With training camp opening at the end of the month there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the Baltimore Ravens but let’s look at why you should feel confident heading into the 2019 season:
Lamar Jackson:
The Baltimore Ravens’ season will largely be in the hands of second year quarterback Lamar Jackson. Wherever Lamar goes this team will go and his development over the offseason is crucial to this teams success. Last season Jackson made his first career start in week 11 against the Cincinnati Bengals in place of an injured Joe Flacco and quite frankly was thrown into a makeshift offense that developed on a week-to-week basis.
With a whole offseason to work on his throwing mechanics and chemistry with his receivers, there is no reason to believe Jackson won’t improve upon his play from last season. The Ravens also did him a solid by selecting Marquise Brown and Miles Boykin in April’s draft, both of which bring speed to the table which will make defensive coordinators think twice about loading the box to stop the run.
Defensive Tradition:
Many pundits have counted the Ravens out this coming season because of the players they lost on the defensive side of the ball such as Eric Weddle, Terrell Suggs, and Za’Darius Smith, but I wouldn’t be too quick to believe their reasoning. Granted, many teams take a step back when they lose that much leadership on one side of the ball, but not the Baltimore Ravens and their rich defensive history backs it up. In the last 20 seasons the Ravens have had a top ten defense a whopping sixteen times and of those sixteen years, they ranked in the top three nine times according to Jamison Hensley of ESPN.
If that statistic isn’t impressive enough for you, check this out. After the Ravens won the Super Bowl in 2013 they had a mass exodus on defense that included not one, but two Hall of Famers in Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. During that Super Bowl season their defense ranked 17th overall and the very next season moved up to 12th overall without their two Hall of Fame caliber leaders on defense. If there is one thing that doesn’t worry me about the 2019 Baltimore Ravens it’s their defense.
Track Team:
First year Ravens General Manager, Eric DeCosta, went to work this offseason by building a “track team” around quarterback Lamar Jackson, something he didn’t have during the 2018-2019 NFL season. When I say track team, I’m talking about players at the explosive speed level of Lamar Jackson which includes 2019 draftees’ Marquise Brown, Miles Boykin, and Justice Hill. The reason I didn’t include this on the Lamar Jackson segment is because this has an impact on the entire team, not just Jackson.
Last season, Lamar Jackson was the only player on the offensive side of the ball with any explosive game changing speed so it was “easy” to focus on his containment. This season, Jackson is accompanied by three additional speedsters who all have to be accounted for by the defense. Whether it’s Marquise Brown running deep on a play action route or Justice Hill catching a dump off pass down the filed, defensive coordinators will have a lot more to game plan for.