The Baltimore Ravens are set to enter training camp with a huge question mark at outside linebacker. With the departures of linebackers Terrell Suggs and Za’Darius Smith, many are wondering where Baltimore will get their pass rush from in 2019.
But that wasn’t always the case. In fact, the Ravens have frequently been one of the better teams at getting after the quarterback. In spite of a relatively short franchise history, Baltimore has had quite a few potent pass rusher over the years. Hopefully, some of the players on the Ravens’ roster are able to kickstart their careers and end up on this list.
Let’s take a look at the seven best pass rushers in Baltimore’s history.
Terrell Suggs
We have to start the list off with the best pass rusher the Ravens have ever had. Suggs holds Baltimore’s all-time sack record and might have done enough with the Ravens to secure a Hall of Fame bust once he finally retires. Suggs’ 132.5 total sacks ties him for 11th all time, alongside Lawrence Taylor and completely blows away Baltimore’s second-ranked sack artist.
However, like many on this list, Suggs wasn’t just a pass rusher. He was tasked with shutting down the run and outside passing plays as well. As one of the few true three-down outside linebackers in the league, Suggs is in a rare class of players.
Peter Boulware
The man that comes up second in the Ravens’ all-time sack list? Boulware. His 70 sacks over just eight healthy seasons is a remarkable feat at a time when teams weren’t throwing nearly as often as they do now.
Yet, Boulware is often forgotten even by Baltimore’s fans. He held the Ravens’ single-season sack record at 15 in 2001 before Elvis Dumervil broke it in 2014.
Boulware was well known for his tenacity and ability to play through some outrageous injuries. He was instrumental in Baltimore’s early 2000s defenses and deserving praise as one of the Ravens’ best linebackers, period.
Michael McCrary
McCrary might be one of my most favorite Ravens players of all time. It helped that he was another unsung hero of the early 2000s defenses for Baltimore that still to this day doesn’t get enough praise.
While most people automatically think of outside linebackers being the pass rushers for the Ravens, it wasn’t always the case as McCrary actually played as a defensive end. His 51 total sacks comes in third on Baltimore’s all-time franchise list but McCrary has an argument for being the top pass rusher in Ravens history.
If you discount McCrary’s final year with Baltimore — a five-game season that was filled with problems from repeated knee injuries that would end his career — he notched 49 sacks in just five years. That nearly 10 sacks-per-year average bests everyone that’ll appear on this list. It’s also worth noting that the era McCrary played football in was a far more run-happy league than the high-flying one we know now.
McCrary wasn’t the physically most gifted pass rusher in Baltimore’s history but he easily had the highest motor. Any fans that remember seeing McCrary play absolutely remembers him crawling to get to quarterbacks and chasing down players well after nearly everyone else had given up. That workhorse mentality and non-stop motor earned him a place on this list.
Elvis Dumervil
Dumervil came to the Ravens late in the offseason before the 2013 season thanks to a now-famous fax snafu. One a far cheaper deal than he’d have gotten if he was released earlier in free agency, it allowed Baltimore to be in the running for his services in spite of having less money to spend that offseason. The Ravens probably owe the Denver Broncos a muffin basket for that move.
Though Dumervil would only be with Baltimore for four years, one can make the case he’s the most prolific pass rusher the team has had. Dumervil notched 35.5 sacks and 72 quarterback hits in his time with the Ravens. He also holds the franchise record for the most sacks in a single season thanks to his 17-sack effort in 2014.
Had a torn Achilles not ended his 2016 season after just eight games, Dumervil should have been even more productive with Baltimore and could have stuck around longer. As it stands, Dumervil played one more year with the San Francisco 49ers in a reserve role and put up another 6.5 sacks.
Haloti Ngata
You probably weren’t expecting to see a defensive tackle on this list and for pretty good reason. But when you remember what Ngata was able to do in his prime, it’s hard to ignore his pass-rushing presence.
Ngata was the prototype for today’s defensive tackles that can play all over the line and in a variety of roles. Big, strong but still fast and agile, Ngata was not only able to take on double teams against the run but also knife through the offensive line to destroy quarterbacks.
Now that Ngata is in your mind as a pass rusher, the first thing likely coming to mind was the infamous hit that broke the nose of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. It’s the perfect representation of what Ngata could do — he timed the snap perfectly, got between the guard and center before they could fully set their feet and pushed through the guard to get to Roethlisberger before he was able to look upfield.
While Ngata had only 25.5 sacks in his nine total years with the Ravens, he was regularly in the backfield, hitting the quarterback 74 times. When tasked with putting pressure on the quarterback, Ngata found himself in the backfield and completely shutting down plays before they ever really started.
Za’Darius Smith
Smith kinda got a late start, finding the bulk of his success last season. But as his new contract with the Green Bay Packers points to, Smith finally hit the next level as a pass rusher along the way.
Over four seasons, Smith would only have 18.5 sacks with the most in a single season being his 8.5 in 2018. However, don’t mistake Smith’s lack of sack production as a lack of pass rushing ability. Over that same timespan, Smith put up 52 quarterback hits, actually coming in fourth in Ravens’ history (Pro Football Reference starts tracking QB hits in 2006) in spite of his limited time with the team.
Smith would finish the 2018 season with a 78.9 pass rushing grade from PFF and ranked significantly higher (22nd) than both Matthew Judon (31st) and Suggs (37th) in their “pass rushing productivity” metric.
Though Smith wasn’t as prolific as other names on this list, he was able to find his success by rushing inside. It’s something you won’t see most outside linebackers do very often, with defensive coordinators having to scheme inside pressure. It’s especially deadly in today’s game where pressure up the middle often cause quarterbacks to throw the football away, move the pocket or dump the ball off, effectively killing the play even if it doesn’t result in a sack.
While Smith proved too costly for Baltimore to keep this offseason, continued development and production with the Ravens could have seen him be more definitively considered one of the Ravens’ best pass rushers.
Adalius Thomas
Thomas is probably another name most fans either forgot about or forgot just how good he was with Baltimore. But make no bones about it, Thomas was among the best pass rushers the Ravens have had.
Thomas was like a swiss army knife in Baltimore’s defense. He was asked to do some of everything, which ultimately hurt his actual numbers. For instance, in 2006 — Thomas’ final season with the Ravens — he played a total of 1,020 snaps on defense, according to PFF. Of those snaps, 385 went to run defense, 251 went to pass rushing and 384 were in coverage. Yet, Thomas finished that season with 11 sacks and 39 total pressures (4.4% and 15.5% of his pass-rushing snaps respectively).
In his final three years with Baltimore, Thomas put up 28 sacks, one safety, three fumbles returned for touchdowns, and four interceptions including one returned for a touchdown. As if that doesn’t outline Thomas’ freak athleticism, he ran down a then in-his-prime Michael Vick in 2003 for a sack — a rarity at the time. Had Thomas strictly been utilized as a pass rusher, there’s no doubt he would have boosted his stat sheet.
