Safety Kyle Hamilton has wrapped up his first offseason as an NFL player and the Ravens first-round pick has learned a few lessons.
One of those lessons has to do with how little margin for error there is while playing at the professional level. During an appearance on the Inside the Garage podcast, Hamilton recounted a conversation he had with linebacker Daelin Hayes after a recent practice that the rookie thought went poorly for him.
Hamilton said that Hayes told him “everybody at this level is good” and that he is going to get beat sometimes as a result. Hayes added that “you have to understand where you’re at and try to fix the mistakes that you made” in order to get better and Hamiltion noted how Lamar Jackson’s arrival for the mandatory minicamp drove that point home.
“Lamar shows up and hasn’t missed a beat,” Hamilton said, via the team’s website. “You see in person, up close, a top five quarterback in the NFL, he can really spin it — arm angles, and then obviously when he gets out of the pocket, it’s over with. You see how precise you have to be on defense.”
Hamilton hasn’t faced another team at full speed yet, so the lessons aren’t going to stop coming his way any time soon. His ability to synthesize all he’s learned will determine whether he can make the move from wide-eyed student to capable performer before his rookie year is out. If he can, he should be playing a sizable role on the Baltimore defense early in his career.