Ravens Trying To Restore Order To The Middle Of The Field On Defense

A year ago, the spine of the Ravens defense was compromised and vulnerable.

The unit was bad all around, but suffered extensively right in the middle, through all three levels, which is impossible to overcome. Some of it was injury. Some of it was a suspect roster. Some of it was, perhaps, highly-paid veterans hitting the wall after thousands of snaps playing this incredibly violent game.

And it much be a point of significant gain and recovery and rebirth for rookie head coach Jesse Minter as he operates that side of the ball and oversees the defense through the week and on game day. Getting All Pro defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike back fully from neck surgery and back to himself would be massive. Getting middle linebacker Roquan Smith back to being anything close to a $20M player would be massive, and not having to rely on guys like Alohi Gilman in centerfield in the secondary should be a significant boost, too.

The roster looks better and deeper and more formidable in that regard, now about three weeks from the start of the regular season, than at any point sine Madubuike went down in September. But there are also serious questions lingering about the spine, as well, from a health and productivity standpoint, starting with Madubuike, whose 2023 season was as close to Aaron Donald-esque as we’re going to see.

Madubuike remains the key to everything, on a very incremental schedule as he adds to his workload, but still just working on an individual basis. He has added a blocking sled to his duties, starting to test the head and neck area in new ways, yet with there always inherent caveats about such a progression and what could happen when games are played.

“it’s all part of the process with him,” Minter said after practice Monday. “We think he’s in a great place and it’s a progression week-to-week, seeing him hit the sled and do things like that.”

The Ravens remain very cautious about any timeline and remain hopeful he can participate and be impactful early in the season, but time will tell.

A Hole In The Middle

Teams didn’t both trying to run inside a ton last year even without Madubuike, and John Jenkins and Broderick Washington are big bodies and Travis Jones does well against the run, too. The Ravens had no pass rush whatsoever, and so even without their All Pro tackle, only six teams faced fewer inside runs than the Ravens last season.

Opponents were too busy lighting them up passing there. The Ravens ranked 21st in the NFL in opposing passer rating throwing between the hashes last season (109.4). Smith has been a liability in coverage for a few years now and he spoke candidly about his decline early in the spring, and defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver vowed a return to top form for the former All Pro as well.

Inside linebackers coach Tyler Santucci was a bit more circumspect discussing Smith, 29, after Monday’s practice, with one of the holdovers from head coach John Harbaugh’s former staff acknowledging work needs to be done.

Santucci mentioned how he had to “earn some trust, being able to have the talks that we need to have,” and he praised Smith’s response to them. He believes they can overcome that adversity together and explained that Smith has been “chasing the best version of himself over the past several months.”

Whether includes the veteran on the field for every snap or making getting a rest in some dime packages remains to be seen. Teddye Buchanan was stout in coverage with athleticism and good instincts before his rookie season was cut short by an ACL tear and he was recently activated from the Physically Unable to Perform list ahead of schedule from that surgery but still, like Madubuike, working through his recovery.

“I’ve seen a lot of patience with him, combined with urgency,” Santucci said.

What that means for Week 1 remains to be seen, and we continue to hear the Ravens are keeping close tabs on several middle linebackers with ties to this scheme and NFL playing experience, knowing that while undrafted rookie linebackers like Ethan Burke and Dominic DeLuca have done some nice things in preseason games, things are very different come September.

And while Trenton Simpson continues to earn rave reviews, we suspect he is out in space more and on the edge, where his speed is most impactful. Santucci termed his progress “a tremendous jump,” with him not dressing for exhibition games speaking to that.

On The Back End

The Ravens are looking for much more playmaking from their safeties on the back end, especially in the middle of the field.

Kyle Hamilton is freed up to menace offenses around the line of scrimmage with a deep compliment of others to hold up downfield. Second-year pro Malaki Starks seemed primed for a breakthrough – especially if the Ravens are able to pressure the quarterback this season – while Gilman was a target back there, missing tackles and struggling mightily in coverage (opponents completed eight of their final 10 attempts on him last year for 134 yards, and that wasn’t an anomaly).

The Ravens need a combination of health, scheme and luck to restore order in the middle of the field. Smith playing behind two stout tackles, taken out of some challenging coverage assignments and with play makers behind him, would go a long way to sorting it out and letting him run around and thump and disrupt.

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