deep speed required of it.
Mark Clayton made himself a home there in his rookie year with 44 catches for 471 yards, both Ravens rookie records, despite missing several weeks with a sprained ankle.

"I've definitely sensed progress this offseason," Clayton said. "For me, being a rookie last year, I wanted to do whatever I had to do to help. The offense kind of settled down, and we got on a nice little groove at the end of the year."

With Randy Hymes going to Jacksonville as a free agent and Patrick Johnson not re-signing, it is believed that third-year veteran Clarence Moore and fourth-round draft pick Demetrius Williams (Oregon) will back up Clayton. However, Williams' speed and size (6-foot-2, 197 pounds) could move him up the depth chart quickly.

"Right now, we feel Mark and Derrick [Mason] are our starters," general manager Ozzie Newsome said.

At the "Z" (flanker) spot, 11-year veteran Mason will return with third-year man Devard Darling, a special teamer to this point, as his backup.

Mason broke team records last year for catches (86) and yards (1,073) and was personally responsible for 52 of the team's 286 first downs, not to mention a bit of mentoring.

"Mason has been a tremendous blessing to me," Clayton said. "Thank god for him, his attitude, his character, productivity, sportsmanship, the list goes on."

The receiving corps hopes to capitalize on a 2005 season that saw the team's average passing yards per game go up nearly 50 yards to 193 per game, the most since an Elvis Grbac-led offense in 2001 caught balls at a 207.1-yard-per-game clip.

It's also worth noting that even though Boller and Anthony Wright threw nearly 100 more pass attempts last year than they did in 2004, their interception percentage went up only slightly, from 2.8 to 3.0 percent.

But as dependent as receivers are on a good quarterback, Johnson is focused on his own unit. "From a receiver's standpoint, we're not looking at the quarterback," he said. "Everyone's been on Kyle Boller because of what he hasn't done, but we haven't always done what we're supposed to do either.

"We need to help him out more than we've done in the past."

If Clayton and the receivers have their way, they'll be a big help to whatever quarterback is throwing them the ball.

"It's all about making progress," Clayton said. "It's about having the mindset within ourselves of being the best receivers in the league."

Issue 1.7: June 8, 2006