Ravens training camp opened Wednesday, so any read on the new-look offense right now comes with an asterisk — no pads, no live tackling, and an install that's a few days deep. But three separate media availabilities this week, from first-year offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, quarterback Lamar Jackson, and receiver Zay Flowers, as well as the action on the field, already sketch the outline of what Baltimore is building.
Doyle's Process, Down to the Headset
Even the small stuff is intentional with Doyle, the league's youngest play-caller at 30, coming over from the Chicago Bears, where he was also OC but didn't call plays.
Asked why he'd been spotted Friday wearing a headset at practice, Doyle said it had to with his development, too, since he's never used one to make calls in an NFL game. "It's just hitting the button, practicing it," he said. "Similar to how we're doing it with our guys — putting them through these stressful situations — it's the same thing. It's a good habit."
Doyle hasn't decided yet whether he'll call games from the box or the field, and said he plans to use the preseason to figure it out: up in a booth for the preseason home opener August 15 against Philadelphia, down on the field for game two August 22 at Minnesota, then "reevaluate and see what I want to do there."
Lamar Under Center — And Doyle Trusts the Fit
The most substantive schematic thread is how much Doyle plans to use Jackson under center, a wrinkle for a quarterback who's spent most of his career operating from the pistol. Doyle isn't worried about the transition. "He's a quick mover. He goes under there — you don't really notice it," Doyle said. "You would never notice that he hasn't been under there that much. He has the ability to really do all three: he can be under center, he can be in the pistol and he can be in shotgun."
The larger point, Doyle said, is forcing defenses to prepare for all of it: "You want to be able to mix all those things and make the defense have to deal with the multiplicity of those sets as much as you can." Building play-action with running back Derrick Henry could be a powerful combination. In the past, read-option plays have dominated the uncertainty for a defense defending Jackson's designed running, along with his natural ability to extend plays impromptu, which can't be planned for.
Jackson, for his part, described the whole installation as starting over rather than building on anything from last year. "No, I do not think we carried over anything, man," Jackson said. "'Dec' is like a wizard. He is trying to get the best out of all of us... challenging us each and every play."
Doyle also pointed to tempo, shifts, and motion as deliberate stressors he wants to lean on. "All you're really trying to do in this game is figure out how do I slow down the 11 brains on defense," he said. "You want to be able to push the throttle and pull it back and be able to make a defensive coordinator have to think during the game."
Who Gets the Ball — and a Highlight Catch to Watch
The question of exactly how Doyle will divide the ball among guys like receiver Zay Flowers, Rashod Bateman, and rookie Ja'Kobi Lane is still unsettled by design. Doyle framed the next stretch of camp as the proving ground for that decision. "If you have 20 guys going into the game that you feel like all can contribute, you're trying to find roles for them and trying to find ways to be multiple," he said, but he did point out Flowers, Bateman and Lane by name. "I know we want to be multiple — but it's really going to come down to who are the guys we trust to go out and do it the way we want to do it."
Flowers described an offense with fewer fixed roles than fans might expect. "Everybody has been touching the ball. Everybody has been everywhere, everybody getting used to every position," Flowers said. "Everybody is positionless. Everybody can play every spot — inside or outside — and sometimes the receivers are playing the tight end position, so you never know." Asked directly how Doyle plans to use his top targets, Flowers didn't hedge: "He is going to use his playmakers, that is what I will say... whoever the playmakers are, that is who is going to be touching the ball and contributing to the game."
Lane has already flashed why he could be part of that group. The Ravens' rookie receiver out of USC stands 6-foot-4, and his catch radius was a selling point of his college tape long. He backed it up Thursday going up to high-point a pass down the middle of the field during a 7-on-7 rep.
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) July 30, 2026
Flowers said of Lane: "He works every day. He's willing to listen. He takes keys from everybody, and then he applies them. He is learning fast."
Jackson, on Saturday after a practice at the University of Maryland, said of the rookie: “Oh man – this guy, is different. He is different – long arms, strong hands. I am going to say he is a physical receiver, but I like to evaluate my players when the pads get on, when we are playing in games. Practice – anybody can look good in practice, but I feel like he will be looking good in games as well.”
The start of training camp doesn't settle anything. It's a start, not a conclusion for a brand-new offense in Baltimore. August football will determine a lot more.