MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports
With the Fourth of July in the rearview mirror, baseball’s postseason races must be heating up and the All-Star break must be coming next week. Not only that, NFL training camps must be just around the corner.
All true, and who could want more, right?
The Baltimore Ravens, the best looking car in the showroom that is the regular season of the NFL, but a lemon once the rubber hits the road that is the NFL playoffs, will be the first team to open training camp, with rookies reporting Saturday and veterans coming in the following Saturday.
The Ravens are no longer judged by their performance in the regular season, because two of the finest regular seasons in team history got them absolutely nowhere twice in the past five seasons.
Most teams in the NFL will say any season is Super Bowl or bust, but the Ravens and their quarterback Lamar Jackson, who was league MVP in both of the aforementioned seasons, understand the bust portion of the Super Bowl adage weighs heavier than does any fleeting glory, such as winning MVPs and 27 of 33 games in the regular season.
As Lt. Frank Drebin once said, “It’s like eating a spoonful of Drano. Sure, it’ll clean you out, but it’ll leave you all hollow inside.”
Thus, the only way the 2024 season will be a success for the Baltimore Ravens is if they win the Super Bowl.
In 2019, the Ravens went 14-2 and were upset by the Tennessee Titans in the divisional round, and last season they went 13-4, rolling over the likes of the Houston Texans (twice), the Detroit Lions, the San Francisco 49ers and the Miami Dolphins, but it all went out the window in the AFC Championship Game, which like the 2019 playoff loss to Tennessee, was played at home.
The Ravens had the top running game in the NFL last season, but against the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, they panicked and abandoned the run, and that’s why they lost 17-10, leaving their two-time MVP quarterback with a career 2-4 record as the starter in playoff games.
To their credit, they haven’t backed down in the offseason as they signed four-time Pro Bowl running back Derrick Henry to a two-year contract, and they also have three other first-team All-Pro players anchoring their defense – inside linebacker Roquan Smith, defensive tackle Justin Madubuike, and safety Kyle Hamilton.
According to a recent poll by ESPN, the Ravens have the third-best roster for the number of players under the age of 25 led by Hamilton, center Tyler Linderbaum and wide receiver Zay Flowers, with only the Lions and the Texans ranked ahead of them.
Hamilton, 23, is already one of the team’s best players, earning All-Pro honors in just his second season after setting the Ravens’ single-season record for defensive backs with 10 tackles for a loss. He had 13 passes defensed, which was tied with Detroit’s Brian Branch for the most by a safety, and his three first-half sacks against the Indianapolis Colts tied an NFL record for a defensive back.
Linderbaum, 24, made the Pro Bowl in his second year and was named the third-best center in the NFL by Pro Football Focus behind Creed Humphrey of the Chiefs and Frank Ragnow of the Lions.
Flowers, 23, was selected with the 22nd overall pick in the 2023 draft and led the team with 77 receptions for 858 yards and five touchdowns, though he coughed up a memorable fumble at the goal line in the AFC Championship Game.
Still, as rosy as it all seems, the Ravens will again face one of the toughest schedules in the league, based on their record last year, beginning with the season-opener against the Chiefs. Plus, they’ll be doing it with an offensive line that has three huge holes to fill.
Left tackle Ronnie Stanley, who hopes to stay healthy but hasn’t been able to since signing his $100 million contract, and Linderbaum at center are the only returning starters from last year’s team, which means the Ravens have to fill holes at both guard positions and right tackle.
Daniel Faalele and rookie Roger Rosengarten will battle it out at right tackle, as Faalele, a former fourth-round pick, is evolving into a dependable player. Rosengarten, the second-round pick last year, was a two-year starter at right tackle for the Washington Huskies, protecting the blind side of left-handed quarterback Michael Penix Jr., and not allowing a sack through his college career.
The Ravens are high on Josh Jones and Andrew Vorhees at left guard and want to see Sala Aumavee-Laulu challenge Ben Cleveland at right guard. Not only that, if general manager Eric DeCosta can somehow expand what the Ravens have to spend under the salary cap, which isn’t much, it would not be a surprise to see the addition of a veteran offensive lineman this month.
Henry, of course, is an automatic upgrade to any running game, so there’s no question the Ravens will be strong on the ground again. The question is, will they use the 30-year-old running back correctly during the season?
The real question is, during the playoffs, will they use him at all?
That we even have to ask is on the Ravens and their recent sorry postseason decision-making.
Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @MikeBurkeMDT