The Baltimore Ravens have played one of the easiest scheduled in the NFL, but that’s about to change.
They are going to need more consistent performances from all three phases of this football team if they are going to challenge for a Super Bowl. The first third of the season is complete, the time for growing pains and working out the kinks with a rookie coaching staff is over and they are about to be tested at a much higher level.
Oh, and it seems far certain that two-time MVP Lamar Jackson, who the highly-suspect general manager cant get signed to contract extension like everyone else with a top QB does, might not be back for Sunday's against the Bengals in another big divisional game. If that’s the case, then the individuals on this list of biggest disappointments so far are going to need to figure something out.
Last week we gave you the five biggest standouts from this roster thus far. This is the opposite end of the spectrum.
5. Mark Andrews
He’s been cooked for a long time and it’s been obvious to everyone except that cocky GM who wanted to prove some ridiculous point to former Ravens TE Isaiah Likely – who is a top three tight end in the NFL right now – and give Andrews a $13M/year contract extension last December despite Andrews being cooked.
Well, I don’t want to give too much away but you might be getting a hint for who is the leader in this list. Giving Andrews essentially $35M guaranteed from December of 2025 through the end of the 2027 season was ridiculous. He cost the Ravens 16 points in the Atlanta, game, he leads all NFL tight ends in drops, he averages less than eight yards per catch, he has all of one catch for four yards with the offense in desperate need of help Sunday.
When Matthew Hibner comes back from injury he needs to be seeing a whole lot more of the bench HYPER. Averaging two yards after the catch the past two years is ridiculous. He ranks 28th among TEs in Expected Points Added/Target (-.18) and is 67th in yards/target.
4. Trey Hendrickson
He was brought in for $30M a year because DeCosta got cold feet on a trade for Maxx Crosby -a dominate edge defender who does more than rush the passer. He bailed on that trade for injury concerns to sign an older pass rusher who has injury concerns; Crosby is playing 95% of the snaps and Hendrickson can’t stay healthy.
His hand/finger injury seem like a big deal and if anything Hendrickson is an opener – starting games quicky – who cant do anything in the fourth quarter (10.8% pressure rate). Baltimore remains a fourth-quarter failure, they already blew three more 10-point leads and inept against the pass in the fourth quarter despite facing most bad QBs and they have three total sacks in the fourth quarter despite facing the most dropbacks.
They rank 25th in fourth-quarter pressure rate. If this guy is limited with the hand issue for weeks to come, guys like Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence and Josh Allen and, yeah, Bryce Young, will cook them.
3. Roquan Smith/Marlon Humphrey
Lumping them together. Two of DeCosta’s favorites who he kept too long and paid too much. Remember when defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver vowed how both would be making people eat crow with comeback years in 2027? Um, notsomuch.
Smith carried a cap hit $14M higher than any middle linebacker in the NFL ($33M), but is fourth on the team in solo tackles and doesn’t make impact plays and isn’t a thumper around the line of scrimmage anymore and needs to be protected in coverage. He makes Fred Warner money and is often invisible for long stretches of games … for years now.
Humphrey is a liability in coverage who wants to take on top receivers but has a lot to do with why top receivers have shredded this secondary. Ravens corners and safeties do not have an INT. He is the 10th highest paid corner in the NFL at $19.3M and has the top cap hit. Not going so well. This is one of the worst second-half defenses in the NFL, and these two have plenty to do with that.
When do these guys make big plays? The defense goes as they go, and Week 1 looks like an outlier for them thus far.
2. Jesse Minter (defensive coordinator)
We are going to give him some grace as a rookie head coach (we’re putting that on DeCosta, who wanted a novice head coach under his thumb), and he has a lot more on his plate than ever before.
But as a defensive coordinator – his forte and where he is a proven commodity, well, we’ve got issues. Continuing the fourth-quarter collapse thing is kind of unthinkable (we know its mostly the roster, but this had to be job No. 1 for him on that idea of the ball). Minter didn’t have star players with the Chargers by and large but he has a dominant pass defense and they eliminated big plays and won with scheme and were sound as heck.
So what happened? How do you explain this?
First Half Second Half
Point Differential +52 (1st) -35 (31st)
Opp Pt/Drive 1.47 (4th) 2.55 (24th)
Opp Pass Rt 71.8 (4th) 102.3 (22nd)
Opp Pass Yds 462 (5th) 780 (28th)
The best coordinators win the second half and tighten the screws at the half. Minter’s defense is consistently put in great positions in the first half and wilt when it counts on money downs (third-and-fourth down) against mediocre passers in the clutch. He might be spread too thin on game day and he might need to be willing to blitz more and play more man coverage and mix things up.
1. Eric DeCosta
Every year he has the same overarching needs to fix and every year he fails.
His OL has been awful for years. He got the coaches pushed out and got the new ones he wanted, but his offensive line still stinks so bad he made a panic move for an injury risk who was probably getting benched despite being in the concussion protocol and missing two games. (In his defense, he comes from a personnel family tree that never blossoms).
He has ceded all leverage to Jackson and repeatedly blew it with this contract situation. And put Jackson behind a bad line with only one proven downfield target – Zay Flowers – in a walk year despite running a $370M payroll (with a lot of the money blown on the other guys on this list).
Put the 16 blown double-digit leads for a loss since 2019 on him; put the franchise’s sick disease with the choke gene on the guy who keeps building the choking rosters. He’s the one constant – it’s cut across seven coordinator and two head coaches. No one, it seems, can overcome DeCosta.
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