The Baltimore Ravens had a great offense in 2019, but will they regress in 2020? Here are three reasons why they will not regress in 2020.
The Baltimore Ravens had the number one offense in the NFL last year and Lamar Jackson took the league by storm. While some fans might expect the Ravens to continue their dominance, there has been a lot of talk recently dissecting whether or not the Ravens will be able to replicate their same success. Here are three reasons why the Baltimore Ravens offense won’t regress in 2020.
Reason 1: The schedule is much easier than last year.
In 2019 the Baltimore Ravens played some of the best teams in the NFL and absolutely crushed some of those teams. The schedule was not that favorable for Baltimore and yet they still went 14-2. In fact, they had a six-week stretch where they played four playoff teams and didn’t lose a game. In 2020 Baltimore won’t have a stretch like that, actually, the Ravens schedule looks about as good as a fan can hope for. The Ravens will play games against the NFC East this year, one of the worst divisions in football ever last year.
The Ravens will also have other favorable games against the Jaguars and Colts, both teams should be respected, but those teams should be heavy underdogs when those games do take place. The toughest games I see for the Ravens are against the Chiefs and Titans, and even then the Ravens are considered slight favorites in those matchups. With the offense evolving and with Lamar Jackson developing more chemistry with the team’s young receivers, the Ravens should be even more explosive on offense this year. The schedule is in Baltimore’s favor this year and I expect Lamar Jackson to be destroying almost every opponent they face. I think Ravens fans will be seeing Lamar Jackson sitting on the bench in the fourth quarter of games a lot this upcoming season.
Reason 2: The offense got better during the offseason
The biggest loss on offense during the offseason was when offensive guard Marshal Yanda retired. Obviously, that is a massive loss for the offense, but Baltimore added so many guards to the roster that someone will be forced to step up or be replaced by somebody else. In the draft, the Ravens added Tyre Philips, a massive human being who has a ton of upside. They also added Ben Bredeson, this is a player who was a starter every year of his career despite his limited athleticism. Also, they just signed D.J. Fluker, a former first-round pick who is a good run blocker, something the Ravens love to do.
Baltimore also added two receivers in the draft, Devin Duvernay, and James Proche. Duvernay has fantastic speed, he will be a great compliment to Marquise Brown as defenses will have too much speed to deal with. James Proche does not have the athleticism of other receivers, but his ball skills are out of this world, I think that he can become a chain mover on 3rd downs. With the Ravens also strengthening the run game by selecting J.K Dobbins the Ravens should feel very confident in their offense heading into next year. The competition on the roster will force players to work harder to get on the field, meaning that the players the Ravens do play will be the best versions of themselves. If Eric Decosta wants an undefendable offense he has the players to make it happen.
Reason 3: Lamar Jackson will continue to improve
Last year the Baltimore Ravens continued to tell the NFL world that they were going to revolutionize the way an NFL offense can be run. Nobody really knew what that meant and almost everyone knew that it would be hard to be really good if Jackson wasn’t able to improve his accuracy. I mean in his first year he only completed around 58% of his passes, but he completed 66% the very next year. Never in my life have I seen a quarterback increase his completion percentage by 8 points, and who knows when Jackson will hit his peak. Can Jackson improve to 70% completion percentage? That is completely doable and if he makes the same improvement as he did last year, who knows what his ceiling can be.
With Greg Roman staying another year Jackson should be even more comfortable in the offense than he was last year. He will know what plays to run, he will know what plays to avoid, and his command of the offense will only continue to get better. Not only will Jackson get better in the offense, but his young teammates will get better too. Brown will have a full, healthy offseason and hopefully training camp. Miles Boykin should only improve and Mark Andrews will continue to be one of the best tight ends in football. With the number of weapons at Jackson’s disposal and his familiarity with the offense, expect the Baltimore Ravens offense to actually improve during the 2020 season.