ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- It was a move-the-ball period midway through practice, and the first-team offense was not moving fast enough. A pair of completions had the offense at its 43-yard line. But the drive began with 2:20 on the clock back at its 30-yard line, and after a pair of short completions, just 1:16 remained. To jump-start the series, Joe Flacco turned to undrafted rookie Kelvin McKnight. Reading the zone coverage perfectly, McKnight broke for the left sideline, settled under a 16-yard pass and got out of bounds to move the offense out of its own territory and stop the clock.

McKnight wasn't done. Three plays later, on third-and-2, Flacco found him for a 4-yard completion to keep the drive alive. Two snaps after that, a 9-yard reception to set up what would have been a near-certain Brandon McManus field-goal attempt followed.

The drive covered 50 yards, and 26 of them came on passes to McKnight. Working mostly out of the slot in place of the injured DaeSean Hamilton and River Cracraft, McKnight has seized the moment in the last two days, in part because the rookie hasn't looked like one. Instead, he's learned some tricks of the trade that give him the savviness of a veteran.

"He did all right. He's progressing," Head Coach Vic Fangio said Thursday. "The wide receiver position has been hit a little bit with the injury bug, so these younger guys are getting opportunities and sometimes that's how you find somebody."

After practice Friday, McKnight said one of the things he's learned during training camp is that he can "cheat a couple of plays." But to "cheat" doesn't mean what you might think it does.

"It's just a football term -- maybe steal a yard on my alignment, cut my split down, certain stuff like that," he said.

Those tricks have helped him find separation within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage, making him effective on short crossing routes. But they might not represent a direct path to a 53-man roster spot.

That's where special teams comes into play. As he often does, he lingered on the field Friday after the two-and-a-half-hour practice to get extra work, focusing on punt returns. He was one of the last to leave the field, and departed flanked by Special Teams Coordinator Tom McMahon, who still had some points to make about what to expect from opposing punters -- perhaps another "cheat" or two, if you want to view it that way.

"Just different looks on punts that I will be seeing throughout the year, different types of punters," McKnight said when asked what McMahon shared with him. "Different techniques, what to read on the ball, stuff like that."

In McKnight, McMahon appears to have an eager student, one willing to soak up the details and sharpen the subtle skills that separate those who manage to stick on an NFL roster with those who don't. He also has a pupil who understands that he will fail. Even though the first eight practices have been mostly stellar for McKnight, rough days will come. But the rookie expects to prosper from them.