Camp tour: Ravens should run wild with McGahee

Ravens: Five things to know | Judge

WESTMINSTER, Md. -- When I spoke to running back Jamal Lewis in Cleveland earlier this summer, he said the Baltimore Ravens -- his ex-team -- couldn't make up their minds what they wanted to be anymore.

Mark Clayton, Todd Heap are part of an improved Ravens offense. (US Presswire)

A running or a passing team?

Lewis meant it as a criticism but, I don't know, I'm not sure that indecision is such a bad thing. In fact, it could be very, very good -- the first signal that Baltimore might be ready to remove the handcuffs from its offense.

"Our offensive personnel mesh and complement each other better than at any time since I've been here," coach Brian Billick said.

That's another way of saying you might not recognize these Ravens.

They can run because they have Willis McGahee, acquired to replace Lewis. They can pass because they have Steve McNair, now taking his second turn in this offense. But they feature a passel of wide receivers, too, with backup Demetrius Williams a star waiting to happen, and can line up two tight ends on an offensive line that is younger, deeper and better.

In short, they should be able to do what they couldn't the last time we saw these guys -- which is to score. In their playoff loss to Indianapolis, the Ravens couldn't pass, couldn't run and couldn't produce a touchdown.

"How many times have you seen that film?" I asked Billick.

"Not a lot," he said. "It's hard to watch."

Maybe, but he and the Ravens learned something from it. Essentially, that game convinced them to shake up their offense, with Lewis the primary casualty and McGahee the significant addition. OK, so the offensive line changed, too, and McNair knows more about what he's doing in Year Two, but the upgrade here is McGahee.

That's not a knock on Lewis. He was a terrific back for the Ravens, but he was part of a two-back offense stuck in neutral. So when fullback Ovie Mughelli left for Atlanta, the Ravens started thinking in a different direction. Two tight ends. Three wides. Four wides. One back.

That meant the end of Lewis and the beginning for someone else. That someone is McGahee, and look out, people. He's about to have his best year as a pro.

"This is a new beginning and a new start," said McGahee, who fell out of favor in Buffalo. "This is going to be like the old days at (the University of) Miami. Teams can't put nine in the box here.

"We had Andre Johnson and Kellen Winslow and Ken Dorsey then. Now you have to respect Todd Heap and Derrick Mason and Steve McNair. This is like my college years. You can't stack nine in the box against us."

Funny McGahee should mention the University of Miami. Billick and general manager Ozzie Newsome brought it up, too, saying the school played a significant role in McGahee's addition. Remember, there are a couple of notable Hurricanes in Ed Reed and Ray Lewis on the Ravens' roster, and the feeling here is that they squeeze more out of their new running back than Buffalo could.

"We'll get a better Willis McGahee," said Billick, "not because we're better coaches but because of Ed Reed and Ray Lewis. There is something about those guys they hold each other to a certain level of accountability.

"Who in Buffalo led Willis McGahee? Who in Buffalo pushed Willis McGahee? Not that that's anybody's responsibility. But he has a very clear-cut mandate here from his teammates, not just us, that he thus far has been responsive to."

Trust me, Reed and Lewis are key figures in the resurrection of Willis McGahee. In fact, when Newsome wanted to know about the guy one of the first people he contacted was Reed. "Is he," Newsome asked, "a good fit for us?"

"No question," Reed said.

"But we want to win the Super Bowl," Newsome said. "Is he a fit for what we want to do?"

"There's no question about it," Reed repeated.

Newsome was sold.

"That really helped when Ed told me that," he said.

McGahee's addition is important for two reasons: 1) It allows Billick to scheme opponents with a variety of offensive lineups, including a lot of single-back formations; and 2) it gives the Ravens a cutback runner who can hit a hole and run away from defenders as Lewis once did -– but does no more.

"I don't like putting this on him," said Newsome, "but do you remember how smooth Marcus Allen was when he ran? It seemed like he was using 40 percent of his speed when he actually was using 80.

"Willis is the same way. He's so fast and so smooth you have no idea how fast he's going."

Fast and smooth is all good for Baltimore. The Ravens last year were the league's 25th-best rushing attack but ranked 31st in yards per attempt. Trust me, that will change with McGahee.

So he didn't set the league on fire in Buffalo. He wasn't happy there, and the Bills weren't all that enamored with him. Plus, his surgically repaired knee wasn't 100 percent until last season when he had to contend with broken ribs and an offensive line that went through a mid-season lineup change.

"You have to fight that," McGahee said. "And that's what I did. We got it all here. So I look at it as a plus. It doesn't go down. It all goes up from here."

The Ravens can only hope. When they went to Super Bowl XXXV, they averaged 137.4 yards rushing per start and 4.7 yards per carry. Those figures dropped to 102.3 per game and 3.4 per rush last season, which is why Billick decided it was time to try something different.

"What we liked about Willis," he said, "is that he's more multiple; that he can be physical; that he's a stretch-bounce-stretch-cut-back out of the backfield."

Translation: He can break long runs to the outside.

Now, that doesn't mean the Ravens won't hammer opponents with a physical inside running attack. They won a lot of games that way, including a Super Bowl. What it does mean is they have other options if a take-no-prisoners approach isn't working.

Which it wasn't against Indianapolis.

"The pressure really isn't on me," McGahee said. "I have a lot more weapons around me here. It doesn't get any better than this."

That's the idea.