Oher ready this time, and has company
Panthers tackle is among eight former Ravens expected to play Sunday
On his last trip to the Super Bowl three years ago with the Ravens, Michael Oher was no longer protecting quarterback Joe Flacco's blind side and was attempting to divert attention from the movie about his life, “The Blind Side.”
This time around, Oher, one of eight former Ravens expected to take part in Super Bowl 50 on Sunday between the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos, is proving to be more adept at handling both tasks.
Oher told Charlotte, N.C.-based reporters last week that his return to the Super Bowl with the Panthers brings with it a more mature player, more able to meet the lofty expectations placed on him because of a past that inspired the hit film.
“I'm a lot wiser, smarter now than then, coming from where I've come from the last year or two,” Oher said. “I've got to wise up a little bit.”
Oher, who moved in that 2012 Super Bowl season from left tackle to right tackle for the playoffs, declined to talk about the film or his adoptive family, the Tuohys, at a chaotic Super Bowl.
He played exclusively right tackle in 2013, his final year with the Ravens, as they re-signed Bryant McKinnie and then traded for Eugene Monroe that year. The Ravens never came close to re-signing Oher, and after one year with the Tennessee Titans, he landed in Carolina after a hard recruiting pitch from quarterback Cam Newton. Newton's brother, Cecil, was on the Ravens practice squad for two years while Oher was in Baltimore.
Oher's direct replacement, right tackle Rick Wagner, has played well in two years as the starter, but injury concerns surrounding Monroe mean the tackle position is one of four owner Steve Bisciotti targeted last month as a draft priority in April.
Safety, vacated last offseason by current Broncos starter Darian Stewart after just one year with the Ravens, is another position Bisciotti said needs to be addressed.
Stewart joined the Ravens as a free agent in March 2014 and played a key role in all 16 games as part of a safety rotation that also included Matt Elam, Will Hill, Terrence Brooks and Jeromy Miles.
Stewart was solid, though not impactful. He had one interception, three passes defended and a forced fumble with the Ravens.
Stewart opened his Broncos career with an end-zone interception of Flacco in the closing moments in Week 1, and also picked off Tom Brady in the AFC championship game last month before exiting with a knee injury. He is expected to play Sunday despite the injury.
Two more former Ravens — one a product of their system and the other a one-year rental like Stewart — will be featured at tight end in Sunday's game. Former Raven Ed Dickson, who was selected as part of a tight end tandem with Dennis Pitta in the 2010 draft, frustrated fans by not living up to his physical potential in Baltimore.
He averaged 28 catches for 294 yards per year over his four seasons with the Ravens, and has 27 catches for 236 yards and three scores as the backup to Greg Olsen over two seasons in Carolina.
On the opposite side, tight end Owen Daniels came to the Ravens in 2014 with his longtime coach, offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak, and ultimately followed Kubiak to Denver for the 2015 season. Daniels was valuable to the Ravens after Pitta's second hip injury in as many years, earning just $1 million but catching 48 passes for 527 yards and four touchdowns last season.
With 46 catches for 517 yards and three scores as a Bronco, Daniels has nearly matched those totals this year, and had the team's only two touchdowns in the AFC championship game against the New England Patriots.
The Panthers' Graham Gano, by virtue of his first career Super Bowl appearance Sunday, will make it four straight years in which the Super Bowl has featured a kicker who comes from the Ravens system.
Then-rookie Justin Tucker kicked for the Ravens in 2012, and former Ravens kicker Steven Hauschka was groomed early in his career by special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg before going to two straight Super Bowls with the Seattle Seahawks in 2013 and 2014.
Gano was on the Ravens' offseason roster entering the 2009 season, but didn't make the team and has since converted 151 of 189 career field-goal attempts with the Washington Redskins and Panthers. This year, he made 30 of 36 tries in the regular season and has made all three of his attempts in the playoffs.
Also making their Super Bowl debuts for the Panthers are former Ravens Derek Anderson and Dwan Edwards.
Edwards, a second-round pick in 2004 out of Oregon State, played parts of five seasons with the Ravens as mostly a rotational defensive lineman. He started 22 games combined in 2007 and 2009, missed 2008 with a neck injury and then signed as a free agent with the Buffalo Bills in 2010.
He has been a contributor for the Panthers this year, his 12th NFL season, making 14 tackles with a sack in support of standout interior pass rushers Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short.
Anderson, another Oregon State alumnus, never played for the Ravens after they made him a sixth-round pick in 2005. He was claimed off waivers by the Cleveland Browns that September, and started for them in 2007, going 10-5 with an 82.5 passer rating, but has been the backup in Carolina since 2011.
He is one of two former Ravens who likely won't get on the field Sunday. Rookie guard Robert Myers, whom the Ravens selected in the fifth round of last year's draft as a developmental player, was plucked off the practice squad by Denver in December and has been inactive since he arrived.
“We lost him twice,” executive vice president/general manager Ozzie Newsome said last month. “We lost him to the Colts [in September] and then we lost him again to the Broncos in the last week of the season, and it'll be interesting to see how he develops if he remains a Bronco.”
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