Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco showed that his arm was still sharp during the first four days of training camp in Owings Mills, despite having several of his passes dropped by his intended targets.
What Flacco had not demonstrated was how well he moved out of the pocket on his surgically-repaired left knee. In Monday's open practice at M&T Bank Stadium, the 31-year-old gave fans a glimpse of that, too.
During the 11-on-11 portion of the workout, Flacco faced a 3rd-and-5 in the red-zone. Unable to find a receiver, the pocket seemed to open and Flacco ran for a first down.
Flacco actually asked reporters in the lockerroom what their impression was of his first notable post-operative public jaunt.
"I don't know, what do you guys think?" Flacco said with a smile. "It doesn't matter to me. I've ran for the past couple of months. It feels good every day to get out there and do stuff and gain more and more confidence."
Flacco said that at the first practice last Thursday, he recalled thinking with about 15 minutes left that "I haven't even thought about [the surgery]. It just went out of my mind. I thought maybe the first play in there I might be actively thinking about it, but I wasn't."
Ravens coach John Harbaugh was encouraged by what he saw.
"That's the first time I've really seen it too, to see him get out and run like that," Harbaugh said after the game. "To see him get out and go, it was good to see."
don.markus@baltsun.com
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