Throughout the organized team activities and minicamp in the spring, it would have been hard to distinguish one Ravens running back from another if not for their jersey numbers.
The clarity that Ravens coach John Harbaugh will need to determine which of them will play bigger roles during the 2016 season continued to be clouded in Thursday's preseason opener.
But that is a good sign.
All of the running backs the Ravens put onto the field at M&T Bank Stadium contributed to the team's 22-19 victory over the reigning NFC champion Carolina Panthers.
From rookie Kenneth Dixon picking up 19 yards on his first carry and a team-high 44 yards on nine attempts to former Towson star Terrance West's two short touchdown runs to Buck Allen's 19-yard catch-and-run touchdown, the depth at running back was apparent.
Even Stephen Houston, who last played football at Indiana in 2013 and joined the Ravens a week into training camp while on vacation from his job as a strength coach for the men's basketball team in Bloomington, had a couple of impressive runs late in the game.
The only question mark seemed to be where this leaves Justin Forsett, the team's leading rusher the past two seasons, in the pecking order. Forsett was among several veterans given the night off by Harbaugh as he tried to see what some of the younger players could do in game conditions.
"It's definitely a competition but there's no animosity on the team at all," Dixon said. "When I came out, Buck [Allen] would tell me something, or Terrance [West] would show me something and it's good. I feel like we are all in competition, but we're all together and that's just how it's got to be."
Said West, "This is one of the strongest teams I've been on as a unit. When I came here last year near the end of the year, it wasn't too good — we were losing, but not one person pointed fingers. It's a tight group of guys in that locker room."
If there is a common thread running through these running backs, it's the proverbial chip that they all seem to carry in getting a chance to show they deserve to play — or in the case of West and Allen stay — in the National Football League.
After a frustrating year in which he was traded by the Cleveland Browns to the Tennessee Titans right before the 2015 season and then waived by the Titans before landing in his hometown in November, West knows what he must do to remain with the Ravens.
"I'm just trying to win every guy in that building and show the Ravens facility that they can count on me — accountability," West said in the interview room Thursday. "I am just trying to come out here and work hard and show these guys that they can depend on me."
Just as he has done through the first two weeks of training camp in Owings Mills, West ran with a combination of speed and power against the Panthers.
Though unofficial, his two touchdowns were his first since he scored against the Ravens in the final week of his rookie year in 2014, when he rushed for a team-high 673 yards and 171 carries with the Browns, who had drafted the 5-10, 225-pound West in the third round.
"He was dynamic," Harbaugh said of West's performance against the Panthers. "Made some runs — he made a really good run early and made three or four guys miss and created some yards on his own. Really, all of the backs that played, played well."
West's first touchdown came in the first quarter when he leaped over the top on a fourth-and-goal from the 1 after he was stopped on third down from the same spot. His second came on a 2-yarder in the third quarter when he started left, then sharply reversed field and outraced former Towson teammate Ryan Delaire to the pylon.
"On that play, I saw they overloaded to the left. I was peeking to the left, and I saw my old teammate and I said, 'If he comes flat, I'm going to outrun him,'" West said. "He came down flat and slow, so I outran him and cut him back."
Asked if he had any conversation with Delaire after the game, West said, "Yeah, I saw him after the game. He was like, 'Man, you got me.' But we have been in situations like that before at Towson."
While West is starting to resemble the player who led the Tigers to a Football Championship Subdivision national title game appearance as a junior, Dixon is showing that he might have been a steal as a fourth-round pick after a record-setting career at Louisiana Tech.
The 19-yard run on his first carry was partly the result of a huge hole that fellow rookie Ronnie Stanley helped open, but the rest Dixon picked up were largely the result of his own talent and determination, particularly on a 12-yarder later when it appeared the Panthers stopped him after about four.
Though Allen only gained six yards on six carries, he came away from the night happy about his 19-yard touchdown catch from Ryan Mallett that erased the early 10-0 deficit and gave the Ravens the lead for good. It provided a group that is sometimes hard to separate a different dimension.
"We're all competing," Allen said by his locker Thursday. "At the same time, we're all going to push each other and make each other better."
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