Baltimore Ravens: Does Team Lack Leadership

The Baltimore Ravens have entered an offseason where nothing is out-of-bounds. Self assessment and accountability come with failure like a disastrous 5-11 record. With that in mind do the Ravens have a leadership problem?

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Things clearly have not been the same since Ray Lewis and Ed Reed left the team. It even feels different. “The General” is gone. In 2012 Lewis passed the torch to Flacco. It was the Super Bowl MVP’s turn to lead the team.

The problem is that Flacco and Lewis are possible the most contrasting people on the planet. Flacco will never be the emotional heartbeat of the Ravens. He is not that guy. There is nothing wrong with that. He could not authentically lead the way Lewis did for so many seasons.

Flacco however is a leader. He just does it in his own way. Flacco is tough as nails, he accepts blame when things go wrong. He never throws his teammates under the bus. When he is banged up he refuses to acknowledge it. Flacco leads the team by example.

The emotional leadership was naturally Terrell Suggs’s job to fill. Suggs holds people accountable, he sets the bar, and is not shy to show teammates how high it is raised. Suggs is organically that guy. The “Ball So Hard University” graduate does not shy away from being the teams new commander.

When Suggs got hurt in the season opener a lot more fell to the ground than his 265 pound body. The Ravens lost a coach on the field. They lost their leader, who did the little things that added up. They lost the boost that Suggs provides in every game.

The Ravens defense had their worst struggles in the first half of the season. The Ravens may have thought they could replace Suggs but they were wrong. The loss of Suggs had a near catastrophic impact on the Ravens.

In the second half of the season the Ravens defense stepped up their game. There were still problems but it was much better. Elvis Dumervil and Daryl Smith seemed to emerge as the Ravens reformed leadership in his absence.

Steve Smith Sr. also played a huge role on this team. He laid his everything on the field. He played through injury. He refused to slow down, because of his ailing back and his team’s lousy record. When he went on IR after tearing his Achilles, the Ravens sunk even lower into a bad season.

The good news is that the Ravens have leaders. The bad news is that two of their most important figures on the team are close to retirement. Flacco will not replace Suggs and Smith Sr. as the emotional leader. With Suggs and Smith Sr. coming back for another season, this is a void the Ravens can fill in the near future. The immediate future has a strong leadership core.

It is important to remember that  their entire core of leadership had their season end on injured reserve. There were three players Baltimore couldn’t lose and they lost all three of them as the disappointment kept coming. It was like the conveyor belt in the factory of broken hearts and bones.

The Ravens had an ungodly amount of injuries. It is hard to complain about a discipline problem when you’re depending on third string players and practically grabbing guys off the street. So that at least explains that part of the problem.

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The Ravens have leadership. It is hard to imagine that the core leadership would all fall to injury again.