OWINGS MILLS —Ravens fullback Patrick Ricard earned the nickname “Pancake Pat” for the way he can level defenders on a block.
That type of aggressiveness has been valuable for the Ravens, who led the NFL in rushing last season. The addition of running back Derrick Henry should make the team’s running attack even more formidable, and the 6-foot-3, 311-pound Ricard is looking forward to creating holes for the four-time Pro Bowler.
“It’s nice to finally get to practice together and kind of see what plays [Henry] likes, and he told me he likes every running play, so it makes it easy,” Ricard said. “For me it’s just to kind of see what he sees in terms of the flow of how the run play kind of develops and how I should hit the hole to get my guy so he can run off of it; it’s little things like that. I mean, with a [running] back like him, it just makes you want to just hit someone even harder [and] push him even a little bit further, because he’s a big guy. He’s got to run through there, but he’ll run through it, so as long as I can move a guy, we’ll be all good.”
Last season, Ricard was named Second-Team All-Pro, mainly for his blocking skills. He played in all 17 games and also caught five passes for 52 yards with the sixth touchdown of his career.
Ricard, however, is not just valuable to the Ravens for his blocking. He can play multiple positions on both sides of the ball and has lined up as a tight end and a defensive lineman.
Coaches have called Ricard a “Swiss Army knife” because of his versatility.
“For me, I think it’s more of kind of how games go. If we’re down by a lot, we’re going to pass the ball a lot, and I’m not going to be in there running routes, really; it’s me [on] more protections and all that stuff,” Ricard said. “So, it’s really how games go. But for me, I just try to learn as much of the playbook as I can, be as valuable as I can – in terms of how they can use me – and do it the best to where they want to use me in those positions to where I can get on the field as much as I possibly can.
“It’s up to the coaches, and it’s up to me of getting my job done and kind of [seeing] how everything plays out. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if I play 5, 100 [or] 5,000 snaps; as long as we win, then that’s all that really matters.”