A 300-pound former defensive lineman has become an offensive playmaker for the Ravens

On the first play of the second half, with the rating tied at 10, Ricard caught a move in the flat and crushed a defender upfield for 11 yards. A few performs later, he made a shoestring catch over the center. A few performs after that, he absolutely prolonged for a third-down catch to arrange first and objective. On the subsequent play, he fulfilled his fundamental job description, bulldozing a path for working again J.Okay. Dobbins for a go-ahead four-yard landing.

“For me to do that on a national stage, in a playoff game, I think people are starting to recognize more what I’ve been doing here,” Ricard mentioned this week.

By the finish of the Ravens’ 20-13 win, no skill-position participant on the crew’s roster — except for star quarterback Lamar Jackson — had performed extra snaps than Ricard, a efficiency that underscored the significance of his expanded position as Baltimore prepares for Saturday night time’s divisional-round recreation at the Buffalo Bills.

“It felt great to contribute to the offense, to the team in a must-win game,” Ricard mentioned. “I wasn’t expecting to get all of those passes, because my role here is to be a physical force on offense. … If the ball comes my way, I’ll make plays.”

The performs Ricard made in opposition to the Titans — particularly the three receptions on that drive after he caught simply 9 passes throughout the common season — encapsulated the evolution of considered one of the league’s rarest athletes at a place that has largely disappeared throughout the proliferation of pass-happy unfold offenses in the NFL over the previous decade.

Yet despite the fact that a handful of the league’s high groups nonetheless deploy fullbacks, Ricard has transcended conventional definitions of the place: With the weight of a lineman and the athleticism of a decent finish, he has become a pure match for the Ravens’ run-heavy offense, plowing open lanes for Jackson and the crew’s steady of working backs.

Ricard’s position has grown much more necessary after considered one of the crew’s high blocking tight ends, Nick Boyle, suffered a season-ending knee harm in November. That pressured the Ravens to line up Ricard at a number of positions — in the backfield and at the “Y” tight finish spot, which is an in-line blocking place subsequent to an offensive deal with. His capability as a move catcher, whereas not his precedence, has surpassed the unique expectations of the Ravens’ teaching workers, which assigned him to tackle fullback duties when he arrived as an undrafted defensive lineman out of Maine in 2017.

“It’s hard for a 300-pound guy to come off the ball, come downhill and sort his way up to a linebacker on a lead play. We could see he could do that right away,” Ravens Coach John Harbaugh mentioned. “But then to see all the other things — the motions, the shifts, the pulls — that stuff was pretty remarkable, just from an athletic standpoint. Then the routes — catch the ball and turning upfield, that’s probably something that, no, we probably didn’t envision that part of it.”

Ricard couldn’t have envisioned this path, both, despite the fact that he had performed some tight finish and fullback in a Wing-T offense at David Prouty High in Spencer, Mass., about an hour west of Boston. He had obtained little school curiosity throughout his prep profession, however he had developed a tireless work ethic by his mom, a labor-and-delivery nurse, and his father, a thermal processing plant supervisor who constructed the household’s dwelling himself.

Ricard had only one Division I scholarship supply, and when he arrived at round 230 kilos throughout his freshman yr at Maine, he was redshirted. The Football Championship Subdivision faculty’s coaches mentioned enjoying him at tight finish, however they’d a extra urgent want alongside the defensive line, the place Ricard finally developed into considered one of the program’s greatest gamers. He was obsessive about lifting weights, former Maine coach Jack Cosgrove mentioned, and as his physique grew into its eventual 311-pound body, so did his confidence to mete out punishment.

“I think the weight room has allowed him to have that sense of, ‘I can be more violent than you are,’ ” Cosgrove mentioned. “That confidence and boldness that is so evident when he’s out there playing — that confidence to catch the ball and the boldness to run over a linebacker.”

A week into his first exercises with Baltimore, Ricard was approached in a hallway of the crew’s facility by Greg Roman, then the tight ends coach and now the offensive coordinator, and requested whether or not he would attempt fullback — along with proceed enjoying on the defensive line.

“I was going to do anything they wanted me to do to make this team. I didn’t care what it was,” Ricard recalled.

Ricard started creating into considered one of the league’s most versatile gamers and a revered presence in the locker room, however his future with the crew was unsure in December 2018 when several racist and homophobic tweets he had written as a teenager surfaced earlier than a recreation in opposition to the Kansas City Chiefs. He apologized in a crew assembly, calling the tweets “inappropriate and unacceptable.” The Ravens finally saved Ricard.

“Everybody knew the person I was and that that was not me at all. Everybody had my back, and everybody was very supportive,” Ricard mentioned. “It made me love this organization even more. … I am definitely grateful for that.”

Ricard re-signed on a two-year contract in December 2019 as he continued to develop a distinct segment position on either side of the ball. He turned the first player in a decade to play greater than 100 snaps on each offense and protection in the identical season — he recorded 342 snaps on offense, 140 on protection and 102 on particular groups — and he made the Pro Bowl as a fullback.

He has continued to develop in that position underneath the tutelage of Roman and by learning a few of the recreation’s high fullbacks, together with former New England Patriots participant James Devlin and present San Francisco 49ers standout Kyle Juszczyk. Ricard’s former coaches marveled at how he was serving to lead the subsequent breed of the place in right now’s pass-happy NFL.

“I think he’s bringing back the position. I really do. And it’s a different position,” mentioned Cosgrove, who’s now the head coach at Division III Colby College in Maine. “The Ravens believe in the fullback. … Your fullback has to fit in there with your O-line because sometimes they’re being asked to block a guy who is 290, 300 [pounds] himself. This isn’t a fullback leading up on a 240-pound linebacker. Those days are probably gone. The guys I’m seeing at that position are big, big, athletic young men.”

Harbaugh knew early on that changing Ricard would repay due to his physicality as a blocker, however he quickly noticed glimpses of Ricard’s full ability set. During a joint observe session with the Los Angeles Rams in coaching camp in 2018, Harbaugh mentioned then-Rams defensive coordinator Wade Phillips at one level instructed his linemen to not cowl Ricard on passes. When the groups performed a preseason recreation later that month, he caught a landing move.

“He can surprise you,” Harbaugh mentioned. “He’s kind of freakish that way as an athlete.”

Ricard continues to be considered one of the crew’s greatest athletes and he stays an emergency defensive lineman, however after not taking a defensive snap this season, his days at the crew facility are rather less hectic. He has been in a position to absolutely dedicate his consideration to the offense, which can once more depend on him as a lead blocker and potential chess piece in the passing recreation at Buffalo.

“I think the biggest difference for me is just fully immersing myself in the offense and being in meeting rooms 100 percent of the time,” he mentioned. “I was able to really learn as much as I can and apply it on the fly, and I think that’s what everyone is seeing now.”