The Ravens have acquired linebacker Dre’Mont Jones in a trade with the Tennessee Titans a day before the NFL’s Nov. 4 trading deadline.
The Ravens are sending the Titans a fifth-round pick that could become a fourth-rounder depending on certain conditions.
In adding Jones, the Ravens look to bolster a pass rush that is viewed as one of the team’s biggest concerns. The Ravens have 11 sacks this season, tied for the second-fewest in the league.
Jones, 28, had 4.5 sacks and nine quarterback hits in nine games with Tennessee this season. He had signed a one-year, $8.5 million deal with the Titans in March after spending the past two seasons with the Seattle Seahawks. Jones was originally selected by the Denver Broncos in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft out of Ohio State and spent four seasons with the Broncos, where he totaled 22 sacks and 38 quarterback hits in 56 games.
He has played on the edge and along the defensive line in his career, and the Ravens could look to use him in multiple spots along their defensive front.
The Ravens find themselves thin on the edge in part because they traded one of their outside linebackers, Odafe Oweh, last month to the Los Angeles Chargers in exchange for safety Alohi Gilman, with draft compensation in the deal as well.
Oweh, who had not registered a sack in five games for the Ravens, has four in four games with the Chargers, while Gilman has helped solidify the Ravens secondary and allowed the team to move Kyle Hamilton closer to the line of scrimmage. Gilman had a big forced fumble and recovery that led to a touchdown early in the Ravens’ 28-6 win at Miami this past week.
Speaking at his weekly Monday news conference Nov. 3, Harbaugh said that both Oweh and Gilman are playing well in their new environments, “So I guess both teams are happy about it.”
But days after trading Oweh, the Ravens lost outside linebacker Tavius Robinson to a foot injury that is expected to sideline him for up to two months, leading to speculation that the Ravens would look to bolster the position before the trade deadline.
The Ravens also lost top interior pass rusher Nnamdi Madubuike to a season-ending neck injury two weeks into the season.
Since Robinson was sidelined two games ago, the Ravens suited up just three outside linebackers in Kyle Van Noy, David Ojabo and rookie Mike Green.
The Ravens added veteran defensive end/linebacker Carl Lawson to the practice squad a couple of weeks ago, and while he has not suited up in a game, Harbaugh on Monday said, “He’s probably ready to go, so we’ll have to see where we’re at with that.”
The Ravens defense got off to a disastrous start this season, ranking near the bottom in virtually every statistic as the team, a trendy Super Bowl pick this summer stumbled to a 1-5 start. The Ravens lost MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson for three games, which also was a major factor in the early-season struggles.
But the defense has allowed just 13.0 points a game over the past three games and the Ravens have won two in a row to improve to 3-5 heading into this coming Sunday’s game at Minnesota (4-4).