Baltimore Ravens: Could this defense pace the league in sacks?

With a revamped pass rush and a sickeningly good looking defense as a whole, could the Baltimore Ravens lead all the NFL in sacks in 2020?

With a paltry 37 team sacks in 2019, changes needed to be made to the Baltimore Ravens pass rush in 2020. Matt Judon paced the team with 9.5 sacks, but after him, the next closest was Tyus Bowser with five sacks. It simply wasn’t a unit that struck fear into the hearts of opponents even when they were down on the scoreboard. If Baltimore wanted to seriously compete for a Lombardi Trophy, it needed to get after the quarterback more effectively.

That goal was perhaps met with the moves the Ravens made this offseason.

It starts with the team franchise tagging Matt Judon. Judon is coming off his career-best season that saw him make the Pro Bowl for the first time. At 28-years old, Judon is in the prime of his career. More importantly, Judon is the heart and soul of the pass rush and a leader on the defense. Baltimore could ill afford to lose him this offseason.

The Ravens then traded for five-time Pro Bowl defensive end Calais Campbell. Campbell has had no fewer than 6.5 sacks dating back to 2015 and has made the Pro Bowl in each of the last three seasons. They followed up this trade with the addition of defensive tackle Derek Wolfe, who had seven sacks in 11 games in 2019.

With these three moves, the Baltimore Ravens pass rush looks completely revitalized to the point where we’re wondering just how good could this pass rush be. Is it good enough to lead the league in sacks?

Baltimore finished 21st in sacks a season ago. If we added the 13.5 sacks Campbell and Wolfe racked up, which in this instance we would round up to 14, the Ravens now have 51 team sacks, which would have placed them tied for third in the league. While we shouldn’t expect essentially two defensive linemen to get another 14 sacks combined alone, they’ll definitely improve an interior pass rush that put up just five sacks a season ago.

Where the team needs to see a significant increase in its sack production is from edge rushers not named “Matt Judon.” The aforementioned Bowser had a solid five sacks, but he was a second-round pick three seasons ago with just 8.5 career sacks to his name. Bowser needs to pick up the production or this will be his last season in Charm City. Veteran Pernell McPhee will once again provide solid play, but he’s nowhere close to being a top-notch pass rusher.

All eyes will be on second-year man Jaylon Ferguson, who had 2.5 sacks as a rookie. Ferguson was dubbed the “Sack Daddy” after becoming college football’s all-time leading sack artist with a whopping 45.5 sacks in four seasons. Ferguson showed some promise as a rookie and the Ravens are definitely betting on the former third-round pick to take the next step forward this season.

The defensive line will help these edge rushers out quite a bit, but the team’s secondary could force opposing quarterbacks into coverage sacks this season. Baltimore’s secondary is fully loaded with talent and depth that will make quarterbacks think twice about throwing the ball at them. The tighter coverage will make those quarterbacks hold onto the ball longer and will result in sacks aplenty. It’s truly a recipe for success in Baltimore.

With the revamped defensive line and young, hungry edge-rushing core, we should see a significant increase in the sack department in 2020 for the Baltimore Ravens. Leading the league isn’t entirely out of the question, either; especially if they hit on all their moves. Look out for this new and improved group to put quarterbacks in the dirt regularly this year.