ExtremeRavens Posted September 3 Posted September 3 Andy Linn’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing. In the months leading up to this year’s NFL draft, about 20 different teams called the longtime Lafayette High School football coach to grill him about one of his former players, Mike Green. The Los Angeles Rams, Linn said, even sent an official to his Williamsburg, Virginia, office, where the two men spoke for 90 minutes. “I was getting phone call after phone call,” Linn told The Baltimore Sun, adding that he also fielded inquiries from the Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears and Washington Commanders, among others. He also said that “about 85%” of the questions he fielded centered on the outside linebacker’s character. “The funny thing is, I never talked to the Ravens.” That officials from Baltimore did not call the high school coach of a player the organization ended up later selecting in the second round this past April was not overly unusual. What was unusual in this circumstance, of course, was that during the NFL scouting combine in February, Green said that he had previously faced two accusations of sexual assault. One of those came in the spring of his senior year in high school. The other took place during his freshman year at the University of Virginia in 2022 when he said an “anonymous” report was filed against him. Because Green had a prior allegation against him, he had signed a “zero tolerance” agreement with the school. Green said that he was suspended by Virginia in 2022 before transferring to Marshall in 2023. But even though Green was never charged, has denied the allegations and said he had “done nothing wrong,” several teams that had investigated and interviewed the explosive 6-foot-3, 250-pound pass rusher who led college football with 17 sacks last season decided to take him off their draft board. In short, many of them had found his explanations for the accusations unsatisfactory. “There were some teams that came in and said we’re not gonna be able to touch him, and I understood that,” Green’s former coach at Marshall, Charles Huff, told The Sun. “Mike and I had a conversation at the beginning of the year and I told him this is the reality of it and this is the world you’re gonna live in. You have to be prepared for the repercussions of your decisions. Whether it was right, wrong or indifferent. It happened.” What exactly happened is also unclear. Neither Linn nor Huff went into detail about the two alleged incidents, though both summed each up to Green putting himself in the wrong position at the wrong time. Elliott, who was in his first year as Virginia’s coach when Green was a freshman, also declined to be interviewed through a spokesperson, who said in an email only that there is “no ill will towards Mike from the current staff and they wish him nothing but the best as he starts his professional career.” The email noted that Elliott’s staff did not recruit Green. Charlottesville Police also declined to release a police report that was filed in August 2022 and the investigation into the incident has been suspended. The Ravens did their own investigating, too. They reached out to Huff, among others. General manager Eric DeCosta said that he spent 90 minutes in his office with Green prior to the draft. “The allegations are severe,” DeCosta said after the second round of the draft. “We take it seriously. We look at them individually, and we do as much homework as we can, and specifically to Mike, in Mike’s case, I feel like we did a good job talking to as many people as possible. We talked to Mike at length, we did our own kind of work behind the scenes, looking at all the different things, and we felt comfortable taking him.” Ravens defensive end Mike Green, shown speaking at the NFL scouting combine, is expected to play an important role for the team as a rookie. Green was drafted in the second round after sexual misconduct allegations hurt his draft stock. (Michael Conroy/AP) Coach John Harbaugh, who said he was not in Owings Mills the day Green met with DeCosta, echoed similar sentiments. The organization was also in the midst of eventually parting ways with Justin Tucker after the kicker faced sexual misconduct allegations from more than 15 massage therapists and was later suspended 10 weeks by the NFL. “The coaches and administrators and teammates at Marshall were fully supportive of everything he had done there, and same at UVA,” he said. “So you talk about due diligence, it was exhaustive — what these guys have done — and we made a decision based on what we felt was fair.” When it comes to Green’s tantalizing abilities on the field, there have been far fewer questions and plenty of answers, at least so far. “He plays with kind of a relentless mindset,” said Ravens outside linebackers coach Matt Robinson, adding that Green really “pops” on tape. “He is tenacious at the point of attack. I think you guys have seen it in the games, his ability to affect the play pretty much every time he’s in there. He is going to set a violent edge, get pressure on the quarterback.” That was evident in training camp and over the past month. In one particular practice in June, he read a bootleg from backup quarterback Cooper Rush, cut underneath the receiver’s route and intercepted the pass in the flat. Across three preseason games, he finished with six pressures, per Pro Football Focus, including three in his debut against the Indianapolis Colts, and six tackles. Green has impressed coaches, teammates and even those outside the building. “He threw every kind of pass rush move you could throw at somebody,” Brian Baldinger said on NFL Network following Green’s debut against the Colts. “He had no fear. “Sometimes it takes a rookie defensive lineman a redshirt year to figure it out. But I’m not going to be surprised if he succeeds this year with his ability right now.” Ravens pass rush coach Chuck Smith has praised Green’s effort, said that he has “a great grasp for the defense” and that he is “everything he was advertised to be.” Defensive coordinator Zach Orr has touted Green’s get-off and said he expects him to be a valuable and significant part of a Baltimore defense that last season finished second in the NFL in sacks and two years ago captured the triple crown, leading the league in sacks, takeaways and points allowed. “He is a dog,” Green’s fellow outside linebacker Odafe Oweh said. “He gets after it. … So yes, he’s good. A twitchy guy, just puts his head down and works, picks up things fast, does things within the defense, [does] what he’s told to do and still makes flashy plays, and he’s physical. So, the sky’s the limit for him.” Second-year outside linebacker Tavius Robinson, who has become a confidant if not mentor to Green, said that the rookie has been on top of the details of the defense since “Day One.” “He’s on his playbook. He’s taking great notes every day,” Robinson said. “We sit beside each other, so really proud of him and the strides he’s taken from OTAs to now. He has that dog mentality, and he’s going to be a dog for sure.” Ravens outside linebacker Mike Green looks at fullback Lucas Scott during practice prior to the Ravens' Week 1 game against the Bills. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Green should also be a good fit amid a defense that looks to cause chaos at every opportunity. Last season, Oweh and Kyle Van Noy had career highs in sacks with 10 and 12 1/2, respectively. Whether either player can replicate those numbers remains to be seen, but Green’s addition should only help. Huff, who is now at Southern Mississippi, said that when he was at Marshall, defensive coordinator Jason Semore used to show clips of Baltimore’s defense during installs. The verbiage and concepts were also similar. There is also the belief from Linn and Huff that Green has a track record of learning from hard lessons along his journey, off the field and on it. That includes from a specific practice at Marshall: Oct. 17, 2024. That was the day, Huff said, that Green took his practice habits to “another level.” Afterward, the coach texted his pupil clips of the practice and told him that “this is the guy that will get drafted.” “He said, ‘Don’t worry, that guy’s never leaving,'” Huff said, adding that Green wrote the date on his mirror as a daily reminder. “It’s what made the difference.” Months later, after the Ravens had drafted Green, Linn called his former player to congratulate him. He also wanted to pass along a message. “I told him this is just the beginning,” Linn said. “Now the real work starts. “He’s a very grateful person. He’s very grateful for the opportunity and I don’t think it’s one he’s going to waste.” Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1. View the full article Quote
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