Win or lose, young Baltimore Ravens are looking at a pivotal year
By Darin McCann
It’s pretty easy to feel a little excited about the young, new-look Baltimore Ravens this season. Of course, it’s also pretty easy to feel a little nauseous, if we’re being completely honest.
The Baltimore Ravens saying, “In Ozzie we trust” must now be replaced with… well, something equally cool for new General Manager Eric DeCosta. Statuesque big-game quarterback Joe Flacco has been permanently replaced by the insanely-athletic Lamar Jackson. Fast, twitchy receivers have been brought in to compete for spots on a team that has historically stocked that position room with physical, fight-you-behind-the-gymnasium pass-catchers and straight-line speed guys who can’t, you know, catch.
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T-Sizzle? Arizona. Eric Weddle? Los Angeles. C.J. Mosley? Rightfully counting that money while trying to revive the New York Jets.
That’s a lot of change, and, as we all know, change can often be a tough pill to swallow. We invest a lot into being fans, and not just in terms of slapping down money to buy tickets and jerseys.
We read about our teams; scour the Internet for video clips and argue with strangers sitting near us at bars. We often schedule the rest of our lives around 1 p.m. Sunday kickoffs, and our entire mood for the coming week is often decided by a kicker or a bad call. So, there’s plenty of reason to be concerned.
Historically, Ravens fans have known in their souls that their team could beat any team in the league on any given Sunday (or Thursday, or Monday, or Saturday, or whatever eighth day of the week Roger Goodell manages to slip into the world’s collective calendar for more television revenue). Flashy or not, for most of the last 20 years the Ravens have been a swashbuckling roster of modern-day pirates who would scrape and claw with any foe that came their way.
And now it’s a different team.
It’s an exciting team. Jackson is a video-game character with a work ethic that makes you believe he might very well become the passer this league requires out of its star quarterbacks. Marquise “Hollywood” Brown and Miles Boykin don’t just bring speed to the receiver group, they bring explosion.
Justice Hill, my personal favorite selection by DeCosta in this past year’s draft, is a crafty, lightning-fast running back who brings a different dimension to the team. Earl Thomas and Mark Ingram are proven veterans who bring leadership, skill and a fighter’s edge.
But we just don’t know how it will work. Or, if it will work.
The young guys need to show they belong. Holdovers like Tim Williams and Tyus Bowser must seize their new opportunities and get their careers on the right path. Head coach John Harbaugh and his staff must play to the strengths of their players, and let some of the young guys make mistakes that they can learn from without being buried int he proverbial dog house.
If the team pulls off 10 wins this year amidst all this change, and the young guys show that they are a core that can lead this team into the future, this could be a Ravens team that is a problem to the rest of the AFC for the next decade-plus. If they flop and put up five wins, however, it’s back to the lab.