With Week 6 in the rearview and Week 7 on the horizon, the 2026 NFL regular season is a third of the way in the books. The Baltimore Ravens currently find themselves in a three-way tie for the best record in the AFC North at 4-2, and the defense has been a work in progress while still contributing to the team's overall success.
Under new head coach and defensive play-caller Jesse Minter, they came into the season expected to be one of the best units in the league, and while they've dominated entire halves and sometimes three quarters of games, they've yet to put together a full four quarters of excellence.
The talent that general manager Eric DeCosta amassed on the defensive side of the ball has shown flashes of dominance and could round into a strength for this year's team as the offense continues to get healthy and keep being explosive. Here's how each position group has graded out thus far.
Defensive line: B -
Gradual ramp-ups in training camp and delayed regular-season debuts prevented this talented bunch from hitting the ground running. However, over the past two games, they've begun to play up to their immense potential collectively instead of as individuals in spurts. The trio of multi-time Pro Bowlers Nnamdi Madubuike and Calais Campbell and budding star Travis Jones gives the Ravens one of the best interiors in the league.
In the four games since Madubuike returned from a serious neck injury that cut his 2025 season short, he looks more and more like his game-wrecking pre-injury form. Campbell remains the ageless wonder and has looked great the past two weeks and Jones as been a stud from the start of the season when it comes to making plays against the run at and behind the line of scrimmage. Behind them, veterans John Jenkins, Broderick Washington and third-year pro Aeneas Peebles
have provided solid depth but haven't really stood out in a noticeable or consistent way.
Inside linebackers: A
This group has been the most pleasant surprise of the entire defense thus far this season, with how consistently disruptive they've been down in and down out each week, especially at the top of the depth chart. After a down year in 2025 that still saw him get voted to his fourth straight Pro Bowl, veteran Roquan Smith is back to playing at an All Pro level, leading the team with 47 total tackles, tying for the second-most sacks with two and making plays on the ball with an interception, forced fumble and two pass breakups.
At the WILL spot, fourth-year pro Trenton Simpson, is finally putting it all together in a contract year and has been enjoying quite the breakout campaign. He's recorded the third-most total tackles on the team with 41, including tying for the most tackles for loss with six, and he also has an interception to go along with a fumble recovery and a pass breakup. Second-year pros Teddye Buchanan and Jay Higgins have predominantly played special teams, with Buchanan seeing some limited snaps on defense in base personnel packages.
Outside linebackers: B -
This is another group that has been hindered by health to a degree, with four-time Pro Bowl veteran and prized free agent acquisition Trey Hendrickson sustaining a finger injury that required surgery and caused him to miss two games. Yet in four games, he has still managed to record a pair of sacks, four quarterback hits and a 22.7% pressure rate, the highest rate among defenders with at least 25 pressures this season, according to NextGenStats.
Leading the Ravens with 3.5 sacks through six games is Tavius Robinson, another fourth-year pro making the most of his extended playing time in the final season of his rookie deal. He also leads the team with eight quarterback hits, batted down two passes and forced a fumble. Second-year pro Mike Green is tied with Hendrickson for the second-most sacks on the team with a pair and stepped up in a big way during the two games he was out. He ranks second on the team with six quarterback hits and has been playing the run well with four tackles for loss.
The Ravens also have a pair of rookies who have been playing regularly, with second-rounder Zion Young's snaps coming on defense during early downs while undrafted free agent Ethan Burke has primarily played on special teams but was the first of the two to record a sack.
Cornerbacks: C
The Ravens have gotten a mixed bag of results from this position group, with some impressive plays and missed opportunities to make more impactful ones despite constantly being in good position in coverage. They've been playing third-year pro Nate Wiggins and four-time Pro Bowl veteran Marlon Humphrey on the perimeter and deploying both second-year pro Keyon Martin and fifth-round rookie Chandler Rivers at nickel for stretches.
As a group, they've struggled to contain No. 1 wide receivers from both inconsistent and highly efficient passing offenses and haven't been making enough plays on the ball, with no interceptions and just nine pass breakups between them. Wiggins has been the best of the bunch, allowing just a 51.7 % completion rate and an opposing passer rating of 65.7. Neither he nor Humphrey has given up a touchdown this year yet and will need to raise their game even more during the next third of the season with tougher opponents yet to come.
Safeties: C +
The saving grace keeping this grade from being flat-out 'D' or 'C-' at best is the fact that three-time All Pro Kyle Hamilton is playing like a well-deserving Defensive Player of the Year candidate right now, and second-year pro Malaki Starks has shown signs of improvement over the past couple of weeks. What was being billed as potentially the best trio in the league all summer has fallen well short of expectations to start the season.
Collectively, they have not only failed to consistently come up with big plays in key moments but have also been the main culprits in some very detrimental breakdowns in coverage late in games and on third downs, especially.
Starks appears to be turning a corner, making plays both in coverage and as a forceful player against the run. However, the same can not be said about veteran free agent acquisition Jaylinn Hawkins, who has disappointed thus far. He has no pass breakups, interceptions, tackles for loss or plays on the ball of any kind. He'll need to start turning it around before the Ravens' coaches are forced to find a configuration that works better without him, possibly one that utilizes second-year undrafted gem and special teams ace Keondre Jackson.
Special teams: C
Coming into the regular season after a disastrous end to his rookie year and a discouraging performance in the preseason, a lot of eyes were on and remain on second-year placekicker Tyler Loop. He's drilled some impressive kicks in high-leverage situations, including the walk-off winner in Rio de Janeiro in Week 3 to beat the Dallas Cowboys in a thriller and setting a new home-field record for the longest successful attempt. However, he's still struggled with consistency when it comes to making clutch kicks in the second half of games. Both of the Ravens' losses have featured missed kicks by Loop from under 50 yards, and this year, he's 10-of-13 on field goals, with one blocked attempt and two bad misses. The Ravens signed veteran kicker Jake Moody to the practice squad at the onset of the season to give Loop some competition and recently brought him back earlier this week in the wake of his recent struggles.
Rookie punter Ryan Eckley has been the field-flipping weapon that the Ravens envisioned they were getting when they selected him in the sixth round of this year's draft. Half of his punts have pinned the opposing team's offense inside its own 20-yard line; he's averaging 46.9 yards per punt and his longest has been 62 yards. As far as the return game goes, the Ravens haven't gotten much juice from second-year pro LaJohntay Wester, who's returned 10 punts for 91 yards with a long of 24. He's one of three players who have returned kicks, and none have broken one longer than 42 yards (Chris Moore in the season opener.
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