Ravens Say They Won't Scale Back Offense For Their Back-up QB. They Better Be Bluffing

A rookie offensive coordinator can talk up Snoop Huntley all he wants, but major recalibrations are needed Sunday in Atlanta without Lamar Jackson

Aug 28, 2026; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley (5) drops back to pass during the first quarter against the Washington Commanders at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

There is some serious mythologizing of Snoop Huntley going on in Owings Mills these days.

The Ravens back-up quarterback, to hear people in The Castle talk about, is one of the premier No. 2 QBs in the NFL, and a trusted piece and an excellent alternative to Lamar Jackson. Rookie offensive coordinator Declan Doyle is so head-over-heels about the potential to win a game as a young play caller with a No. 2 QB that he’s threatening to bring a Lamar Jackson game plan into a very difficult game Sunday night in Atlanta.

Good grief. Give me a break.

A year ago these are the same executives who wanted nothing to do with Huntley anymore and believed that thoroughly washed Cooper Rush was an upgrade (Rush is now in Atlanta and “played” two games for the Falcons picking up as the complete mess he was in Baltimore). So spare me the hyperbole and over-the-top compliments. Jackson is almost certain not to play this week and maybe not next week, either, and things are going to be tough for this offense and Doyle better figure that out quickly and make major adjustments.

The combination of Huntley with a makeshift offensive line and one that can’t even really run block for Derrick Henry, is potentially perilous and thinking you can air it out like Jackson was – 10.1 yards/attempt, highest in the NFL – with Huntley (5.9/attempt and very limited as a downfield passer), is taking people for fools.

“I do not think the mentality of how you want to run the offense changes at all,” Doyle said with a straight face on Thursday. “I think regardless of who is in there, you are trying to hunt explosives.”

Good luck with that, bro.

The Falcons are getting pressure as readily as any team in the NFL right now, they are doing it without blitzing, and they are facing an incredibly suspect offensive line that is so bad the GM, who created the mess starting with letting elite center Tyler Linderbaum walk as a free agent, just traded a second-round pick for a veteran who hasn’t been the same since back surgery and who the Eagles didn’t even really think was a center anymore.  And Huntley, for all his limitations, is a an acute problem when he is put under any sort of pressure.

Hang On Snoopy (I Know It’s Sloopy)

Huntley is 7-9 in his career (Jackson covers up a ridiculous amount of roster warts for one of the most overrated GMs in the NFL). Huntley is pretty pedestrian when not pressured _ again this franchise was done with him and so was the rest of the league before Rush crashed out – with a rating of 89.8. One thing Huntley can do when not under duress is complete the lay ups (73% completion percentage).

Everything falls apart when he gets some heat, especially if you can generate that rush without bringing five defenders – which the Falcons do as well as anyone in the NFL.

Huntley has a career rating of 62.0 under pressure, completing just 46.8% of his passes with four TDs and three picks and averaging a scant 4.9 yards per attempt. Yikes. He has a career 84.8 rating against the blitz, so, again, the big problems occur when you get him rattled with four up front. Against this OL, that’s well within reason.

And the idea he is going to attack downfield is taking people for fools. Huntley is 9-for-47 in his career on passes that travel over 20 yards in the air, with four picks and no TDs and a 20-something rating. Going there in a dome with this group around him would be courting disaster. Go for it rook, sitting up there in the press box with your long script of plays. I dare you.

The Falcons will destroy those seven-step drops.

Atlanta leads the NFL generating a 47.3% pressure rate. They have nine more pressures than any team in the league and they are second with 32 QB hits and they are doing all this despite being 29th in blitz rate (around 20%). If Huntley isn't leaning into checkdowns and the ball isn’t coming out very fast and not going not very far, big problems will arise.

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