The 2021 Ravens now not resembled the group they have been designed to be during the last six weeks of the season.
Rampant accidents left them with an offense incapable of producing massive performs and a cross protection incapable of holding leads. They fell from an 8-3 No. 1 seed to an 8-9 playoff nonparticipant.
We know they anticipate higher in 2022, however with so many star gamers coming back from critical accidents and turnover at different key spots, they may begin the season with a lot to show. With that in thoughts, listed here are 5 questions the group has but to reply going into coaching camp:
Who’s going to catch Lamar Jackson’s passes?
We have seen Jackson’s buff physique and the zip he placed on his throws throughout minicamp. We have heard him say he feels higher than he did going into his 2019 Most Valuable Player season. But it’s honest to marvel how a lot he can produce with one of many league’s least achieved cross catching corps.
Mark Andrews could be one of the best tight finish on this planet, in order that’s an excellent begin. But each different Jackson goal will enter camp with a big query to reply. Can Rashod Bateman construct on flashes from final season and turn into a reliable No. 1 huge receiver, one thing Marquise Brown by no means fairly achieved earlier than the Ravens traded him in April? Can Devin Duvernay translate his explosiveness as a returner to his potential function because the group’s No. 2 receiver? Can James Proche II be the sure-handed risk on Sundays that he’s throughout observe? Can Tylan Wallace turn into greater than a particular groups contributor? Can Nick Boyle’s physique maintain up after he appeared trim and rejuvenated in summer time exercises? Can fourth-round picks Isaiah Likely or Charlie Kolar produce within the No. 3 tight finish function the place Hayden Hurst thrived in 2019? Can a veteran free-agent addition assist extra constantly than Sammy Watkins did final season?
Those are a number of what-ifs, regardless of how optimistic we could be about particular person gamers similar to Bateman or Likely. We know the Ravens can transfer the ball with no typical No. 1 huge receiver; their 2019 offense was the league’s best with no cross catcher surpassing 852 yards. But is that their path? Or are they hoping for extra of a hybrid of their league-best working assaults from 2019 and 2020 and the aggressive passing offense Jackson led early final season?
With nationwide analysts already pinpointing cross catching because the Ravens’ weak spot, no side of the group can be extra scrutinized throughout camp and the early weeks of the season.
Will their efforts to revamp the offensive line repay?
Even earlier than the Ravens’ late-season shedding streak, their offense had stagnated largely as a result of Jackson now not appeared assured within the pocket. He both took sacks or rushed throws, trying nothing just like the MVP candidate who carried his group by means of the season’s early weeks.
The Ravens responded by signing one of many league’s most dependable proper tackles, Morgan Moses, and drafting a brand new beginning middle, Tyler Linderbaum, within the first spherical. We’re already penciling these new additions in beside proper guard Kevin Zeitler, the group’s most reliable blocker in 2021. But a lot nonetheless depends upon the situation of left deal with Ronnie Stanley’s surgically repaired ankle. In retrospect, the Ravens’ outlook for 2021 dimmed as quickly as Stanley took the sphere for Week 1 clearly not wholesome sufficient to fulfill his All-Pro normal. His ensuing absence set off a series response that by no means stopped because the Ravens surrendered 57 sacks, second most within the league. We’ve heard solely optimism from Stanley and group officers, however till he holds up over a complete common season sport, doubts will linger. A couple of preseason snaps won’t do the trick after we went by means of the identical ready sport final 12 months.
For all their investments within the offensive line, the Ravens nonetheless would not have a very good alternate reply if Stanley can not go. Ja’Wuan James could be the subsequent man up, however he’s performed three video games since 2018, and his greatest NFL work got here at proper deal with. We know Patrick Mekari is prepared and keen, however he’s greatest as a high-end utility lineman. The Ravens invested $98.75 million in Stanley as a result of he was one of the best cross blocker in soccer. You don’t casually substitute such a expertise. And now we have not even touched on the continued uncertainty at left guard, the place nobody has seized the beginning job. The guess right here is that Tyre Phillips will line up for Week 1 given his bodily benefits over Ben Powers and the disappointing progress of 2021 third-round choose Ben Cleveland. Between that place battle and the nervous anticipation for Stanley’s return, there’s a lot we nonetheless don’t know in regards to the males who will shield Jackson.
Who’s speeding from the sting in Week 1?
The Ravens didn’t have an excellent cross rush final season, however they’d in all probability be joyful if they might trot out many of the similar group for Week 1. That’s how skinny they’re due to accidents, uncertainty over which veterans would possibly be part of the fold and the demise of Jaylon Ferguson.
Odafe Oweh proved he was greater than a freak athlete, making a number of huge clutch performs and rolling up 27 pressures as a rookie. Given his seriousness of function, he and the Ravens anticipate a big step ahead. But what’s the subsequent sentence in our outlook for this place group?
Tyus Bowser, the group’s most versatile exterior linebacker, will in all probability be again in some unspecified time in the future this season, but it surely’s loads to ask for him to be 100% % in Week 1, about eight months after he tore his Achilles. Second-round choose David Ojabo is working to come back again from the identical harm, in all probability within the second half of the season if all goes properly.
The Ravens created just a little certainty beside Oweh once they re-signed veteran Justin Houston in early July. Houston is now not an elite sack risk, however he performed properly for the Ravens at a modest price, so his return, on one other one-year deal, was welcome. The Ravens have flirted with one other veteran, Jason Pierre-Paul, and so they might discover snaps for each him and Houston. In reality, such a platoon could be very best.
There’s a model of this story through which the Ravens find yourself with a strong group by November. But there’s a bleaker timeline through which we’d not see one of the best of Bowser or Ojabo this season and through which the Ravens don’t discover the fitting veteran to work beside Oweh. With this place group, coaching camp will inform solely a part of the story.
Are the working backs again?
We have handled it as a fait accompli that the Ravens could have their actual backfield for all of 2022. They had it for none of final season after J.Okay. Dobbins and Gus Edwards tore knee ligaments earlier than the primary snap, setting off a mad scramble to dig up veteran stand-ins. Devonta Freeman and Latavius Murray produced some first rate moments, however the dynamism was gone. The group’s per-carry common dropped from an outstanding 5.5 yards to a merely good 4.8 yards.
Though coach John Harbaugh has spoken optimistically about Dobbins and Edwards, each will begin coaching camp on the physically-unable-to-perform checklist. Serious knee accidents at all times create uncertainty, particularly at a place that calls for so many quick-twitch stops and begins. Adrian Peterson and Dalvin Cook got here again from ACL tears higher than ever. Todd Gurley didn’t.
The Ravens signed veteran Mike Davis as insurance coverage. They like sixth-round choose Tyler Badie, who stood out in minicamp. But as with Stanley on the offensive line and Marcus Peters within the secondary, their plan at working again relies on good well being information for returning stars. Every particular person on the group facility can be longing for a glimpse of Dobbins and Edwards at full go.
Will Chuck Clark be on the group, and if he’s not, who will name defensive alerts?
As quickly because the Ravens used their first choose on Kyle Hamilton, hypothesis turned to Clark’s future with the group. You don’t draft one of the best security within the class to stay him on the bench, and so they had already spent $70 million to lock in Marcus Williams as their cowl specialist on the again finish. Clark dealt with the scenario with exemplary professionalism, working arduous in OTAs and minicamp. But the Ravens, conscious of the uncomfortable questions that might come his manner, didn’t put him on the rostrum for a media session.
In the brief time period, the roster is healthier with Clark on it. He’s a sturdy, versatile security who will have the ability to play loads of snaps beside Hamilton and Williams in defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald’s system. He’s additionally insurance coverage in opposition to the accidents which have ceaselessly ravaged the group’s secondary. The Ravens shouldn’t race to commerce him for a middle- or lower-round choose, although it’s comprehensible why they could accommodate Clark, a stand-up character, if he’s keen to maneuver on.
If they do transfer him, it’s not clear who would don the inexperienced dot because the defensive sign caller. The Ravens want the obligation go to a participant who’s on the sphere for nearly each snap. Would they appear to Williams in his first season in Baltimore? Or linebacker Patrick Queen, who carried out higher after the Ravens took obligations off his plate final 12 months? It’s not probably the most essential choice the Ravens will make over the subsequent six weeks, however avoiding the query is another excuse they might profit from conserving Clark.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com