The Baltimore Ravens were so close to a Super Bowl appearance last season. They entered the playoffs as the AFC’s No. 1 seed after putting together a league-leading 14-2 regular-season record. But sadly, what looked to be an unstoppable force ended up getting manhandled and bullied for 60 minutes in the postseason, ending their Super Bowl aspirations well before they could become reality.
Enter the 2020 NFL season, the Ravens are once again expected to compete for Super Bowl LV. They’ve returned nearly all of their starters from last season, including MVP winning quarterback Lamar Jackson. But regardless of how good they look on paper and what expectations are surrounding the team, they’ll need to see a bunch of players step up in 2020 if they actually want to reach Super Bowl LV.
I put together a list of the nine Ravens that need to improve this season and carry the team the last little bit.
OLB Tyus Bowser
Since the Ravens didn’t address pass rusher at all in the 2020 NFL Draft and only re-signed Pernell McPhee to a one-year deal, Baltimore seems to be putting a lot of hope in their young outside linebacker corps. We already know Matthew Judon can get the job done but behind him is a little more of a mystery, and leading that group is Bowser.
The Ravens have been hoping for Bowser to step up for a few years now and he finally started to become a more consistent player in the second half of last season. But in the final year of his rookie contract, it’s officially put up or shut up time. If Bowser can turn those flashes into consistent play, he should reach near double-digit sacks for Baltimore in 2020. Of course, that could propel him to leaving the Ravens next offseason for a fat contract but it could also be the final piece of the puzzle for Baltimore to win their third Super Bowl since 2000.
CB Tavon Young
Injuries are so rarely the fault of the player but that doesn’t stop frequently injured players from getting the boot eventually. Young, when healthy, is one of the best slot cornerbacks in the league. The problem is that he’s rarely been healthy.
After getting a big payday last offseason, Young was expected to lock down slot receivers and build arguably the best secondary in the league. But for the second time in four years, Young found himself on injured reserve and didn’t play a single regular-season snap for Baltimore.
With Young set to cost the Ravens $8 million against the cap in 2020 and with a way out of the contract next offseason, Young absolutely has to show up this season. That’s even more important with Brandon Carr now off the roster, meaning there’s less depth behind Young. While Young missing extended time yet again wouldn’t be an absolute killer for the Ravens’ defense, it would certainly stretch them thinner than they’d like.
OLB Jaylon Ferguson
Entering his second season, Ferguson is going to have all eyes on him to step up. Just like with Bowser, Baltimore not addressing the position puts far more pressure on the guys behind Judon to become more consistent and disruptive forces. If Ferguson can do that, this defense might finally have everything in place to be nearly unstoppable. If he doesn’t, we’ll once again see defensive coordinator Don Martindale need to be creative to bring pressure, which will only make life harder for everyone else on defense.
Ferguson was drafted with the hopes he’d eventually replace Terrell Suggs. With a Super Bowl window firmly in place, Ferguson needs to at least show steady improvement over his rookie campaign. If he can’t, he’ll bring up plenty of terrible memories of past failed picks like Tim Williams, Kamalei Correa, and Bronson Kaufusi.
WR Miles Boykin
Entering this offseason, the Ravens needed another field-stretching pass catcher and an outside possession receiver. Baltimore added two more wide receivers in the 2020 NFL Draft, giving them an intriguing group of young players, but no one that excels outside. Devin Duvernay and James Proche fit in far better in the slot, where Baltimore is already fairly stacked. With Seth Roberts leaving in free agency, it only makes the depth chart on the outside shallower and points to Boykin being the Ravens’ starting answer there.
That’s a big role in the Ravens’ offense, even if it doesn’t necessarily provide a spectacular stat sheet. Boykin will have an opportunity to keep Baltimore’s offense humming through downfield blocking while being a reliable target and chain mover for Lamar Jackson.
The Ravens really don’t have any other options, which means Boykin will have to produce in this role. If he does, he could be primed for a breakout season opposite Marquise Brown. If he doesn’t, Baltimore will struggle to consistently run outside and convert on third downs, which could kill what could be a dangerous Ravens’ offense.
LB Patrick Queen
Selected in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, Queen is going to be expected to start immediately — partially due to his draft status and partially because of how limited Baltimore’s inside linebackers are. Though it might be unfair to expect a rookie to step up, especially with the coronavirus pandemic potentially limiting his on-field practice time, that’s exactly what the Ravens are going to need Queen to do.
As we saw last season, Baltimore struggled early in the season largely thanks to the lackluster play of the linebackers. Overpursuing, not properly handling their individual responsibilities and struggling in communication helped doom the Ravens’ linebackers for the first half of the season before they completely switched out to new additions. With Baltimore’s defense fully stacked nearly everywhere else, poor play from Queen and the other starting inside linebacker will become obvious quickly and limit what the Ravens can do.
As noted with so many other players that need to step up in 2020, if Queen struggles, the entire defense will struggle along with him. For a team with Super Bowl expectations, that’s the quickest way to another depressing repeat of their playoff performances from the last two years.
DT Brandon Williams
The Ravens added a ton of help on the defensive line this offseason. Calais Campbell and Derek Wolfe were added to the group to bolster Baltimore’s run defense and provide more of a pass rush. The other upside from those additions is that they’ll allow Williams to move back inside where he really excels.
Williams hasn’t really lived up to his massive contract. There seemed to be some hope Williams would provide more of a pass rush presence when he was extended, but it never really happened. Instead, moving him around the defensive line actually took away from his run-defending ability, which is what Williams was best at. With Williams now able to spend more time inside being a plug in Baltimore’s run defense, he’s going to have to be absolutely outstanding in that role to justify his $14.17 million cap hit.
Now, that’s not to say Williams won’t continue to be moved around, especially with Martindale’s more elaborate defensive schemes. But Wolfe and Campbell are going to be the guys expected to get penetration on the defensive line, while Williams is the primary run stuffer. If the Ravens continue to struggle to stop the run, Williams is going to get the brunt of the backlash. However, if Williams eats up offensive linemen and running backs all season long, Baltimore should be on the road to another Super Bowl appearance.
QB Lamar Jackson
How do you top an MVP performance? That’s the question Jackson is already getting even before he puts on a helmet this offseason. It’s completely unfair to say Jackson will need to step up his game after posting a stellar 2019 campaign but it’s exactly what fans, critics and his own team are going to be expecting in 2020.
The caveat here is that Jackson doesn’t need to improve upon his stats from last season, and the reality is he probably won’t. Very few players have earned back-to-back MVP awards in NFL history and expecting Jackson to put up those same stats, or improve upon them, is setting him up for failure. Instead, Jackson needs to step up by continuing to develop as a quarterback.
That means using the sidelines to his advantage even more than last year. It means being more consistent in his footwork and other mechanics to become more consistently accurate. It also means knowing when to throw the ball away instead of taking unnecessary risks, either with his arm or his feet. Though those improvements might not necessarily mean a better stat sheet, it’ll mean Jackson doesn’t get flustered as easily and he’ll better take advantage of opportunities come playoff time. An improved Jackson is a Super Bowl-winning quarterback, which is the bar currently set for the 2019 MVP.
WR Marquise Brown
Baltimore selected Brown in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft to be their game-changer. Even while dealing with injuries last season, Brown showed he was lightning fast and capable of punishing defenses that didn’t gameplan for him. Now that he’s finally healthy and looking absolutely jacked, Brown has everyone expecting him to break out in 2020, which is what the Ravens need to get to the next level.
As a run-first offense primarily, Brown might never reach true No. 1 wide receiver stats. However, if he proves to be a handful for defenses, he’ll find his share of targets and touchdowns. But more importantly, Brown excelling would open up so much for the rest of the offense. The short and intermediate routes would be less contested, and holes will be easier to open up in the run game.
On the flip side, if Brown can’t stay healthy or he’s a one-trick pony, it’ll be a repeat of nearly every year from the last decade. We’ll see the offense stagnate and struggle to find a rhythm while trying to force the ball downfield to get their top guy more involved. As we’ve seen in previous years, that’s often a recipe for disaster, or at least a mediocre offense.
If Brown steps up in 2020, the Ravens’ offense might just become undefendable. They’ll finally be robust enough all-around to dictate the pace and point of attack both through the air and on the ground. Just like with so many other players on this list, Brown’s success could be a driving factor for Baltimore to reach the Super Bowl.
G/C Bradley Bozeman
While I chose Bozeman, all of the Ravens’ interior offensive linemen could make this list. With the retirement of right guard Marshal Yanda, Baltimore’s offensive line is in flux right now. Not only is the right guard job open, but the injury to Matt Skura means the starting center job is up for grabs too. Bozeman is in the mix for both jobs, which in turn opens up the starting left guard role as well.
As a starter last year, Bozeman seems cemented into a starting job somewhere on the offensive line this year. Regardless of where he lands, Bozeman will need to not only show improvement but succeed in his role. If Baltimore has two new starters on their offensive line, the three established starters (Ronnie Stanley, Bozeman and Orland Brown Jr.) will be leaned on to carry the weight early on.
If Bozeman struggles, we’ll likely see at least one of the new starters struggle alongside him. And for a team that runs the ball as much as the Ravens do, having a gaping hole in the middle of the offensive line could seriously limit the offense’s success. On the flip side of that argument, if Bozeman performs even better than last year, he could help ease the transition and start Baltimore off well while the new players get up to speed.
