The Baltimore Ravens have consistently had a top-10 offense when QB Lamar Jackson has been healthy. They ranked fourth in points last year, for example, and sixth in yards, with the most rushing yards. Yet they’ve been working on transitioning into a more multi-dimensional unit, and 2024 may be their biggest step in that direction.
Arguably, the Ravens have at their disposal the most dynamic skill players in the Lamar Jackson era. They prioritized adding Derrick Henry at running back, who is their most potent threat since Ray Rice (no pun intended). The true key, however, is TE Isaiah Likely, who emerged last since with Mark Andrews sidelined.
The second-year tight end caught 30 passes for 411 yards and five touchdowns in 2023. Most of that came in the final six games of the regular season that Andrews missed due to injury. In that time, Likely caught 21 passes for 322 yards and all five of his touchdowns for the Ravens. And he did that on only 28 targets.
“Few opponents will possess the size, strength, and physicality to deal with the Ravens’ running game while also having enough athletes on the field to cover the team’s dynamic pass catchers on the perimeter”, Bucky Brooks said of the Ravens’ potential out of 12 personnel, via the Ravens’ website. “The combination of personnel and tactics should keep defensive coordinators up at night when building a game plan to slow down the perennial title contenders”.
Neither Andrews nor Likely are elite blocking tight ends, but they are more than capable of providing run support. The Ravens also have blocking-capable wide receivers. The biggest obstacle is actually the offensive line, where they need to replace three starters. They used a second-round pick on a tackle who was arguably a reach, and are counting on a second-year prospect coming off a torn ACL.
There’s that, and then there’s Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken. He tried to run a more traditional offense than his predecessor, using 11 personnel about six times more frequently. Under Greg Roman in 2022, they used three-receiver sets under 10 percent of the time, but that rose to 64 percent last year under Monken.
Of course, the Ravens didn’t fully know what they had in Likely before the latter part of the 2023 season. And Andrews’ injury during that time obviously prevented them from exploiting two-tight-end sets. Yet with Henry in the backfield, could 12 personnel return as their base package? It wouldn’t surprise me.
The wide receiving corps now primarily consists of Zay Flowers, Rashod Bateman, and Nelson Agholor. The Ravens didn’t use any of them as every-down players last season, Flowers coming the closest. They also no longer have Odell Beckham Jr., and they didn’t draft a wide receiver until the fourth round in Devontez Walker.
