Asking Questions At The Mini-Bye

The time for excuses has long passed. This organization owes the fans answers.

Last night, the Ravens got overwhelmed by the Jaguars, 33-10, falling to 4-5 on the season. They now rank last in the AFC North and 10th in the AFC. With the Jacoby Brissett trade becoming official today, they’ve had six different quarterbacks on their roster in the last week.

At this point, it seems like the way this organization is currently comprised leaves fans without a reasonable expectation that Baltimore will win again this season. That seems like a drastic statement, but take a look at what has been displayed as of late, on and off the field.

Before last night, Baltimore’s four wins came against teams that are a combined 9-23. So even when the Ravens have done well this year, it’s largely been against teams who’ve underperformed themselves.

Last week it was Anthony Weaver criticizing fans saying they needed to do their part. This week it was Marlon Humphrey calling out fans for being too critical even when the Ravens win.

The Ravens rank 26th in the NFL in points allowed per game (26.2), and Humphrey used to play for Nick Saban at Alabama, who called a staff meeting at 7 am the morning after a National Championship win. In what world are these guys living in, that they think those comments were a good idea?

Weaver played for Baltimore. He knows the standard. His defense, overall, has been appalling. Humphrey, just 1 1/2 seasons removed from an All-Pro season, now looks completely lost in the secondary. Yet, these are the guys pointing the finger? Talk about tone def.

Obviously, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I just don’t see how making those comments in the midst of performances that they’ve been giving was thought to have been a good idea.

Fans know it’s hard to win in the NFL. They know that when you lose a player like Lamar Jackson, things won’t be the same and that it affects everyone on the team. All fans really want is to see some fight and hear some truthful answers when things go wrong. Thank goodness for Offensive Line coach Dwayne Ledford, who let his players have it in this clip from last night (Baltimore’s offensive line is T-24th in sacks allowed (23)).

Speaking of the offensive line, in a way, it’s not all their fault. The front office has some explaining to do as well. From this Yahoo Sports article in June, here are the amounts of money spent by the Ravens, by position:

Category	Ravens spending	NFL rank
QB	$39,455,000	12th
RB	$13,305,896	16th
WR	$19,868,926	29th
TE	$12,929,252	22nd
OL	$37,570,594	28th
Total offense	$123,129,668	27th
IDL	$48,759,694	6th
EDGE	$32,894,221	14th
LB	$40,647,777	1st
S	$21,459,041	12th
CB	$43,650,662	5th
Total defense	$187,411,395	2nd

Tell me how you have a once-in-a-generation quarterback and a Hall of Fame running back, and the men tasked to protect them are only invested in to the tune of $37.5 million? How is that even possible?

This graphic doesn’t even account for the recent trade acquisition of Cam Jurgens, who ranks last among guards in all of football (according to Pro Football Focus). Some will say center is his natural position, but that’s an excuse. You don’t have to be the best guard if you’re playing out of position, but there is no way you should be traded a 2nd round pick and a 5th round pick if you’re ranked as the worst guard—especially from a team like the Ravens who so greatly values draft capital. Ronnie Stanley grades out in the bottom third of all tackles in football, yet is scheduled to make $24 million next year. Mark Andrews has less yards and half as many touchdowns since 2025 than he had in all of 2024. Meanwhile, Isaiah Likely is doing really well in New York.

The defense is the 2nd-highest paid defense in the league, yet has performed in the bottom 25 percent of defenses so far this season.

When the Ravens would lose a couple of games here and there in the past, fans still believe that at least the franchise infrastructure was solid. There was still assurance things would turn around sooner rather than later.

That is no longer the shared belief on this fanbase.

So where do they go from here?

To be fair, I’m not saying the team needs to be gutted, coaches need to be fired, front office personnel need to be purged, or anything like that. What I am saying is that Steve Bisciotti needs to have serious conversations with Sashi Brown, Eric DeCosta, and Jesse Minter ASAP about where this team is going this year and beyond. Use the mini-bye to your advantage.

If I was the owner, I would talk to all three of those guys individually and then once more collectively. I’d ask them these questions and then discuss the answers as a group:

1) Where do you think we’ve gone wrong so far?

2) What have we done well/what systems or personnel should stay in place?

3) What changes would you make if you were me, regardless of bad press it they may incur?

4) Who are our best 11 players on offense, defense, and special teams, regardless of salary or tenure?

5) Which players and coaches are exceeding expectations?

6) Which players and coaches are falling short of expectations?

7) How often have you reviewed performance of the people under your direct leadership?

8) How would you grade your own performance so far?

9) Should Lamar be our quarterback of the future? Meaning, at this juncture it seems like we should either plan on him being our guy for his entire career, or see if he’s willing to waive his no-trade clause while his value is still fairly high. We all want him to be our quarterback now, but considering the scope of the entire roster, can we make a $70 million per year player work? Can we afford to have one player comprise 22-24 percent of our entire salary cap, when that player’s availability is in question each year?

Bottom line: the Baltimore Ravens are at an inflection point in their history. They’ve experienced an incredible amount of success over the last three decades, but now the team is unrecognizable.

This would all be acceptable if the team wasn’t a major Super Bowl contender. This would all be acceptable if there wasn’t a proven, recent display of winning and competing for a divisional championship every year. But this isn’t acceptable. The Ravens are just now starting the more challenging portion of their schedule. It will only get harder from here; hence the urgency Mr. Bisciotti must have to identify the root issues and implement solutions.

Otherwise, fans will cease to renew season ticket packages, will stop buying merchandise, and will stop trusting that the powers that be can get things moving in the right direction again.

As I said at the top, the time for excuses has long passed. This organization owes the fans answers.

Make no mistake: this franchise has plenty of really good things in place at key positions. Fans are showing proactive urgency so as not to give into the human nature complacency and do their part to help the team by giving honest feedback in real time.

How many times do you get bombarded with surveys and questions after you dine out or buy something? That kind of real-time intel is extremely valuable because it allows companies to pivot toward the client-desired outcome in real time.

Ravens fans are voluntarily giving the Ravens organization plenty of that valuable information. We’re fed up and we know you all are capable of so much more. We also know the possibility of not going to a Super Bowl with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry in the same backfield is growing more probable by the week. Can you imagine if that happened, or worse, if they got traded and won the Super Bowl somewhere else?

I just hope 1 Winning Drive is listening.