When the players packed up their lockers at the end of the last season, inside linebacker Zachary Orr made it known he had eyes on a bigger role for 2016.
“I’m shooting for a starting spot,” he said in January.
Orr made that declaration even before the Ravens parted ways with veteran linebacker Daryl Smith, the team’s leading tackler. The Ravens cut Smith two months later, opening the starting linebacker spot next to C.J. Mosley, and Orr has made a strong case to earn that job.
The former undrafted prospect from North Texas consistently took reps with the first-team defense throughout the offseason program, and he enters training camp in a tight competition with a pair of second-round picks.