Let’s look at Ravens who are going to step up next season. We’ll start with Calais Campbell:
The Baltimore Ravens’ biggest pickup in March of last year was Calais Campbell. Campbell didn’t have a bad year for the Ravens though he didn’t have the monster season that Baltimore was hoping for.
Campbell had four sacks in the 2020 season, which was the lowest total of his career if you take out his sack-free rookie campaign. Campbell had 28 total tackles which is the lowest number of his career.
Campbell averages seven sacks and 55 tackles per season. Assuming that he’s got plenty of good football left in the tank, you can expect him to have a bigger season. We have to remember that Campbell missed four games in 2020 and wasn’t 100 percent for much of the year.
Campbell may be past the prime of his NFL career yet he’s in impeccable shape. This is the same 6-8 force of nature he’s always been. It’s hard to say that we’ll ever see a year from him as he had in 2017 when he had 14.5 sacks. If he stays healthy though, he should top his 2020 numbers.
Just look at how the 2020 season started. He tipped two passes from Baker Mayfield on the first defensive stand of the season. He had three tipped passes in the season opener. He had a sack and five total tackles in the second game of the season. He dominated the Philadelphia Eagles with three sacks in the contest.
After that point, Campbell only played in five more regular-season games. While he wasn’t a huge part of the box score he played well in the postseason. There’s never been a reason to think that Campbell is showing signs of diminishing returns. Honestly, this was a season that showed us that he’s not a machine. His statistical consistency over the years has been amazing. He was due one down year. It just means he’s got a bigger one on the way.