The Baltimore Ravens earned the top seed in the AFC playoffs in Week 17. They rested many starters in the final week of the regular season as a result of that. Their success is not a surprise. When you have the league MVP and the top-ranked scoring defense, you’re bound to have a good year.
But they only had a good year. They lost in the conference finals. And good luck getting back, the panel on Good Morning Football suggested yesterday. While Jason McCourty acknowledges the impact QB Lamar Jackson brings, he called it “an extremely uphill battle for them to get back to where they were this season”.
The Ravens lost to the eventual Super Bowl-champion Kansas City Chiefs, failing to score more than 10 points. Their defense held QB Patrick Mahomes to 17, and zero in the second half, so they gave themselves a chance. But all they managed in the final 50 minutes of the game amounted to a single Justin Tucker field goal. Obviously, you can’t play 50 straight minutes of football against Patrick Mahomes scoring three points.
“You had arguably the best defense in Baltimore in some time. You had the MVP. You had home-field advantage. You had the bye. You had all of that. And it still wasn’t good enough”, Ryan Leaf added. He noted that they are due for attrition through free agency.
The Ravens intend to franchise tag breakout DL Justin Madubuike, but they have holes elsewhere. Most of their running backs and multiple offensive line starters are free agents. ILB Patrick Queen is a key free agent they are likely to lose. They may lose key contributors like S Geno Stone, as well.
Peter Schrager also acknowledged the “uphill battle” they face in free agency. “If [general manager Eric] DeCosta hit .850 last year, you hope that he can do it again, but you’re asking for lightning to strike twice in two straight offseasons. That’s a difficult job even for one of the best front offices in football”.
Former Pro Bowl LT Ronnie Stanley is reportedly a potential salary cap casualty given his injury history. Releasing him opens up another hole, however, that isn’t cheap to fill. The Ravens still have a lot of talent on their roster, of course, on both sides of the ball. And they’ve hit on some young players like C Tyler Linderbaum and WR Zay Flowers. They are also an organization that views the long-term picture. Perhaps they hit on Andrew Vorhees, for example, a talented 2023 prospect whose injury tanked his value. They drafted him in the seventh round, but he has starter-level talent.
It’s easy to just look at the names of free agents and count the losses. But the Ravens are a team that invests in depth and coaches players up to take over. They have a long history of allowing starters to walk in free agency with a good record of replacing them.
Winning 13-plus games and earning a first-round bye is always an uphill battle, but I don’t think the Ravens’ road is significantly more difficult from within this season. Their bigger concerns are other teams having healthier rosters. The Cincinnati Bengals get back Joe Burrow, the New York Jets Aaron Rodgers, and even Cleveland gets Deshaun Watson.
