The Baltimore Ravens can’t recreate the 2000 Super Bowl team

As much as the Baltimore Ravens have tried, they can’t recreate the same success of the 2000 Super Bowl winning team.

Five defensive players and two offensive lineman. That is how Ozzie Newsome and the Baltimore Ravens front office spent their seven draft picks in the 2017 NFL draft. Last season the Ravens finished with the 12th ranked total offense and seventh ranked total defense.Through four games this season? A dead last passing attack and a 18th ranked total defense.

We’ve gone from talking about how historic this defense could be this season to talking about how historically bad the offense could end up being. The Ravens have tried to essentially recreate the 2000 Super Bowl team and it’s just not possible.

Today is a different NFL

There’s no denying how good the Ravens 2000 defense was. Along with the 85′ Bears, there aren’t many other defenses that rival them. To give up just 165 total points and 970 total rushing yards in a season is ridiculous. But as much as the Ravens want to get back to those dominant defense ways, it’s virtually impossible.

Today’s NFL is a completely different product. It’s transitioned from running back and defense dominated to a quarterback driven league. If you don’t have a quality quarterback under center, you have no shot at winning a Super Bowl, that’s just how it is. When the Ravens won the Super Bowl in 2012, it was behind Joe Flacco’s 12 touchdowns and zero interception playoff run. The defense was the 17th best that season in terms of yards given up. That’s average at best if you’re looking at things in technical terms. The point is, you can have a dominant defense, but a dominant defense today is still giving up 300-350 yards a game.

It doesn’t matter how good the Ravens defense is this year, they can’t get anywhere without pointing points on the board. And without any offensive firepower, that’s not going to happen.

The neglect on offense

WNST’s Luke Jones pointed it out perfectly. Thirteen of the last 17 Ravens draft picks on Day 1 and Day 2 were on the defensive side of the ball.

The four offensive players they took? Crockett Gillmore, Breshad Perriman, Maxx Williams and Ronnie Stanley. One of these players is an offensive tackle, one is on injured reserve and the other two have combined for 37 total receiving yards.

But it’s not just who the Ravens took, it’s who they didn’t take. I just think of a Stefon Diggs, a Juju Smith-Schuster or even a Kareem Hunt that the Ravens could have found in the mid-rounds of the draft. That’s where the front office always prides themselves in doing, but it’s always picks on the defensive side of the ball.

Looking at the Ravens roster, who really scares you? Mike Wallace and Jeremy Maclin? I guess, but those two are both hovering around the age of 30. The most explosive player on the offensive side of the ball right now is Alex Collins. The sad part is, the Ravens didn’t even draft him. Collins is a second-year running back the Ravens signed off of the Seahawks practice squad this season. Joe Flacco hasn’t looked much of the same since 2012 and he’s had a horrid start to the season. Good teams have offensive players who strike fear into opposing defenses. You’d be hard pressed to find a player on the Ravens that does that right now.

The lack of attention on the offensive side of the ball has dug the Ravens deep into a hole. And when you pair that with injuries and inconsistent play on both sides of the ball, it’s a hole that is almost impossible to get out of this year.

The bottom line

If four games is any indication of what’s to come, it’s clear the Ravens aren’t a contending team this season. The injuries are too much to overcome, the offense lacks any explosiveness or confidence and the defense can only do so much. Sure, Marty Mornhinweg needs to go, but the Ravens’ problems go beyond just that. At some point, you can’t keep placing the blame on the offensive coordinators. The Ravens can only go through so many of those in a short period of time.

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It’s not the 2000’s anymore. The NFL is adapting and the Ravens haven’t caught up to that in the past couple years. That’s something that has to change come 2018 and it starts in the NFL draft.