2. Can Ronnie Stanley give the Baltimore Ravens a full season?
One of the players who will make or break the 2023 season for the Baltimore Ravens is Ronnie Stanley. Is it a coincidence that the last time he played an entire season the team was the one-seed and Lamar Jackson was the MVP? They failed to live up to expectations after that point, and Stanley has been injured for most of the time after that.
The majority of the injuries have come in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, it was more about easing in and getting recovery proper. There were ups and downs, but he made it to the end of the season healthy, and he did not do that in the seasons prior.
Now, he has a full offseason healthy and should enter 2022 with the same momentum that he had in 2019. Of course, things can change quickly. The issues with Stanley should not be long-term, but when it has been so long since he has been at his peak there have to be questions about what level he can get back to.
If he can be elite, the Baltimore Ravens could be ready to take a serious step forward. However, if he plateaued, that may be the difference between a playoff run and a Super Bowl run. If he cannot stay healthy, it could be a similar result to the previous few seasons. So much hinges on him, and even if he says he feels great now, we will only know after four or five games this season.