The Ravens had a phenomenal 2019 season that will rightfully go down as one of the best regular seasons ever, not just for the Ravens, but for any team in the NFL. By Football Outsiders DVOA metric, the Ravens regular season stacked up as the 7th best performance of any team since they started charting games in 1985. A twelve-game winning streak to close out the season over which they outscored their opponents by 214 points or 17.8 points per game highlighted just how dominant the Ravens were in 2019.
The team finished the season with a 14-2 record, best in Franchise history, and earned a number one seed in the AFC for the first time in team history. QB Lamar Jackson won the league’s Most Valuable Player award by a unanimous vote and John Harbaugh won Coach of the Year with offensive coordinator Greg Roman earning Assistant Coach of the Year honors. But despite all the accolades and regular season dominance, the 2019 Ravens season was cut unceremoniously short in the Divisional Round of the playoffs when they lost at home for the second straight season to a Wild Card opponent.
The Ravens 28 – 12 loss to the Tennessee Titans in the Divisional Round was in many ways a microcosm of the roster issues that the Ravens must address heading into the 2020 season. On defense, the lack of elite talent in the front seven was made apparent as the team had significant issues stopping the Titans rushing attack led by Derrick Henry. Tackling was an issue throughout the game, and even though the defense was able to hold the Titans to less than 100 yards passing, one long TD pass was all the Titans needed to put the Ravens in a hole they were unable to climb out of. While on that play it may not be fair to put all the blame on the Ravens front seven, the Titans were able to take advantage of the Ravens blitz and beat the coverage of both CB Marlon Humphrey and Safety Chuck Clark.
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The Titans knew the Ravens love to blitz (over 54% of all drop-backs is an insanely high number), and they dialed up a play that could take advantage of the defense’s aggressive tendencies. To be fair, letting up an occasional big play happens to every defense, and in most instances last season the Ravens were playing with a lead which lessens the impact of such plays. Still, I would like to see the defense be less dependent on the blitz moving forward (and get home on the blitz more often), which means finding some talented pass-rushers that are capable of generating pressure/winning 1v1 match-ups more consistently.
The other areas on the team that stood out as potential problems were on the offensive side of the ball. While the offensive line played at an extremely high level for much of the 2019 season, they were not able to generate the necessary push at the line of scrimmage to pick up short yardage on a few key plays. With Marshal Yanda’s status moving forward still unclear, the Ravens are going to have to look long and hard at improving the interior of the offensive line and making sure they lock up their bookend offensive tackles Ronnie Stanley and Orlando Brown long-term.
What stood out even more than issues with the offensive line were deficiencies among the offensive skill positions. While this was due to a number of factors including the health of Mark Andrews, Nick Boyle and Mark Ingram, it was abundantly clear that Lamar Jackson needs more reliable pass-catchers. With Andrews and Boyle out of the game/less than 100%, Jackson was forced to pass to his WRs with greater frequency. Aside from Marquise Brown, the Ravens WRs struggled to get open and make plays for their MVP QB. In 2019 the Ravens passing offense ran through the TE position, and while it proved to be very effective during the regular season, a more balanced attack that targets the RBs and WRs more frequently could help diversify the offense and make it harder for defenses to focus on taking away specific players or routes.
So what does this mean in terms of how the Ravens may look to improve their roster for the 2020 season and beyond? On offense, it’s a pretty simple formula because most of the offense will be coming back with WR being the obvious position to improve as Seth Roberts and Chris Moore become free agents. The Ravens could look to land a free agent WR like A.J. Green or Amari Cooper, but it seems more likely that they will use an extremely draft class to find another young receiver to bolster the WR corps. A high draft pick would be a welcome addition and provide a very promising young nucleus of receivers along with Brown and Miles Boykin. The draft could also be used to strengthen the offensive line with an athletic and versatile swing tackle who could also move inside to guard (a James Hurst replacement).
On the defensive side of the ball there will be many more question marks as many of the front seven contributors will be free agents this offseason. This will provide the Ravens with many opportunities to get better, but the player turnover that could happen will also mean uncertainty – not too dissimilar to what we saw headed into the 2019 season after a number of starters moved on in the offseason. The Ravens had to perform a mid-season makeover to get the defense on track in 2019, so hopefully they can learn from their mistakes and make the proper moves in the offseason.
The Ravens will likely attempt to strike a balance between bringing back some players for continuity while also injecting new talent to improve areas that were under-performing. The biggest decision the Ravens will have to make on defense is at the Linebacker position. This obviously starts with Matt Judon, who is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent, but Josh Bynes, Patrick Onwuasor, Jihad Ward and Pernell McPhee were also significant contributors who are not longer under contract. How the Ravens handle Judon will likely dictate many of the other moves they make as he could be Franchise Tagged by the team if they cannot agree on a long-term contract. While having the rights to a player like Judon is appealing, the cap implications of the Franchise Tag will significantly limit other signings.
Eric DeCosta was able to bolster a struggling defense by bringing in several off the street free agents mid-season, and he may look to acquire similar cost-efficient players this off-season. Re-signing players like Josh Bynes, Jihad Ward and Pernell McPhee are certainly not flashy moves but it would provide quality depth without large cap commitments. The team can then look to the draft to provide young cost-controlled talent at LB and DE/DT while hoping young players still on their rookie contracts like Tyus Bowser and Jaylon Ferguson continue to improve. These moves could all be done while also retaining the services of Matt Judon either on a long-term contract or Franchise Tag.
There will likely be some free agent options for the Ravens as well along the front seven, and if the Ravens choose not to bring back Judon they are much more likely to be active in the free agent market. If Judon is allowed to rest free agency, big name pass-rushers like Jadeveon Clowney, Yannick Ngakoue or Shaq Barrett could be in play with some more under the radar options like Derek Wolfe, Leonard Williams, Emmanuel Ogbah, Vic Beasley and Shaq Lawson also being potential fits with or without Judon in the fold.
My colleague Mike Randall wrote recently about the importance of this offseason, and while much of the roster is in a good place moving forward, how the front office addresses a few key positions on the roster could have a very large impact on the ability of the Ravens to get over the hump and make a deep run into the postseason in 2020 and beyond.
Ravens Analyst
Gabe is an avid fan of the NFL and Ravens football. He grew up in Westminster, MD, and attended college at Johns Hopkins University majoring in Biology. He earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and now works as a R&D Scientist developing Transplant Diagnostics assays. Gabe has appeared as a guest on 105.7 The Fan.