Edwards Finally Will Put It on the Line

Ravens' Top Pick In 2004 to Start After Long Wait

OWINGS MILLS, Md., Sept. 19 -- There were times, to be sure, when Dwan Edwards was frustrated by his situation with the Baltimore Ravens during the past three years. Edwards was the 51st overall pick in the 2004 draft -- and the Ravens' top overall selection that year -- yet on game days he was inactive as often as he played. In his first three seasons, Edwards appeared in just 24 games.

"There's always frustrations if you're not playing," Edwards said. "I used it as motivation and kept striving to get better and better and learning from the guys in front of me. Now I'm as ready as I've ever been."

That's a good thing for the Ravens (1-1), because Edwards will be starting on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals in place of defensive end Trevor Pryce, who will be out for three to four weeks with a broken wrist. For Edwards, it's a chance to show why the Ravens were so excited to get him, and how he's matured.

"There's an old saying: The closer you play to the line of scrimmage, the longer it takes. [There's] a lot of technique work involved, and a physical maturity that goes along with it," defensive line coach Clarence Brooks said. "Sometimes it takes a defensive lineman a couple years in the system and then the light goes on. . . . Since I've been here, he's done well, he's just been the odd man out. He wouldn't settle for that anymore. He told me back in January, 'I'm going to play, I'm going to be on that field, I want to play.' "

He worked hard during the offseason to completely reshape his body, dropping nearly 30 pounds by cutting sugary drinks and fatty foods from his diet and playing a lot of basketball. Edwards, who stands 6 feet 3, now weighs around 290 and is faster and more mobile.

"He's always been strong, but he's much quicker this year," linebacker Jarret Johnson said. "He's always played hard, but now because he's so quick, that motor he has is really showing, and he's able to get on the edges."

Edwards had a hard time breaking into the Ravens' rotation on the defensive line during his first three seasons, partly because of the talented and experienced players in front of him.

As a rookie, he joined a group that included starters Marques Douglas, Kelly Gregg and Tony Weaver, and reserves Johnson, Maake Kemoeatu and Aubrayo Franklin. All six currently are starting in the NFL: Gregg and Johnson for the Ravens, and Weaver (Houston), Franklin and Douglas (San Francisco), and Kemoeatu (Carolina) for teams elsewhere.

Edwards felt as if he played well when he did get onto the field; during his second season, for instance, he had seven tackles against Detroit and made eight tackles in a start against Denver. But those opportunities were few and far between.

"The main thing is, you've got to play this game to get better," Edwards said. "That first year, I only played four games. So I can't say that I got a lot better that first year, other than some technical stuff that I worked on in practice. . . . If you're not comfortable, you're going to be slow and you're going to be guessing and not reacting."

Edwards is not expected to come in and duplicate exactly what the 6-5, 286-pound Pryce does for the Ravens; that's not how defensive coordinator Rex Ryan operates, substituting one player for another without regards to each player's particular skills.

Pryce is Baltimore's best inside pass rusher, not to mention one of the best in the league (78 career sacks). Edwards's strength is his ability against the run -- "I have a motor that never stops. Rex knows that if there's something going on, I'm going to chase the play down," he said -- and Ryan will find ways to take advantage of that. Rookie Antawn Barnes -- a fourth-round pick out of Florida International, where he holds the career record for sacks (23) -- will be used on passing downs to provide pressure.

"That is one good thing about Rex's defenses: We are so multidimensional that we can find ways to make up for a missing player or a position," Johnson said. "If we're missing a really good pass rusher on the inside, we'll attack them somewhere else. We'll do something different. That's the strength of our defense."

Ravens Notes: Quarterback Steve McNair participated fully in practice on Wednesday and said he's on track to start on Sunday. . . . Left tackle Jonathan Ogden said that his goal is to play this weekend. He participated in individual drills, but then left the field because he needed to get his shoe readjusted; he has "tweaked" his left shoe 10 to 12 times since training camp in an attempt to protect his injured big toe and foot. . . .

Coach Brian Billick clarified the remarks he made about the New York Jets earlier this week, saying they were meant to be critical of the game officials and not Coach Eric Mangini. On Monday, Billick said that the Jets did "a very, very effective job of illegally simulating the snap count," which led to false-start penalties by the Ravens. "Eric didn't deserve the grief that he got for that. That was not my intention," said Billick, who apologized to Mangini. "I saw where someone was trying to say that was retribution by coaches for [violating an unwritten code by turning in New England Coach Bill Belichick]. Boy, you all have got some great imaginations, you really do." . . . The Ravens signed veteran linebacker Nick Greisen and released linebacker Dennis Haley (Virginia).