What Baltimore Ravens fans are excited about

There is a lot of things to be excited about in the land of the Baltimore Ravens. I asked the Ravens Flock on Twitter what they were most excited about and there were some awesome replies:

The Baltimore Ravens fanbase is very excited about the 2019 season. Why shouldn’t they be? Their team is the reigning AFC North Champions and Lamar Jackson gets to bring the team into a new era with a lot of young talent around him. I tweeted out that I was working on this project, and I wanted people to tell me what they were most excited about. This is the highlight package of the Twitter activity started by my question. Not every response was included in this article but everybody who participated is greatly appreciated.

There were a lot of great responses to this prompt. One of the main areas of excitement was the defense. One of the most common responses was that people were looking forward to see who would step up in the pass rushing department for the Ravens.

The Ravens actually have a lot of pass rushers on the roster. Between Matt Judon, Jaylon Ferguson, Shane Ray, Pernell McPhee, Tim Williams and Tyus Bowser the Ravens have plenty of options for Don Martindale’s defense. The Ravens have the depth, but we have to wait and see who stands out in this group.

There was some great conversation over Twitter about the Ravens pass rush situation that was started by all of this. “My Opinion” @hickeym6 brought up a great point in this conversation. The pass rushers haven’t been spectacular lately for the Ravens. In another tweet he mentioned that the Ravens had the number one defense largely because of scheme.

That brings me to one of the things that I am looking forward to the most. I want to see how Don Martindale calls the defense this season. Martindale had a stellar showing as the defensive coordinator last season. With a very different group, Martindale is one of the keys to the Ravens defense continuing success.

Because they were drafted in 2017, Williams and Bowser will always be linked in this kind of conversation. Neither player is off to a strong start in their NFL career and this is surely a prove it year for them. Jaylon Ferguson may be the most exciting player the Ravens have at the outside linebacker position. Ferguson is a great athlete and he can probably win battles on the edge because of his physical abilities even if he lacks the overall polish of a player like Matt Judon. Ferguson should have a stronger start to everything than Williams and Bowser have had.

The Ravens top-notch secondary was also a focal point of the responses to my question. Former Ebony Bird contributor (and current Russell Street Report contributor) Mitchell Wolfman said seeing DeShon Elliot was the thing he was most excited for. Vasilios Nikolaou (@VtheNFLGuy) wrote that watching Earl Thomas be a true center fielder was what he was most excited about. While @Ravensfannews gave some love to Tony Jefferson with their reply:

Lamar Jackson’s first full season and the offense were also things that Ravens fans seemed eager to see. Many people are excited about Lamar Jackson. That’s obvious. The conversation about this offense as a whole is one thing that excites me.

Something that the Ravens Flock brought up was how young, new and exciting everything seems on the offensive side of the football. Benjito Miller (@BenjitoMiller)touched on that with his tweet:

Mr. Miller is absolutely correct. The Ravens have youth that they haven’t had in a long time. The Ravens have two rookie wide receivers and it’s not unlikely that an undrafted free agent makes that three rookies in the receiving group. The Ravens have Gus Edwards and Justice Hill. Orlando Brown Jr. and Ben Powers could end up be players that stick around for a long time on the offensive line. Mark Andrews and Hayden Hurst could become stars at the tight end position.

The above tweet from @AirNugget is such a good call. The Ravens aren’t leaning on old wide receivers that saw their best days with their previous team. They have new hope at the position with Miles Boykin and 1st round pick, Marquise Brown. This is an approach the Ravens didn’t try much in the Ozzie Newsome era. Eric DeCosta went for it at wide receiver and he did it right away.

Eric DeCosta’s work in his first NFL Draft showing on the field was one of the three things that Hugh Nunn (@Laxpup) is excited about.

One thing this last tweet touched on was the speed that the Ravens offense has. It’s hard to think of an offense with more speed than the that of the Ravens. Lamar Jackson is the key to the whole thing and he may just be the fastest player on the field.

I really want to thank all the people that took part in the conversation on Twitter. It is certainly something we will keep talking about as the season gets closer and closer. The Ravens fanbase is awesome and these responses are a great example of why that is the case. One thing is for sure, Baltimore is pumped up to get back to football season in a couple of months.