The Baltimore Ravens were able to somehow, some way, turn a 90-man mob into a tiny 53-man squad on Tuesday by cutting endless players. They made amends by re-signing 15 of them to their practice squad on Wednesday, and they then moved some to Inured Reserve while signing an external free agent to fill the final spot of the PS.
The cornerback room suffered a lot of woes through training camp mostly because of an endless string of injuries that impacted seemingly all members of the unit. The linebacker/pass-rushing corps, while not so hurt, still boasted limited bodies and there are still depth concerns regarding the unit.
After the Ravens signed a former. no 1 pick to bolster the room and they performed some other transactional moves, here's a breakdown of the members of the Linebackers/Edge Rushers unit of the Baltimore Ravens for the 2023 season.
Ravens EDGE/LB Depth Chart
Starters: (ER) Jadeveon Clowney, (ILB) Patrick Queen, (ILB) Roquan Smith, (ER) Odafeh Oweh
There aren't many inside-linebacker duos better than the one built by the Ravens after they traded for former Chicago Bear superstar Roquan Smith midway through the 2022 season to deploy him next to homegrown talent Patrick Queen.
So extraordinary was Smith, indeed, that the Ravens signed him to an extension that pays him as the best-compensated linebacker across the NFL landscape. Truth be told, he merited it. Queen wasn't great for the first half of the 2022 season, but playing next to Smith he blossomed into a full-blown superstar.
The outside-linebackers and edge rushers unit is trending in the total opposite way, and that has only been exacerbated as the summer has grown older slowly but surely.
The Ravens lost Tyus Bowser to injury and he was placed on IR, thus missing the first four games of the season. Baltimore was under so much pressure and in need of reinforcements that the franchise entered the free-agent market late in August to sign veteran Jadeveon Clowney.
With David Ojabo struggling mightily to keep his head above the NFL waters and Odafeh Oweh seemingly locked into one of the two OLB slots (at least until Bowser is back), Clowney will have a prime chance at snatching a starting role early and never relinquishing it.
Depth: Tyus Bowser (IR), David Ojabo, Tavius Robinson, Trenton Simpson, Malik Harrison, Del'Shawn Phillips, Malik Hamm (IR)
Bowser should return in time for the Week 5 matchup of the 2023 regular season and barring sublime performances by Clowney/Oweh he will instantly get a starting nod.
Ojabo has been so bad through the preseason that he shouldn't start games nor get important in-game action any time soon and instead keep honing his game with the reserves and in practices/meaningless snaps.
The rest of the unit is still kinda unproven but that was always the case entering the offseason, the franchise knew it, and the Ravens are just moving on and moving forward with what they have in tow.
Not the strongest/deepest depth out there, but not the worst unit all things considered, either.