Four Critical Personnel Issues The Ravens Will Have To Address

The Ravens are already facing probing questions about their roster through two weeks.

Areas that were never taken seriously enough on offense, and odors that have been coming from that side of the roster that general manager Eric DeCosta has been blaming on other people for years are already starting to stink again. There are no quick fixes or easy solutions for much of this. In some cases, perhaps hope is offered from within, but it’s also fair to wonder if repeating the same personnel mistakes year after year will continue to result in teams that fall short of expectations.

Whether there is a 20-year pro coaching the sidelines of someone who has never won a home game.

With the team traveling to Brazil this week to face the Cowboys after blowing yet another double-digit lead in a 24-17 loss to New Orleans, their practice schedule and workflow will be impacted the next two weeks. But they also better not pretend that they’ll merely be able to plow through, because the offensive line undermined a two-time MVP quarterback last year and don’t think it can’t do so again this year just because Zay Flowers called 30-year-old play caller Declan Doyle a genius in July.

Left Tackle

I reported steadfastly this spring that left tackle Kadyn Proctor was the Ravens dream pick at 14th overall. Moving up to land him would have made sense. Doing absolutely nothing to buttress their tackle situation, especially in a year when they have a record $365M payroll and have a lot of their keys guys in a walk year didn’t make much sense given Ronnie Stanley’s medical history.

A toe injury for a man of his size who needs to generate power and have ballerina-type footwork is a big deal. The fact Stanley couldn’t get through Sunday’s game and now they head to play on a bad and soft field in Brazil, is problematic. The Ravens love to hype their mid-round and undrafted offensive linemen when they don’t have to play; when DeCosta picks them, and then they have to play, well, seasons get compromised.

It also means that undrafted rookie Gerad Lichtenhan is now the swing guy if Stanley is out, and the tackle eligible, and a roster bereft of fullbacks/blocking TEs outside of “Joker” Durham Smythe could really use a heavy dose of six OL (but Doyle decided to force 11 personnel instead Sunday and Lamar Jacskon has 48.7 rating dropping back 20 times with that personnel on the field.

Vinson played 11 pass reps and surrendered two pressures and two hurries and was beaten once.

Downfield Pass Catcher

Same as it always was. They have no one who can be trusted – Rashod Bateman made a few plays Sunday and Jackson’s also added to his career-high total of picks thrown when targeting him – besides Zay Flowers. Flowers had a hamstring issue dating back to the summer and they are easily aggravated. They drafted four project pass catchers, none of whom offered anything Sunday with Baltimore in a personnel bind.

There are plenty of options out there, or at least a few, and if they think Brandin Cooks has anything to offer after a workout last week, they’d best jump on that. Mark Andrews us a dink-and-dunk tight end at the end of his career. It’s a little early to be this bleak, but then again it’s been this bleak since March.

Center

If they want to pretend that Jovaughn Gwyn is a starting center, they can go ahead and keep doing that and most of the pushovers will be fine with it. But their interior offensive line is bad and it was bad in pass protection against the Colts in a win (49% pressure rate). Ethan Pocic, pushing 6000 snaps, better be ready to play soon coming off that Achilles.

They need someone with experience and savvy and elite communication skills to try to get an interior group that looks quite vulnerable to any sort of game up front to coalesce. John Simpson already dealing with an injury at guard is problematic, too.

Kicker

Tyler Loop is not good at home and yeah the kick got blocked early in the game and it’s not like that’s all on him … But he also keeps missing kicks at home. This team, so early in this regime with green coaches, needs to be able to at least keep pace with their opponent’s special-teams prowess. And that’s just not the case. Mentally, it's not good for a young kicker now matter how they keep missing.

And whether they called for the kickoff at the end of the half to be that short or it just was, because Loop has struggled with this as well, it’s not good enough. That long return shifted momentum at the end of the half and allowed the Saints to cut the lead to 14-9 at the half.

This week, with limited practice time and a long flight and Jake Moody no longer on the practice squad means nothing will happen, but if you think the kicker issue is resolved you much only be watching this kid kick in a dome.

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