The Baltimore Ravens placed 13 players in the Pro Bowl and had a franchise-best 14-2 record. A team doesn’t do that without nearly everyone stepping up and playing great football. However, every team ends up having some players that slide backwards instead of improving and the Ravens are no exception to the rule.
In spite of so many players stepping up last season, these three players regressed in 2019 for Baltimore and leave them with some questions.
LB Patrick Onwuasor:
Onwuasor entered the 2019 season as Baltimore’s answer for the departure of C.J. Mosley. It only took a few weeks for the Ravens to realize they were in trouble and replace him with mid-season free agents. That’s a pretty huge regression that now makes it difficult to see Baltimore re-signing him as a pending free agent.
The Ravens’ defense was often out of position and suffered blown coverages in the few games Onwuasor was given the green-dot helmet (the helmet for communicating with the coaching staff). When it cycled elsewhere, Baltimore’s defense began to tighten up.
After coming off a 2018 season that saw Onwuasor start 12 games, notch 59 combined tackles, 5.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, three passes defended and an interception, last season was a disaster. Onwuasor only started six games, posting 64 combined tackles and three sacks and seeing his defensive snap counts plummet after Week 5 while getting more snaps on special teams in the final eight games he played.
WR Chris Moore:
With Baltimore once again completely remaking their wide receiver corps, Moore was expected to get more opportunities to live up to his potential. Instead, he caught just three passes for 21 yards and no touchdowns. It was clear a switch was flipped for the coaching staff, seeing his offensive snap counts drop down after Week 7, getting just nine total offensive snaps in the final seven games he was active for.
What might be worse for Moore is that he got the starting kick returner job taken from him, in spite of the Ravens struggling to find consistency there. After returning 22 kicks in 2018, he got just four in 2019.
The writing is on the wall regarding Moore’s status with the team. As a pending free agent this offseason and Baltimore selecting four receivers over the last two drafts, it seems pretty clear Moore won’t be returning for 2020.
CB Anthony Averett:
There was some hope Averett could make a similar second-year jump like Marlon Humphrey. After showing some promise in his rookie campaign, Averett got the chance to show what he was capable of after Jimmy Smith and Tavon Young went down with injuries. However, it wasn’t pretty.
While Humphrey had a career year, Averett was picked on frequently when in the lineup. He played a grand total of 220 defensive snaps last season but allowed 51 receptions on 36 targets for 277 yards and a touchdown.
Averett was given a chance to start in Week 2 but had that taken from him the very next game. After playing 101 defensive snaps in the first two weeks, Averett ended up being a healthy scratch for a bunch of games and got a combined 176 defensive snaps over the other seven games he was active for.
While there’s no saying Averett won’t improve and turn into a really good player, he had a pretty bad slide from his first to second years in the NFL.
