Ravens Camp — Aug 31: Fagnano Makes the 53, Loop Survives at 5-of-8

The scoreboard Friday read Ravens 41, Commanders 3, and the beat still spent the night on the kicker. Tyler Loop went 2-of-4 in the preseason finale, both misses wide left, from 58 and 51 yards, and finished the preseason 5-of-8 on field goals, per Quentin Corpuel at the team's website. Loop afterward: "I did not strike the ball the way I had been striking it in practice" — in Monday's practice he'd gone 6-of-7 with a make from 63 yards, per Corpuel. Asked about the position after the game, head coach Jesse Minter left it open: "I think there are a million scenarios there to try to make sure that we have the best situation headed into [Indianapolis]," and, on the position, "it is something we will continue to look at," per the team-site transcript. Loop made the initial 53 on Sunday, per Ryan Mink at the team's site, and Tony Lombardi at Russell Street Report still filed him under "The Ugly" of a 41-3 win. Loop, on the possibility of competition: "It doesn't change anything for me. I'm confident in my ball striking."

The reversal of the weekend belonged to Joe Fagnano. Clifton Brown — the team's own writer — predicted Saturday that the undrafted quarterback would "clear waivers and quickly sign" to the practice squad, and Lombardi had him off the roster too. A day later Fagnano made the 53 as the third quarterback, the first time Baltimore has kept three since 2020, after leading the NFL with 509 preseason passing yards, with three touchdowns against one interception, per Brown. Austin Reed was waived to clear the way, per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN via the team site's cut-day aggregation. The other undrafted rookie in Brown's headline, outside linebacker Ethan Burke, forced a fumble on Washington's opening snap Friday — C.J. Okoye recovered — and made the roster; Adisa Isaac was released, per Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, and Kaimon Rucker, who led the team Friday with four tackles, two for loss, one of them a sack, was waived a day later, per Corpuel.

Okoye didn't stay long past that recovery — traded to the Giants for a 2028 seventh-round pick, per Brown at the team's website, citing reports, in a deal Brown framed as a reunion with Giants head coach John Harbaugh and defensive line coach Dennis Johnson, who both worked with Okoye in Baltimore. Tackle Diego Pounds went to the Chiefs for a conditional 2028 sixth-round pick, per Mink, who noted Pounds' Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grade ranked second among NFL offensive tackles this preseason. The rest of the ledger: cornerback Robert Longerbeam was waived despite a strong preseason, per Adam Schefter of ESPN via the aggregation, along with safety Silas Walters, whose interception closed out the Minnesota win a week earlier, and receiver Chris Moore, a day after a three-catch, one-touchdown finale, both per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic, plus defensive tackle Rayshaun Benny, per Zenitz. On the injury side, cornerback Bilhal Kone went to short-term injured reserve with a designation to return after limping off at the August 24 practice, per Brian Wacker of the Baltimore Sun; running back Adam Randall went to injured reserve, also designated to return, two days after a team-high 70 scrimmage yards in the finale, per Mink; and linebacker Teddye Buchanan, rehabbing a December knee injury, stayed on the 53, per Mink.

Lombardi predicted before the deadline that Nnamdi Madubuike would likely open the season on injured reserve. The Ravens kept him on the active 53 instead, per Mink — without an 11-on-11 rep all camp. His first contact work of the summer came August 24 on the sled, his first since Week 2 neck surgery last season, per Brown, and Minter said that day, "We feel really good about him being in a good position to help us." Our last episode asked whether he'd get into team drills before cut day; he didn't, and made the roster anyway.

Our other watch item was the center job Danny Pinter's torn patellar tendon reopened, and the honest answer is: unresolved. Jovaughn Gwyn and Ethan Pocic both made the 53, Gwyn started Friday's finale, and no Week 1 starter has been announced, per Mink. Neither closed the argument on the field — Gwyn fumbled an under-center snap that Tyler Huntley recovered, and Pocic drew a holding penalty that erased a 20-yard screen, per Corpuel's stock report. The Ravens have not held a coach availability since the cuts, so the finale start is the last public evidence — Gwyn has the lean, nobody has the title.

The finale capped a 3-0 preseason in which Baltimore outscored opponents 78-13 — the 41-3 margin the franchise's largest in a preseason game, the 13 points allowed the league's fewest since the three-game preseason format began, per Corpuel, with Huntley starting, Jackson sitting, and Washington outgained 456-177. LaJohntay Wester caught a one-handed touchdown from Fagnano and added a 19-yard punt return — his second receiving score of a preseason he entered without a career reception, per Corpuel.

One story sits outside the roster ledger. News surfaced shortly before this window that Rashod Bateman was arrested in June on three charges stemming from a family violence incident, per Brian McFarland at Russell Street Report. Bateman made the 53. McFarland's analysis treats a suspension of two to four games as the likely league outcome while noting that league action may wait on the legal process — that is the beat's read, not an announcement; no ruling came inside the window.

Back in July we previewed Baltimore as a team priced like nothing had happened — an 11-and-a-half win total, tied for the league's highest, resting on a first-time head coach, the league's youngest play-caller, a rebuilt interior line and a repaired pass rush. Cut day mostly fed the price's side of the ledger: an undefeated preseason, Madubuike on the active roster against Lombardi's prediction, and a roster deep enough that players with strong summers — Longerbeam, Walters, Rucker — went out the door. But the rebuilt interior line still has no named center, the kicker made the roster without a public endorsement, and Madubuike still hasn't taken a team rep. The proof the price assumes is closer than it was, and still not filed.

What to watch next: where this week's cut names land once waivers clear — Zrebiec's practice-squad candidate list runs from Moore to Rucker to K'Von Wallace, none of it real until signed; that wave is the next episode's job. Beyond that: whether Baltimore brings in competition for Loop, who takes the first-unit center snaps for Week 1 against the Colts, and whether Madubuike gets his first 11-on-11 rep before then. We'll check back once the claims and the practice squads are in.

_Data via nflverse._