The Facts: In Flacco's mind, his surgically repaired left knee was in good enough shape for him to return to the field two months ago. There simply was no point in that, nor did it make much sense for him to be out there this week during the Ravens' three-day mandatory minicamp. But when the Ravens reconvene on July 28 for the official start of training camp, their franchise QB fully expects to be under center, returning to the role he's occupied for the past eight years before a significant knee injury in November ended his string of 122 consecutive starts.

Diehards Line: "I expect to be on the field for the first day," Flacco said Thursday when asked about his training camp plans. "We'll see how it feels at that point. I'm kind of curious to see, as training camp goes along, am I going to have sore days and stuff like that? But I expect to be out there and ready to go." The Ravens certainly aren't going to take any chances with Flacco, but they'd obviously like to see him on the field as much as possible this summer, to start gaining chemistry with a group of receivers that includes veteran acquisitions Mike Wallace and Benjamin Watson. With Flacco sidelined during the various offseason workouts and Ryan Mallett, Josh Johnson and Jerrod Johnson taking the quarterback repetitions, the Ravens' offense has struggled to find any rhythm.