A Change Of Coaches And Scheme Should Prompt A Breakout For One Young Ravens Corner

The Ravens have been whispering about the potential of young corner TJ Tampa for years, teasing what he could be, with a pedigree for finding value with mid-round corners

Perhaps this is the season in which Tampa stays healthy, and his play speaks for itself.

During his first two years in the league, the Ravens continued to throw an abundance of assets at the secondary, signing veteran free agents and using a first-round pick on Nate Wiggins and arguably over-paying Marlon Humphrey and keeping him around longer than they should have. But for the first time in a long time, general manager Eric DeCosta hasn’t invested heavy capital in free agency, trades or in the draft at the corner position, and Jesse Minter’s zone-heavy scheme should offer Tampa renewed opportunities.

Retaining Chidobe Awuzie made all the sense in the world for as cheap as he came, but he is older and should be kept on a pitch count. Despite having 11 draft picks to play with, the Ravens, notorious for loading up on defensive backs, only took a small nickel back who isn’t a comp for Tampa in the least.

As we’ve chronicled, former defensive coordinator Zach Orr, in part because DeCosta saddled him with rosters utterly devoid of individual pass-rush skills, leaned far more into man-coverage than anyone could have thought would be ideal – heavy usage of Cover-0 and Cover-1 - and while Tampa is plenty physical enough to try to reroute receivers, he isn’t a burner and other corners were preferred or he wasn’t available.

Oh, and Humphrey has skipped pretty much all voluntary sessions this spring ahead of next week’s mandatory minicamp, which certainly couldn’t hurt Tampa’s cause.

Scheme Matters

We broke down the specific coverage tendencies in greater detail over the last two seasons previously, but let’s keep it as simple as possible for these purposes. Over the past two seasons (per TruMedia) only six teams utilized more man coverage than the Ravens (30.3%), the average NFL team used it 24% of the time … and no one used it less than Minter with the Chargers (14.4%). And Minter’s mentor, former Ravens coordinator Mike Macdonald, utilized it just 20%.

Minter utilizes quarters coverage more than pretty much any other defensive play caller, he plays a ton of dime, and while much of that incorporates three safeties, not all of it does.

“He’s a better fit for Minter than Orr,” one longtime evaluator told me. “He’s a big zone corner with a plus wing-span differential who doesn’t have ideal closing speed. They’re going to play quarters with big corners.”

Minter didn’t invest top draft capital into corners with the Chargers (where formers Ravens exec Jo Hortiz served as GM), believing his scheme could help cover up some deficiencies. But he wanted them over 6-feet tall with long levers. Tampa checks these boxes. Here’s what defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, who was on the Ravens staff when Tampa was selected, had to say about him after OTAs last week:

“He's in here every day working to get better. His rapport with our DB coaches has been excellent with [pass game coordinator & secondary coach] Mike Mickens. He's trying to go out there and apply the technique and fundamentals that they're trying to give him, and then he just works.

“And he's one of those guys where, if a negative play does happen, he's not a guy that lowers his head and gets in a tank. He just goes on to the next play, which is all we're trying to get all our guys to do. So couldn't be more pleased with T.J. and his ceiling and where he can go. But the one thing I do know is he's going to work to reach that ceiling."

Opportunity Awaits

Tampa has played just 158 snaps of defense through two seasons, but when you look at coverage snaps it paints an even stranger picture (this has been a bad secondary, let’s not get it twisted).

Ravens CB Coverage Snaps 2024-2025

Wiggins (32 games): 1113

Humphrey (31): 1065

Awuzie (14): 388

Tre’Devious White (7): 104

Tampa (24): 91

Keyon Martin (13): 90

Um, not a lot of sample size there. Tampa, of course, must avoid injury. He missed much of his rookie season on IR with an ankle injury and missed time last season with ankle and shoulder issues.

Tampa had a top 10 overall athletic score among all corners in his draft class when he came out of Iowa State, and this is absolutely go time for him; if a fourth-round pick in a new scheme with new coaches (but many who have strong ties to the Macdonald scheme the Ravens are trying to get back to and utilized when Tampa was drafted) can’t see more of the field in year three, then it’s time to wonder if his future is elsewhere; ain’t no way DeCosta, if he’s still on the job, is going to resist taking a bunch of corners next year.

Tampa’s situation feels a bit like the case for receiver Devontez Walker – this young corner has the kind of metrics and athletic traits that one would think the new staff would want to lean heavily into, and there is a veteran ahead of him who might be in his last season (or less?) in Baltimore blocking him for now; Rashod Bateman (erratic production and injury risk) in Walker’s instance, and Marlon Humphrey (erratic production and injury risky plus bloated contract) in the case of Tampa.

Let’s be real, with John Harbaugh gone, DeCosta and football operations has more power than ever before with a largely young and inexperienced coaching staff on board. They have seniority and more experience doing their jobs than in personnel than Minter or offensive coordinator Declan Doyle do. And they made it clear through Harbaugh’s departure that they felt this coaching staff was holding back some of their talent.

A year ago DeCosta, in a stupid move in real-time given his atrocious pass rush, grabbed corner Jaire Alexander instead. Much like on the wide receiver side – where the Ravens routinely blocked youngsters with ill-advised vet acquisitions – they’ve resisted the temptation to this point.

You have to think the presence of Tampa has something to do with that.

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