No Ravens Player Had More Than 5 Sacks Last Season. How Many Will Top That In 2026?

A year ago, either implausibly or inherently by design (depending on how you sized up an inept defensive roster) no one on the Baltimore Ravens registered more than five sacks.

Somehow, on third down, no Raven registered more than two sacks. Only the 49ers had close to as inept of a get-home rate and pressure rate as the Ravens, who left the secondary exposed in Cover-0 and Cover-1 with overmatched coordinator Zach Orr searching desperate for pass rush and coming up empty. The roster provided nothing once Nnamdi Madubuike suffered a season-ending neck injury requiring surgery and Odafe Oweh was dealt for a middling box safety.

New head coach Jesse Minter is going to stopping the run with a light box and playing a ton of zone and getting three safeties involved in subpackges and the scheme and play calling are changing dramatically. The Ravens also made their boldest free agent move of the Eric DeCosta era, by far, in signing older pass rusher Trey Hendrickson for $30M a year (for essentially two guaranteed years).

Departures, across the board. That were desperately needed. (Maxx Crosby would have been better, but DeCosta widely rethought at the price in draft capital it would have cost him.)

So where does that leave this group? What are reasonable estimates on the sack production these individuals could provide? Especially if we exclude Madubuike from this exercise given how much uncertainty there is about when he will return and how much he can offer? Well, it’s light year’s beyond 2025, no matter how conservatively you skew.

12 – 15 Sacks

Hendrickson had best be in this range or something went quite wrong. In this scheme, the one in which Oweh went from passenger to stud the moment he landed with Minter in Los Angeles after that midseason trade, there are no excuses. Not with this staff and not with the contract he received.

Age and injury are definitely a concern, which is why I’m not setting the bar higher. At 32 he may need a few weeks here or there. Only two Ravens (Elvis Dumervil, 17 in 2014, and Peter Boulware, 15 in 2001) have ever posted 15 sacks in a season. Since Terrell Suggs logged his final double-digit sack season in 2017, only three Ravens have posted 10 sacks in a season – Oweh (10) and Kyle Van Noy (12.5) in 2024, and Madubuike (13) in 2023. Hendrickson must be added to that group this season.

7-10 Sacks

Mike Green as a designated pass rusher with a streamlined role and not the ridiculous amount of snaps he played on early downs last season should aid his development. He is the young edge presence to watch in this regard, and not second-round pick Zion Young. Green must be a factor in nickel and dime NASCAR looks.

Period.

This feels too lofty for anyone else on the roster, but fertile territory perhaps for Madubuike if his health allows.

5-7 Sacks

The goal will be a diverse sample and swatch of contributors in this category, across position groups. All of whom would provide more finish than anyone on last year’s roster.

If Calais Campbell reaches that 400-snap range he is hoping for this is not too ambitious a number. His win-rates last year on a bad team in Arizona were astounding for his age. Maybe Travis Jones sniffs it as well from the interior.

One of the younger edge rushers like Tavius Robinson should be in this mix (I’m thinking more like 3-4 for Zion Young but we’ll see). And the secondary needs to be offering some solutions here, too. And not just Kyle Hamilton.

Hamilton will be playing the role Derwin James filled in this defense with Minter, and he posted 5.5 sacks in 2024. Hamilton’s blitz rate is going to soar from how Orr used him. And things will be better disguised as well. If Hamilton is having a Defensive MVP-type season, this isn’t unrealistic.

2-4 Sacks

Young in this range is fine with me; let him set the edge and ease his way in. if corner Marlon Humphrey is going to make $19.25M this season and play more in the slot, he’d best he used as a blitzer some.

Minter got a host of linebackers in the mix getting to the QB in LA, and Trent Simpson has some speed and twitch and could stumble into a few here and it’s usually where Roquan Smith lands, and coming off getting blanked a year ago, this seems reasonable if he hasn't hit the wall entirely.

Injuries will play a role in this, and beyond Hendrickson this is a collective approach, but there should be a much more robust showing from every level of the defense in this regard in 2026.

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