The entire Ravens organization is built to win a Super Bowl.
From the front office on down, everyone is where they are for a reason. Millions of dollars are being spent in facility upgrades, promotions have been given to scouts, and young players are stepping into feature roles, as are young coaches. Everyone is under pressure.
The current Vegas odds even favor the Ravens. Baltimore is currently the joint 2nd-favorite to win the big game (+700) with Buffalo, just behind the favorite Philadelphia (+650). Lamar Jackson is the joint favorite to win league MVP (+550) along with Josh Allen.
Expectation is one thing. Teams that win it all, usually, have some kind of recent adversity they’re using as fuel as well. For the Ravens, they ought not look any further than last year’s crushing, season-ending loss at Buffalo.
After expectations and resilience, the third major piece of a championship puzzle is health. That, no one can ultimately control. The fourth part is depth.
Baltimore has exceptional talent, particularly among their starters. But to reach their ultimate goal, youth is no excuse. In other words, to win a world championship, you can’t give young players a pass because of their inexperience. The standard is the standard for everyone.
Heading into 2025, there are three players who have tremendous potential for impact—three players who, while all on their rookie contracts, have incredible opportunity to greatly increase their own value while playing a prominent role in the team’s success. Besides guys like Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, and Kyle Hamilton, there are players who, while known commodities, aren’t likely the top priority for opposing players and coaches.
Some may call them x-factors. I’d agree, as these players possess game-changing ability, but will need to display that on a consistent basis, not only for the good of their team, but for the good of their next contract. Besides Lamar, I believe these three players are the core of Baltimore’s immediate offensive future.
Tyler Linderbaum
This is a huge year for Tyler Linderbaum. I believe he’s the best player on the offensive line. With high acclaim comes high expectation. Linderbaum will have to sustain his high level of play during his first-ever “contract year,” in which his current cap figure of $4.2 million could easily quadruple. Kansas City center Creed Humphrey recently signed a massive extension worth $18 million in average annual value (AAV). Linderbaum, with a strong season, should be asking for every bit as much.
Ideally, I would think contract negotiations between the two parties should conclude before training camp. Helping Linderbaum’s leverage is the lack of interior offensive line depth around him, which in turn gives him increased opportunity to showcase his value to the team.
A third Pro Bowl selection is expected from him, given the talent around him and cohesion among the offensive coaching staff. Prior to the 2024 season, Pro Football Focus ranked Linderbaum as the league’s 3rd-best center. Last year, he showed no signs of regression.
Given the Ravens’ overhaul geared toward enhancing and protecting Lamar Jackson, I have to think a sizeable extension for Linderbaum is imminent.
Isaiah Likely
If there is one player on the Ravens who’s an x-factor, it’s Isaiah Likely. An x-factor is a player who possesses top talent, can matchup with opponents in multiple ways, and has shown the ability to impact big games, while also not being a regular starter.
I’m telling you now, the way he’s performing and the way the league is moving, the Ravens better sign Likely soon, or he will get big, big money somewhere else. The league knows full well what he can do.
Both Likely and Andrews are set to be unrestricted free agents in 2026, as are Pat Ricard, Daniel Faalele, and Ben Cleveland. Some really tough decisions will need to be made, but Likely cannot be a cap casualty. He’s too important to this offense, both now and in the future, considering he’s just now entering his prime.
At the end of the day, I think the decision comes down to ball security. The Buffalo game notwithstanding; here are some key career stats for both Likely and Andrews that will determine their future value:
Likely: 13.9 yards per reception, 70.9 percent catch rate, 1 fumble
Andrews: 11.8 yards per reception, 61.9 percent catch rate, 8 fumbles
Zay Flowers
The 2024 season was an interesting one for Zay Flowers. He made his 1st-career Pro Bowl and increased his season yardage total by 201 yards, year over year. However, his catch rate dropped (receptions/targets) by 7.5 percent. That’s not a sizeable difference, especially considering his yards per target increased from 7.9 in 2023 to 9.1 in 2024. With a higher yards per target rate comes an increased difficulty to sustain your catch rate.
Flowers is the No. 1 receiving option for the Ravens. He will make impact plays and defenders miss in the open field. We’ve seen that plenty of times, even though he’s only played two seasons. The next step for him would be to continue progress as a blocker.
The Ravens have often emphasized and kept impact blockers at the receiver position because of how important the running game is to team success. In 2024, Baltimore ran the ball on 53 of its offensive snaps. While not exclusively tied into blocking success, Flowers’ next contract numbers will be determined in part by how he plays without the football.
If there is concern about this group, it’s not based on their talent or performance, it’s based on Baltimore’s ability to keep them all, among a big pending free agent group in 2026.
Beware of winning, because that’ll only increase the price. The time to do a deal is now.
Born in Baltimore, Mike had long been drawn to sports of all kinds. Growing up watching Cal Ripken play ever day gave him a great example for which to attack every endeavor he undertakes.
When the Ravens came to town, though, that’s when Mike found his passion. Since that time, he’s tried to gain every bit of knowledge he could. Now as a high school coach, Mike is able to take his film study and appreciation of the game to a new level.
To engage with Mike on social media, follow him on Twitter @MikeFastNFL.