It’s hard to believe that this is the thirteenth summer for the Ravens as they gear up for the 2008 season. It seems like only yesterday when I bought my first ticket to see the team play Da Raydahs at Memorial stadium. But,the team is so entrenched in the community and football so much a part of the city that it moves like clockwork. It’s July. Baltimore fans are done with the O’s as they sink to the bottom of the standings and all attention turns towards Westminster. Hope springs. Everyone can make the playoffs. Everyone has a chance. Can we release the magic of the 2000 campaign just one more time?

Training camp means so many things; old vets get run through the paces, new players get initiated into the fold, and change is natural part of the process. With all of that come questions. Questions that won’t have answers for maybe months. Here are some of the biggest that concern the Ravens:

Who’s the Quarterback : Steve McNair has retired to the Quarterback Rest Home. The team spends a first round selection on Joe Flacco. They still have former first rounder, Kyle Boller as well as, former Heisman winner, Troy Smith. So, who gets the shot? Early word was Flacco was quite impressive in mini-camp. I think he would have to blow away the competition in pre-season to be under center against Cincy Week One. I have a strong feeling that Smith will win out. He gained the respect of the vets and has shown the poise and leadership that Boller never has. But, if the season goes south early expect “Bazooka” Joe to take the snaps.

New Offensive Line : Hall of Fame monster and greatest Gebco dancer ever, Jonathan Ogden has retired and long time staple, Mike Flynn has left as well. That means a younger and hopefully more athletic line. Lots of shifting around. Jason Brown steadies this group and he has played well. Ben Grubbs should be able to live up to billing this season. But the biggest concerns are the tackles. Adam Terry has been spotty and Jared Gaither may look like Ogden but he’s still a baby in this league. Lines need time to gel and they should have growing pains.

Camp Harbaugh : First year coach, John Harbaugh leads his first training camp. One of the biggest complaints about Brian Billick was that his camps were more like summer retreats and that should change this season. Harbaugh has been saying all the right things and fans are anxious to see the hard work pay off in a more disciplined team than we have seen in the past. When you take over a 5-11 team, your hope is to simply get better. If they stay healthy they should top that, weather they are playoff ready remains to be seen.

Ray Lewis : This is the closest that the face of the franchise has ever gotten to free agency. He is in the final year of his contract and over the past several years hasn’t been able to put together a full season. His claim of wanting “Peyton Manning” money had most people confused. He is on the downside of his career but, when healthy no one plays harder and he is the unquestioned leader of the team. His play this season will determine if he can finish his career in the purple and black.

The deal for Ravens QB Joe Flacco appears to be done, as sources are reporting that the first-round pick has inked a deal with Baltimore that will pay him nearly $30 million over five years. Flacco has maintained from the start that he wanted a deal done so that he could report to camp on time, and he got his wish.

Flacco’s deal includes Brady Quinn-style escalators according to ProFootballTalk.com. Those escalators will depend on how much playing time Flacco sees in the 2008 season. Now that he’s in the fold from day one of camp, it will be interesting to see if the rookie has enough to overtake Kyle Boller and Troy Smith for the starting QB job.

The 18th overall pick in April’s draft is also due to make $8.75 million is guaranteed money according to sources.

Just a few days ago Kelly Holcomb called it quits, and now today another veteran QB has decided it’s over, as Trent Dilfer has stated that he’s retiring. Dilfer, who last was with the 49′ers, said that he make a formal announcement in the next few days. A recent injury to his Achilles suffered playing basketball clinched the decision for Dilfer, who won a Super Bowl with the Ravens as their starting QB in 2000.

“I was going to retire anyway. This just gives clarity to the situation,” he told reporters on a conference call promoting the 19th annual American Century Celebrity Golf Championship. “I think in the next few days there will be a formal announcement on all those things,” he stated. Dilfer declined to give reporters any idea of what he’s going to do now that his NFL career is over, but did do a nice job doing some media work during the playoffs two years ago on the NFL Network.

Dilfer played for five teams, starting his career with the Buccaneers as a first-round draft pick back in 1994, the 6th pick overall. He played six seasons with the Bucs before moving to the Ravens in 2000 for a Super Bowl run, then left the next year to play backup to Matt Hasslebeck in Seattle for four seasons. He had another starting job with the Browns in 2005, then left in a trade to play in 07 with the Niners.

Training camps open in about a month, and it’s time to start getting deeper into some of the teams, and today we start with a rather interesting topic, the five worst offenses in the league entering training camp. Of course some of these teams did what they could to improve, but the bottom line is that it could be a tough year moving the ball for these five teams:

1. San Francisco - The Niners last year were awful moving the ball, putting up just 237 yards per game, and entering this year, they will count on Frank Gore to be better, Alex Smith to get back to form of being an up and coming QB, and the O-line to give him more time and open holes for Gore. As for the WR core, they hope that Issac Bruce has something left, and Bryant Johnson will be a playmaker. The Niners though still have a ways to go to prove they can be a decent offense.

2. Baltimore - Quarterback is a huge question for this team, and many think they should just throw Joe Flacco into the fire in week one. As for the other skill players, Willis McGahee ran for 1,207 yards, but even with that was not the game-breaking back they thought they were getting, and will need an even better year from him. The O-line is going to miss Jonathan Ogden big time, and the WR core has little to offer with players like Mark Clayton or Demetius Williams being nothing more than guys filling roster spots.

3. Chicago - For a team that has a very good defense, the offense is downright ugly. Rex Grossman or Kyle Orton can’t be trusted, and the running game is in a flux worse than ever with Cedric Benson gone and the team counting on rookie Matt Forte. They failed to address the WR spot with Bernard Berrian bolting to the Vikings. The O-line should be better with rookie Chris Williams, but gives not much help in the hope departement to fans.

4. Kansas City - Another team with a lot of questions at the skill positions, as Brodie Croyle again tries to prove he can win the starting QB job, which he failed to do in camp last season. The O-line has been overhauled, and they really need Larry Johnson to stay healthy this season and be the L.J. of old. Dwayne Bowe gives the WR core some hope, and Tony Gonzalez is a top 3 TE, but overall, this unit is still scary, and not in a good way.

5. Atlanta - First year QB Matt Ryan is going to give the team a new look, and free agent RB Michael Turner is going to get his shot as an every down back. Other than that, the line is not going to be very good, and the team is going to play a lot of catch up, which for a rookie QB in Ryan is going to be tough. They went just over 300 yards per game on offense last year, and doing that again is going to be a challenge.

There has been talk for sometime about a new deal for Ravens all-world LB Ray Lewis, as he’s entering the final year of his deal.  Lewis said earlier this offseason that he does not want the talk of a deal to get in the way of the season, but the bottom line is he wants to get paid, just like any other player of his stature.

Sporting News is now reporting that while no deal is imminent, the Ravens Lewis are getting closer to agreeing to a new contract that will allow him to play two more seasons, and finish his career in Baltimore if he wants. The story is that the Ravens think that Lewis can be a big-time LB for two more seasons even though he has showed signs of slowing down, and has not played at that high level for the past few seasons, also dealing with some injuries.

The biggest question with Lewis will be how much is he worth, and will the Ravens pay it.  Lewis is by far the team leader when it comes to relating to the team, including the younger players, and with Jonathan Ogden walking away from the game this season, the team does not want Lewis to do the same, leaving to go wrap up his career someone else.  Look for the sides to quickly get a deal down and for it to be announced early in training camp, keeping Lewis a bird for the rest of his career.

It looks as if the John Harbaugh era in Baltimore may be complete with a rookie QB under center come opening day.  At least that is how it looks if you read into the fact that Joe Flacco is taking quite a few snaps during practice, including most of the snaps on Wednesday according to the Carroll County Times.

The paper stated that Flacco is getting more than the normal 10 reps, and even guided the offense well during red-zone drills and looked sharp on crossing patterns and a few rollouts.  Flacco is not being shy about gunning the ball downfield when getting the chances, and he looks as if he has the confidence to take the regins as the QB from day one.

“I’ve just got to stay in shape, get stronger, get faster and learn the offense better,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work. It should be fun getting ready to go into the next month.”  We’ll see just how good Flacco really is come next month when training camp opens and things get turned up a few notches, but if he performs as well as he is now, it seems certain he’ll be the man under center in the opener.

The Baltimore Sun has confirmed that long-time O-lineman Jonathan Ogden will announce his retirement from the NFL on Thursday.  “It took a little while to decide. You just can’t make a decision like this overnight. I tried to work out, I tried to practice on the toe,” Ogden said. “But it never came back to 100 percent.”  It was that toe that cost Ogden part of what will go down as his final season - 2007.

Ogden leaves the game as the best O-lineman in the history of the Ravens.  He was the teams first pick after they moved to Baltimore in April 2006, and at first due to Tony Jones being the teams left tackle, he started his NFL career at guard.  After the team traded Jones in August of 2007, Ogden moved to tackle, a position he would hold over the next 10 seasons for Baltimore.

He made the Pro Bowl in 11 of 12 seasons in the league, and also a Super Bowl ring when the team topped the Giants back in January of 2001.  It was in 2000 that the Ravens make Ogden the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history at the time, signing him to a six-year, $44 million extension that includes a $12 million signing bonus.  His spot on the line is expected to be manned now by Jared Gaither.

Former Raiders OL Barry Sims is still looking for work, and there are a few teams that he will be talking to in the next few days. The Sacramento Bee is reporting that the nine-year vet talked to the Niners yesterday, and will work out for New England tomorrow, Baltimore on Thursday, and then meet with the Rams on Friday.

The 33-year-old was released by the Raiders back on February 29th. He tied for the most false starts of any linemen in the league last season, but nevertheless will find work somewhere in 2008. He started 119 games at left tackle during his nine-year career with the Raiders, including all 16 games last season.

“At 33 years old and knowing you got a couple of years left, you want to go to a place where they are going up and not down,” said Sims’ agent, Ken Vierra, about the interest in the Ravens. The Baltimore Sun is reporting that Sims almost signed with the Panthers back in March.