After all the injuries the Baltimore Ravens suffered last year, the football gods have rewarded the team with a relatively easy schedule in 2022.
With the start of the season many months away, it’s still too early to project which teams will shape up to be the best in 2022. Since the Ravens finished bottom of the AFC North in 2021, though, they get to play all the last-place teams in the AFC.
That includes the New York Jets, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Denver Broncos.
Given the competitive strength of the AFC conference as a whole, Baltimore may be primed for their most successful season yet, as long as the team has a healthy Lamar Jackson under center.
The easiest projected schedule in the way, way, way too early DVOA projections belongs to the Baltimore #Ravens. AFC East, NFC South, DEN, JAX, and NYG. Now think about the players they're getting back from injury next year...
— Aaron Schatz 🏈 (@FO_ASchatz) February 14, 2022
The Ravens could have an easy path to the playoffs in 2022
The Ravens’ AFC North matchups should make for very entertaining TV, but outside of their division, Baltimore gets to play against quite a few sub-.500 teams.
Other than playing the Buffalo Bills at home, the only arguable playoff contenders the Ravens will face are the New England Patriots and the Broncos, if Denver finds a solid quarterback.
Past that, the Ravens are set to play against the New Orleans Saints, who have a bit of quarterback conundrum themselves, the Tom Brady-less Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the last two bottom-feeders of the NFC South, the Carolina Panthers and the Atlanta Falcons.
They’ll get a revenge game against Wink Martindale when they travel to New York to play the Giants, which, given the Giants’ annual offensive woes, could be a blowout.
All things considered, the Ravens couldn’t have asked for a more streamlined path to the playoffs and the Super Bowl.
The Bengals may be the team to beat in the AFC North after their historic Cinderella run, but the Ravens can hardly be called underdogs, not with so many talented players coming back from injury.
A more accurate analysis of the Ravens’ schedule will depend on how the offseason plays out, but the league should be very scared of Baltimore in 2022.