The Baltimore Ravens have undergone quite a drastic overhaul of their receiving corps this offseason. It was a necessary one given how poor their passing game was last season. The Ravens have brought in Michael Crabtree and John Brown in place of Mike Wallace and Jeremy Maclin to become Joe Flacco’s new top two receiving targets.

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh wants Flacco to develop a chemistry with his new receivers similar to what Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown or Tom Brady and Julian Edelman have. That means getting the reps in and building a relationship with them – before, during, and after practice.

“[The reps are] the most important thing of all,” Harbaugh said per Sarah Ellison of the team’s official website. “You have to practice. It’s a practice sport. You have to get good. You can’t just roll the ball out there and be great, especially in the passing game. … But with those guys getting the reps and getting really good at what they do, and even beyond that, let’s go to work outside of practice and build that rapport.”

Obviously, it’s going to take some time for Flacco to get comfortable with Crabtree and Brown to the level of a Big Ben and Brown. However, the Ravens need them to expedite that process as quickly as possible given the grave state their passing game was last year.

While it may be unfair to expect massive improvement from that unit in such a short amount of time, they need at least some uptick in production in order to get back into playoff contention next season.