The Ravens are getting mandatory minicamp underway this week, which will be Odell Beckham Jr.'s first practices since tearing his ACL during Super Bowl LVI while playing for the Rams.
After signing with Baltimore in April, Beckham said on Tuesday that he’s feeling good about the progress he’s made with his knee — though he’s not going to put a percentage on where he is right now.
“It feels good to be able to get out of bed and not feel pain,” Beckham said in his press conference. “It feels good to feel like if I needed to take off running right now, I could take off running. It’s been a long journey this time around and it was its own process, so I just had to take that for what it was.”
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said there would be a ramp-up period for Beckham, which sounds like he’ll see limited reps during the three-day minicamp. Beckham told reporters that he wasn’t sure how much he’d be on the field.
“I don’t have a set play amount or a number that’s in my head,” Beckham said. “I think it’s just, you come here you be a pro, you get your reps, get your work, you talk. You don’t always have to build chemistry, so to say, by taking reps. It could be a communication thing — how do you see it? And then, like I said, we’ll have a whole offseason — or after this camp breaks — to really get it going.”
Beckham is planning to train in Florida with quarterback Lamar Jackson, which is where they’ll have an opportunity to continue to build chemistry training camp starts late next month. But Beckham doesn’t seem to be making these first few practices with Baltimore too big of a deal.
“I think just coming here with the mindset that we’re all professionals and just [want to] get back to having fun,” Beckham said of his mindset in returning to practice for the first time since his injury. “Learn the playbook — there’s still a lot of things to do. So I think the focus is just have fun, stay locked in, be a pro.”
