State of the Franchise - Baltimore Ravens

2017 Record: 9-7

Last playoff appearance: 2014

Head Coach: John Harbaugh (Record 94-66)

GM: Stephen Bisciotti

2017 Performance

After missing the playoffs in the last two seasons, the Ravens were hoping to get to the promise land and get back to winning ways under coach Harbaugh (7 winning records in 10 years).

There was genuine optimism they could achieve this and that Joe Flacco would prove his doubters wrong and claim the ‘Elite” tag that has been debated about for the last few seasons, coupled with the emergence of running back Kenneth Dixon and the free agent signings of safety Tony Jefferson, jack of all trades running back Danny Woodhead and wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, the Baltimore Ravens looked to be play-off bound...as long as the injury bug didn’t hit like it did in 2016…

I spoke too soon.

Flacco went down with a back injury in the run up to preseason and threatened his status for week 1. Then in training camp they lost Alex Lewis and Nico Siragusa (guards), Crockett Gillmore (TE) Albert McClellan (OLB) and Tavon Young (CB) to season ending injuries. On top of this there was a four-game suspension for Kenneth Dixon, who subsequently went down with a season ending injury upon his return.

The Ravens went into week 1 at the Cincinnati Bengals on a high after a promising preseason (4-0). This form and confidence continued as the they produced a shut-out win, finishing 20 – 0!! The defense showed that the hype might just be real with 4 INT’s and a forced fumble. It wasn’t all good news though as after just 3 rushes and 1 reception Danny Woodhead went down with hamstring injury that would ultimately rule him out for 8 weeks.

The defense followed up their strong start with another in week 2 against the Browns, finishing with another 4 INT’s which secured the Ravens a 24 – 10 win.

It wasn’t all good news as Marshal Yanda was ruled for the rest of the season with a fractured ankle.

So that’s 2 weeks, 2 divisional road games, 2 solid performances and 2 wins…what could go wrong?

And then London came calling…

In week 3 the Ravens traveled to London to play in its first international series game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Jags coming from a week 2 loss to the Titans and having a turnover prone QB were seen as another potential big day for the defense. Unfortunately, the wrong defense showed up as the Jags produced a shock and awe display. The defense held Flacco to just 28 passing yards and 2 INT’s. Flacco was pulled towards the end and Ryan Mallett produced the Ravens only score of the game. Blake Bortles and the Jags offense produced a fine display to record a 44 – 7 win in London.

This hangover carried forward into week 4 with a loss to divisional rivals Pittsburgh Steelers. A heavy dose of LeVeon Bell and the stuttering Ravens offense combined to give the Steelers a 26 – 9 victory. This was Joe Flacco’s 10th consecutive game giving up at least 1 interception, with the only bright spot being the emergence of running back Alex Collins.

Week 5 required the Ravens going into the Black hole and coming out with a win. Led by Mike Wallace (133 yards) and a Jimmy Smith pick 6 the Ravens headed back to the east coast with a 30 – 17 victory.

The 1 – 4 Bears travelled to M&T Bank stadium in week 6…. They left the 2 – 4 Bears!

A heart-breaking OT loss undid the hard work displayed by special teams in a game where Bobby Rainey scored a 96-yard kick-off return and Michael Campanaro scored a 77-yard Punt return.

Flacco played like the Flacco we’ve come to see all too often in another loss in week 7 to the Vikings and had the Ravens looking at a losing record for the first time this season, In a game where the kickers scored 28 of the total 40 points between the teams.

A week 8 home tie to the Dolphins provided the Ravens with their second shutout victory of the season. The defense scored 3 TD’s via a pair of INT’s and a forced fumble in the endzone. The game was marred though by a questionable tackle on Joe Flacco by Kiko Alonso which forced Flacco out of the game.

Another offensively inconsistent performance followed in week 9 where the Ravens fell to the Titans. Flacco mustered 261 yards and 2 TD’s albeit a last-minute TD made the score look more competitive. Next week’s bye couldn’t have come sooner as the Ravens had lost 5 of their last 7 games.

The Ravens came into Lambeau Field of the back of their bye having never won a game with a 0-3 record there. However, they forced five turnovers off a Packers offense struggling greatly without injured star QB Aaron Rodgers, which proved costly as the Ravens got their third shutout of the season 23-0, their first ever win in Wisconsin.

More wins followed in weeks 12 & 13 against the Texans and Lions. The Texans were another team that was without their injured star QB Deshaun Watson. The Ravens defence stood strong and after giving up an early TD it then limited the Titans to field goals for the remainder of the game.

Could the real Joe Flacco please stand up? At last it looked like the Joe of old, as his best display of the season along with the dominant performances of Alex Collins, Mike Wallace and another pick 6 sealed the win.

The next two weeks were divisional games; in one of these the Ravens conceded 500+ yards to a QB, 200+ yards to a Wide receiver and lost the game 38 -39. Despite being up by 11 points in the closing stages of the fourth quarter.

The other finished as a win with a good performance from both offence and defense (Another DEF TD!!).

We faced the Steelers and Browns…. I’ll let u pick which team fits the description.

The Colts were easily dispatched in week 16 which left just one game…

Heading into week 17 the Ravens were 9 – 6 and sitting in a wildcard slot…

However, the Ravens' playoff dreams were dashed in heart-breaking fashion after Eric Weddle's would-be game-winning interception was called back for a defensive pass interference call, in which the drive ended with a Bengals touchdown, therefore ending our play-off hopes.

They achieved only one of their goals in what was a frustrating and inconsistent season for an offence that continually stumbled through games and a defense that at times, looked the part and lit teams up, but ultimately when it mattered…. disappointed.

The defense finished the season as the 12th ranked defense overall and finished in the top 10 – 15 places in most other categories.

But what they did excel in was turnovers. They finished with a league best 34 takeaways, led by the enigmatic Terrell Suggs (11 sacks 4 forced fumbles) the ever improving C.J. Mosley (132 combined tackles, 3 forced fumbles) a poaching secondary led by Eric Weddle and Brandon Carr who combined for 10 interceptions.

2018 Roster Moves

We all know by now that Ozzie Newsome loves to create an offence on a shoe string, (not counting the QB position) the Ravens are last in money spent on offensive players.

With Mike Wallace, Jeremy Maclin, Danny Woodhead and Ryan Jensen leaving, it seemed this was the year that a decent investment was needed.

With cap space being tight the Ravens had to work some magic to give themselves some extra breathing room.

The WR corps were transformed with the signings of deep threat John Brown, slot receiver Willie Snead and Red Zone threat Michael Crabtree.

The re-signing of breakout RB Alex Collins was a must and together with the signing of former Heisman trophy winner Robert Griffin III (QB) the offence has a whole new feel to it.

2018 Draft

Personally, I think the Ravens had a fantastic draft, fitting as it was Ozzie Newsome’s last as The Ravens GM. (Eric DeCosta takes over in 2019).

Plenty of analysts had us taking a WR, TE or OL in the first round in a few mock drafts. But

as the draft drew closer rumors were starting to emerge that The Ravens could be interested in a QB, could this possibly be the draft where we invest in our offence?

In a move no one really saw coming, The Ravens traded back not once, but twice in the first round, going from the 16th to the 22nd and then to the 25th pick. In those trades, they picked up the 1st pick in the third round a fourth rounder and gave away a fifth and sixth round pick.

With the 25th pick they selected Hayden Hurst (TE), South Carolina, a receiving TE that can add dimension to their two tight end packages while filling a team need.

The Ravens then sent shockwaves through the NFL by trading back into the first round for the 32nd pick . I expected The Jags or Pats to make a move on Lamar Jackson, but with this player still available, could this be the future of our team? A WR possibly? Or would they select Baby Zeus (Orlando Brown) and complete a feel-good story and keep it in the family…

They went with the 2016 Heisman trophy winning QB Lamar Jackson! The successor to Flacco had arrived. How long he will remain in Joe’s shadow will be an interesting watch.

In the Third round the Hollywood story was complete when we selected OT Orlando Brown, Baby Zeus will fill a much-needed hole in the OL and provide a great bookend for LT Ronnie Stanley. I wouldn’t read too much into his poor combine showing…. This guy could be the steal of the draft.

We rounded off round 3 with Mark Andrews (TE) another big bodied red zone threat.

Round 4 saw a return to drafting Alabama defensive players when we selected Anthony Averrett (CB). Kenny young (LB) and Jaleel Scott (WR) who I think could surprise a few people, completed round 4.

Jordan Lasley (WR) was taken in the 5th round with Deshon Elliott (S), Greg Senat (T) and Bradley Bozeman (C) taken in the sixth.

Our last pick was to shore up the DL by selected Zach Sieler (DT)

2018 Starters

Offense

QB – Joe Flacco

RB1 – Alex Collins

RB2 – Kenneth Dixon

WR1 – Michael Crabtree

WR2 – John Brown

WR3 – (Slot) – Willie Snead

TE – Hayden Hurst (R)

LT – Ronnie Stanley

LG – Alex Lewis/James Hurst

C – Matt Skura

RG – Marshal Yanda

RT – Orlando Brown (R)

Defense

DE – Brandon Williams

DT – Michael Pierce

DE – Willie Henry

OLB – Terrell Suggs

ILB – C.J. Mosley

ILB – Patrick Onwuasor

OLB – Za’Darius Smith

CB – Jimmy Smith

CB – Marlon Humphrey

S – Eric Weddle

S – Tony Jefferson

Special Teams

LS – Morgan Cox

K – Justin Tucker

P – Sam Koch

2018 Outlook

The spotlight will be on Joe Flacco more than ever this season, not only because of the acquisitions at wide receiver (which have been put together for the team to win now) or the new rookie tight end that should provide a nice outlet that we haven’t had since Pitta retired. Not because of the beefed up OL that should help him stay upright and assist the emerging ground game and certainly NOT because of the young, eager, mobile, dynamic game changing QB waiting in the wings…

But because we expect more from him, we expect him to lead this team, we expect him to execute plays efficiently, but ultimately, we expect him to do better.

It feels like a new dawn is about shine on M&T Bank Stadium, a new era of football, a new exciting type of football and I for one want Joe to be a part of that, because if not the sun could be setting on the Flacco era much sooner than we think.

The O-line needs a bit work to garner who best fits at what position and with the returning All-Pro bowler Yanda, newly drafted Orlando Brown fitting in at RT and Matt Skura hopefully becoming this year’s Ryan Jensen, it should all combine for a more consistent group.

Alex Collins should continue where he finished off last season as the RB1, and is primed for a huge year. His physical style of run bought him just shy of a 1000 yards in just 12 starts last year, my only concern will be who do they turn to if he goes down?

Buck Allen should take over the Woodhead role of pass catching back, which leaves Kenneth Dixon as the one who needs to find a role in this team.

The new recruits at Wide Receiver provide The Ravens with an upgrade on last year’s group.

John Brown will provide the deep threat and it sounds like his troubling injury record is behind him (Let’s hope so). Crabtree will provide the possession and red zone threat, with Willie Snead operating out of the slot.

With Baltimore and the rest of the AFC North facing a tough schedule this year, the defense really does need to come into their own.

They have added strength in all areas of the defence and hope that T-Sizzle can continue to roll back the years and lead this defence to another AFC North title.

Ok maybe that was a bit optimistic!!

All in all the future looks bright, the staff and coaches are setup to provide this team with a winning mentality, they had great draft, bringing in new blood and potentially changing the face of the franchise within this year. The defence was strengthened and they overhauled an offence that was desperately needing a new injection of life.

Let’s hope we can give Ozzie the send-off he deserves…

Written by Buddy Lamb, NFL Analyst, Baltimore Ravens