Ravens Won't Stray Too Far From League's Top Ground Attack

Baltimore has led NFL in rushing yards over past two seasons.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — While the Ravens want to boost their passing attack, the team will not stray too far from building their offense around the run. 

For the second consecutive year, Baltimore managed the league's top rushing attack. The emergence of rookie second-round pick J.K. Dobbins bodes well for a repeat performance next season.

"I think one of the things, as you think about the passing game, is we throw the ball a lot less than a lot of other teams do," Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said. "That’s by design; we’re a running football team. People like to look at yards per game as a good metric of a passing game, and I think we threw the ball probably 150-160 times less than any other team did this year in the NFL.

"We are a running team."

Here's a look at Baltimore's running attack last season:

• The Ravens finished 2020 with the NFL’s No. 1 rushing attack (191.9 ypg) for the second-straight season. Baltimore’s 3,071 rushing yards stand as the third most in a 16-game NFL season. (The Ravens own two of the Top 3 marks.)

• Baltimore has rushed for 100 or more yards in 39-straight games, marking the second-longest streak in pro football history.

• In 2020, the Ravens had an NFL-best six games with at least 200 rushing yards, including a franchise-record 404-yard output in Week 17’s victory at Cincinnati.

• The Ravens’ 24 rushing touchdowns ranked third in the NFL and set a new single-season franchise record. 

• For the second-straight year, Baltimore had three players – quarterback Lamar Jackson (1,005), Dobbins (805) and Gus Edwards (723) – rush for over 700 yards each. The 2020 Ravens joined the 2019 Ravens and 2011 Panthers as the only teams ever with three 700-yard rushers in a season.

• Since Jackson’s rookie season (2018), the Ravens have rushed for an NFL-high 8,808 yards (183.5 ypg).

Still, the Ravens need to establish more balance with the offense to perhaps make a deeper run in the playoffs. Baltimore had the league's 32nd-ranked passing attack last season and made several offseason moves to improve that performance. 

Baltimore added veteran wide receiver Sammy Watkins in free agency.

The Ravens also added Rashod Bateman and Tylan Wallace via the NFL draft.

They will compliment a group of wide receivers already on the roster, including Hollywood Brown, Miles Boykin, Devin Duvernay, Deon Cain, and James Proche.

Baltimore also has two solid tight ends in Mark Andrews and Nick Boyle.

The team is determined to get the results this season.

"We’ve been working – not just me," Jackson said. "All the QBs and the receivers, we’ve been getting together and trying to make that a big emphasis for us this year. People are always saying we throw short, intermediate routes and stuff like that – little five-yard, 10-yard routes.

"But we had some chances last year. We hit some of them, but we’re just trying to be more consistent this year, and that’s where the strides happen. It starts in practice, and hopefully, it transitions to the game. We’ve just got to keep working on it.”

However, don't expect the Ravens to get too far away from running the football, especially if that is paving the way for victories.