Baltimore Ravens: Why the defense will remain dominant in 2019
The youth will step up:
At the end of the day, nothing is more important to success, offensively or defensively, than having your young players develop into key contributors. For the Baltimore Ravens, they’ve been planning for an exodus on defense for some time. Now that it’s come, their investments will come to fruition and pay their dues in full.
This doesn’t mean that they’ll be replacing Pro Bowl nods, however; rather they’re using that next man up mentality we touched on earlier. There’s more than enough guys on this team to replace those former players production as a whole. You don’t need one player to have 15+ sacks on the season when you have three guys give you six-to-eight sacks of their own.
The Ravens will be looking towards their young cornerstone pieces to become permanent staples and faces of the franchise. All eyes will be on Marlon Humphrey in 2019, and if he keeps progressing on the trend he’s been on so far he might become the best cornerback in the NFL this season.
Meanwhile, emerging players like Matt Judon and Tavon Young will be expected to take another step forward and they’ve given us no reason to doubt them. Others like Patrick Onwuasor and Michael Pierce are entering contract seasons and want to be paid. They’re young enough to get that big-time money, and they’ll show out even bigger in 2019 to prove they’re deserving of a payday.
Guys who are being developed like Anthony Averett, Kenny Young, Chris Wormley, and others may find success in 2019 with more opportunities given to them. All hope isn’t lost on guys like Tyus Bowser and Tim Williams yet, either, and they will do their best to right the ship on their careers. And finally, we can’t overlook a strong rookie class featuring Jaylon Ferguson, Iman Marshall, and Daylon Mack.
All in all, these youngsters are hearing everyone doubt them, and they’ll go out and prove them all wrong.
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Not many teams can survive the losses the Baltimore Ravens endured this past off-season, but there’s a ton of reasons to believe that they can do just that. While we should pump the brakes on them being an elite unit once again in 2019, we can safely and proudly claim they’ll be a dominant and formidable squad in 2019. The more things change, the more they stay they same… And in 2019, the Baltimore Ravens defense is not going to miss a beat.