The Baltimore Ravens saw quite a few players leave this offseason through free agency. With Baltimore wrapping up their bye week and the league right in the middle of the season, it’s a great time to look at how eight former Ravens are doing around the NFL.
OLB Za’Darius Smith, Green Bay Packers
The Ravens have usually won when gambling about a player’s future. Smith is the rare exception where Baltimore has been proved dead wrong almost immediately. This offseason, Smith signed a huge contract with the Packers, something the Ravens didn’t seem interested in matching.
Through eight games, Smith has been on a tear and looks to be worth every penny Green Bay spent on him, with eight sacks and 15 quarterback hits. He’s a sack away from posting the best single-season of his five-year career. Tied for fourth in the NFL in sacks, Smith is on a Pro Bowl pace.
With the Ravens having posted just 12 sacks total, they undoubtedly wished they had figured out a way to keep Smith.
OLB Terrell Suggs, Arizona Cardinals
Suggs has always been a player that shows up when everyone thinks he’s down. The second you question him, Suggs finds an extra gear and level of intensity to get the job done. That’s precisely what has been happening in Arizona.
Through eight games, Suggs has five sacks, 24 total tackles and a league-leading four forced fumbles. While Suggs might not be the same player he was at the prime of his career, he’s on pace for double-digit sacks for just the eighth time in his 17-year career. Though it’s questionable if Suggs will play again next season, he certainly looks as though he has plenty left in the tank to not only suit up but to start for most NFL teams.
QB Joe Flacco, Denver Broncos
The Broncos traded for Flacco this offseason after a failed one-year experiment with Case Keenum. It was hoped Flacco would help keep Denver afloat while they retooled their roster and developed their next franchise quarterback. Though there seems to be no indication the Broncos are ready to bring rookie Drew Lock off injured reserve, much less give him the starting job yet, Flacco is not exactly having a great season by himself.
Having started all eight games for Denver this season, Flacco has completed 65.3% of his passes for 1,822 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions. While the touchdown-to-interception ratio isn’t great, Flacco actually has the highest completion percentage of his career and has the highest yards-per-attempt average since arguably the best season of his career in 2014. By almost all metrics, Flacco is actually having a solid season but hasn’t found the end zone very often, which massively detracts from the outlook on him.
But it’s hardly been all on Flacco this season. He’s been sacked 26 times for a league-leading 194 yards lost. The Broncos traded away one of their biggest offensive weapons, wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, and are now seeing attention shift to potentially trading away one of their best defensive players. With Flacco throwing heat towards his coaches for their lack of aggression towards the end of Week 8’s game, he seems to be growing frustrated about the things around him.
Flacco has a herniated disk, according to ESPN’s Jeff Legwold, that will likely keep him out for several weeks. Depending on the severity, Denver could decide to put Flacco on injured reserve, ending his season prematurely.
While the Ravens have obviously moved on from Flacco — seeing Lamar Jackson put himself in the NFL’s MVP race this season — it’s still tough to see him struggle once again.
WR John Brown, Buffalo Bills
Much like last season with Baltimore, Brown started off the 2019 season with a bang. He put up 123 yards and a touchdown in Week 1 against the New York Jets and looked like he was finally becoming the top option many people saw in him. He’s cooled down a little bit from that spectacular start but has found a consistent groove in Buffalo’s offense.
While he hasn’t posted any 100-plus yard games this season, he’s been targeted frequently and is making big plays. Brown has posted at least a 10-yard-per-reception average and has no fewer than five targets in every game so far this season. Where Brown slowed down considerably in Baltimore’s conservative offense under Jackson, he’s seemingly flourishing with the Bills.
If Brown continues the pace he’s at, he’ll finish the season with 87 receptions for 1,205 yards and five touchdowns. It would be the best season of his six-year career in both receptions and receiving yards.
LB C.J. Mosley, New York Jets
Mosley has been bitten by the injury bug this season. After signing a record contract in the offseason, Mosley has played in just two games due to a groin injury. There’s some concern Mosley could head to injured reserve, ending his season before it ever really got a chance to begin.
Though Mosley had a stellar first half in Week 1 where he snagged an interception for a touchdown and recovered a fumble, there’s little question his massive deal and inability to stay on the field helps make general manager Eric DeCosta look like a genius right now. While Mosley will likely eventually return to the field for New York, he obviously wouldn’t have solved any problems for the Ravens this season.
TE Maxx Williams, Arizona Cardinals
Williams finally got out from behind Baltimore’s deep depth chart and has been able to stay relatively healthy. Though he is splitting time with teammate Charles Clay, Williams has played in all eight games and started four this season for Arizona.
Williams has nine receptions on nine targets for 112 yards and a touchdown with the Cardinals. Though that stat line isn’t exactly killer considering what many Ravens fans expected Williams to become, it’s proof that a change of scenery might be all a player needs to further develop.
In Arizona’s young and talented offense, Williams has found a groove.
RB Ty Montgomery, New York Jets
Montgomery came to Baltimore in a midseason trade and promptly did next to nothing. Montgomery rushed the ball 15 times for 83 yards and caught 10 passes for 65 yards with the Ravens, being active for just six games. This season hasn’t gone any better for Montgomery with New York.
Montgomery has been active for seven games, starting one. But he’s rushed the ball just 11 times for 40 yards and caught just six passes for 32 yards. Given his very limited usage, it appears as though the Jets signed him to be a backup option in case former Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell didn’t perform. With Bell staying healthy and being New York’s bell-cow back, there have been few chances for Montgomery to make plays.
DE Brent Urban, Tennessee Titans/Chicago Bears
Urban didn’t really amount to much with the Titans, playing in just four games and seeing a very limited snap count. He posted no stats at all over 62 defensive snaps and was eventually cut by Tennessee, signing with the Bears last week.
With the Titans cutting Urban, the Ravens saw their compensatory pick outlook get messed up. It resulted in them cutting special teams ace Justin Bethel in order to keep what is likely to be a fourth-round comp pick.
