Ravens 2026 Safety Positional Assessment: Stacked For The Present And Future

Is this the best-fortified position group on the Ravens' roster? Might be.

Nov 27, 2025; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton (14) before the game at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images | Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images

Any study of the safety position in a Jesse Minter defense must start with an acknowledgement of the hybrid role influential defensive back Kyle Hamilton will play this season.

Honestly, if he plays as much WILL linebacker as I suspect, he probably should be listed with the linebackers and not the safeties. But we’ll defer to the standard designation here and note what a brilliant campaign we believe he will embark on. Hamilton is too smart and too athletic and too primed to fail, and this coaching staff is too prepared and proven on this side of the ball to fail him.

It’s not going to happen.

They have the full scope and allotment of ancillary defensive backs around him to allow Hamilton to shine and stay in this morphing role he needs to be in and they have face more sufficient pass rushers to make it more difficult to detect and intervene when Hamilton blitzes this season. If what Minter did with Derwin James in Los Angeles is anything close to what Hamilton looks like with him now, we’re talking a truly dominant player who will impact the football.

Hamilton has become the outward face and voice of this team as well – mature and wise beyond his years, and if the unit is as improved overall as I suspect, Hamilton’s profile will continue to rise.

This position group should be one of the very strongest on the roster. If it’s not, something went horribly wrong or injuries came in bunches. It boast a starting combination just entering their prime with impeccable pedigrees and some of the best depth on the team.

Key Contracts

Starters:

Hamilton $20M cash ($10.6M cap): Ravens GM eric DeCosta banged his chest about keeping his best homegrown talent in Baltimore but Hamilton is the rare top talent who actually had a smooth negotiation on a new extension here. Most of that 2022 draft class left for greener pastures. Signed through 2030, he is the present and the future.

Malaki Starks $1.6M cash (3.8M cap): Could be primed for a true breakthrough season with the upgrades made around him in talent, coaching acumen and scheme. Must be making more plays on the ball this season. Tied up long-term as a first-round pick with a potential fifth-year option.

Back-Ups

Jaylinn Hawkins $5M cash ($3.15 cap): Coming off a career year, he could be a great value signing. Versatile enough to provide quality reps in multiple ways. If the Ravens want to bring him back for 2027 for another $5M they can.

K’Von Wallace $1.1M cash ($1.2M cap): Loved what I hear about his coverage ability from scouts who watched him pretty closely. If he stays healthy he can be a factor.

Others To Know

Keondre Jackson: An un-drafted kid from 2025 who could make a name on special teams.

Prognosis For 2026 – Truly Elite

It’s probably the most stacked position on the entire team when you factor in age and contract status (how much team control exists for key players and recent injury status. And then when you consider Minter’s forte and what he’s been able to do with his secondaries that didn’t have this much talent. When you use first-round picks on the same position twice in four years, it should be a strength.

Prognosis Beyond 2026 – Sterling

… And when you invest that kind of draft capital in that same position and you extend one of the players and the other isn’t even eligible for an extension for two more seasons, and they flash this kind of upside talent, you feel very good about that position group for years to come in ways you just don’t about many others on this roster.

Projections

Hamilton will merit Defensive Player Of The Year votes if this defense is as impactful as I anticipate. They don’t face more than a handful of top tier quarterbacks and will have their way with some of the lesser ones as Minter toys with protection schemes and confounds with zone looks and finds ways to exploit Hamilton’s skillset.

People I trust in this league believe the Ravens have all the pieces at this position Minter needs to mix-and-match and feature Hamilton. Starks, like a lot of young defensive backs, is likely naturally primed to take a leap forward. He works too hard and prepares too rigorously for it not to pay off more this season.

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