When the Baltimore Ravens finished as the No. 1 scoring offense and No. 2 overall offense in 2019, it marked a distinct turn of events for the franchise. That season marked just the second time in franchise history (and the first since their inaugural 1996 season) that the team finished in even the top 10 in both points and yards. It has not happened since.
Perhaps even more remarkably, in the 22 years in between that inaugural season and Lamar Jackson’s unanimous MVP campaign, the Ravens finished in the top 10 in either category just six times. (That’s six out of 44 total rankings.) For context, the Ravens’ defense has finished as a top-10 unit in BOTH points and yards in 17 of the last 24 seasons. The unit has finished outside of the top 10 in both categories just four times in the same span.
Your response to this might very well be something along the lines of, “Right, Glenn. What other stunning things are you about to tell us? The Oakland Athletics aren’t good? It’s utterly bizarre that Ben McDonald doesn’t know who Blink 182 is? A crab cake does not belong on a sandwich and if you’re eating it on a sandwich it’s because you need a better crab cake? These are all universally accepted facts, idiots. Why are you regurgitating them?”
Fair.
I present it because I couldn’t help but think about it in the aftermath of the news of Marlon Humphrey’s injury last week. It was quickly agreed upon that Humphrey was the player the Ravens could least afford to lose behind only Lamar Jackson. The team’s lack of depth at corner was a serious issue even before they lost their former All-Pro.
“How do the Ravens replace Marlon Humphrey?” quickly became the most predictable topic in Baltimore sports media. We debated which remaining free-agent defensive back might still have something to offer and whether the secondary depth issue could be lessened with additional edge rush help. With Ronald Darby and Jadeveon Clowney now in the fold, it would be reasonable to deduce that the team might feel like it has addressed the issue satisfactorily. We can nitpick about how much either player can impact this team at this point, but the team has addressed these areas of concern.
Which is strange because for the better part of the offseason, it didn’t.
Admittedly, the Lamar Jackson situation complicated what the Ravens may have wanted to or been capable of doing during the offseason. But it was at least a little odd to see the team lose multiple defensive starters during the course of an offseason (Marcus Peters, Calais Campbell and Justin Houston chief among them) and do so little in an attempt to replace them. Rock-Ya Sin finished 2022 with a worse PFF grade than Peters — in what was arguably Peters’ worst year. If could be fairly speculated that they have enough depth along the defensive line to make up for the loss of Campbell, but that doesn’t replace his leadership.
While the Ravens were locking up Jackson and surrounding him with potentially the best wide receiver corps in team history (to be fair, the bar is low), they were also willingly subtracting from their defense. It was decidedly un-Ravens-like.
And it seemingly provided the far clearer answer to how the Ravens make up for the loss of Humphrey. The Ravens make up for the loss of Humphrey by … having the pendulum swing a little more in the opposite way.
The answer is the offense. The Ravens can’t come out and say that. They can’t announce to their defense that they intend to expect less from them. But they didn’t overhaul their offense because they’re OK with finishing in the bottom half of the league in points. We can bemoan how long it took for the franchise to make these decisions, but they’re here now. The burden has to fall on the offense a little bit more than it has in the three seasons since Jackson’s MVP run.
Which isn’t to say that the defense, likely without Humphrey to start the season, isn’t expected to be a quality unit. Or that Todd Monken’s unit will suddenly go right back to leading the league in points. It’s just that the offense will need to do more than it’s been doing.
This remains a scary proposition, however. The Ravens’ offense presents a quarterback coming off a serious injury. Same for two of their top three receivers. The third hasn’t played an NFL game yet. Their top running back just started practicing a week ago. And yeah, there’s the whole “new coordinator” thing as well. These aren’t the ideal circumstances by which it can be expected to re-create “The Greatest Show On Turf.” Still, the pieces are there to expect notable progress.
And they’ll need it, at least while Humphrey is sidelined. And probably after he returns, too.
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