Baltimore Ravens: Don’t bet against Mark Ingram this season

Mark Ingram is still the Baltimore Ravens star running back:

There has been a lot of talk about the Baltimore Ravens running game this offseason and it hasn’t all revolved around Mark Ingram. There is a lot of buzz around J.K. Dobbins, even to the point where people think he could end up being the leading rusher of the 2020 Ravens. T

here has been a lot of talk about how the Ravens will make everything work with four good running backs to feed in the running game. Running back by committee is certainly the prescribed regimen but Mark Ingram is still the star.

Ingram is coming off a season where 202 rushing attempts got him 1,018 yards. Those are numbers that he is quite capable of hitting again. With another year of grinding through the NFL, comes extra help in the backfield.

Adding another running back is more helpful than it is hurtful for the rest of his career in Baltimore. He may only get 180 carries. Maybe he only gets 850-900 yards on the ground in the regular season. The actual numbers don’t matter if he is healthy and ready to dominate in the NFL postseason.

The playoff loss to the Titans showed how vital a healthy Ingram is to what the Ravens want to do. There were a lot of other factors, yet it was a big problem. Ingram is part of the fabric of what makes this offense. He is part of what makes the team tick as a whole. He’s the veteran leader and the tone setter for the offense. Ingram is going to have another good year with the purple and black.

Ingram is a difference maker. It is why he’s a step above Gus Edwards. It’s why he’s the player that tends to get fans the most excited on Sundays (Other than the human highlight reel that is Lamar Jackson). Ingram’s performance will stay at the Pro Bowl level for another season.

If the Ravens feed the hot hand, more often than not it will be Ingram. Ingram averaged five yards per carry for the season and in seven games he averaged over five yards per carry. There are some running backs who get hotter as the game goes along. Jamal Lewis was this type of player for the Ravens. Ingram isn’t that kind of back. He doesn’t need to build up to anything he’s always there with bursts of production whenever the Ravens need it.

Ingram never had more than 19 carries in a game. With an extra running back in the backfield rotation, he will never be forced to be a workhorse for the offense. In fact, this was the biggest misconception about the Ravens in 2019. People talked about the Ravens run game as if Ingram was getting 25-30 carries a game while in reality he was getting 12-15 hand-offs.

Expect Ingram to do what he did in 2019. Expect him to have a great season. His overall numbers could drop because there is even more of a running back by committee thing going on, but his average workload should stay about the same. A typical Ingram performance in 2020 won’t look strange or unfamiliar. It will read like 12 carries for 60-100 yards and a few receptions for 20-30 yards in the box score.

Ingram scored 15 touchdowns in the 2019 season. He ran 10 touchdowns in and he caught five passes for scores. The Ravens will keep looking for that kind of production from their starting running back. There may be more than one star at the running back position, but Ingram will remain the top back in Baltimore.