Ravens Winners and Losers After Trade Deadline: Underachieving Veterans Stay Empowered

The Ravens had a unique opportunity to reset their roster and reposition for the future amid a second straight embarrassing season. They categorically abstained.

There will be ramifications. There always are.

The longer the franchise clings to tropes like “Play Like A Raven,” and mythologize any recent accomplishments, the worse it will get for many involved. They do themselves and, especially, those who spend their money to support this product, no favors by pretending they are something they clearly are not. And they will continue to get humbled and torn down while playing without Lamar Jackson for the rest of the season (trust us and the cap guru who helped Jackson negotiate his last deal). Instead of clearing a path for youngsters to take over and accept that rookie head coach Jesse Minter and his novice staff have a steep learning curve before anyone sniffs a Lombardi Trophy, they are selling a parable (through words and deeds) that the tanking Cardinals third-string QB is going to save this season.

Instead of loading up on draft picks, they gave them away in droves at an alarming and desperate rate, and the Cam Jurgens deal in October (that’s as much a deadline-deal as any) threatens to haunt them for years to come. And so general manager Eric DeCosta, with a fairly dreadful drafting record, will have fewer opportunities than usual to throw darts at draft picks, and we’ll see if owner Steve Bisciotti is willing to gush again about his GM “batting .800” in his transactions after back-to-back stupefying seasons.

Losers

Oct 25, 2026; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Ravens head coach Jesse Minter reacts during the second quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Fans: They really do take you for fools, both pro sports teams in this team. They think you are too simple to see the truth for yourself and believe they can obfuscate with sleight of hand and empty rhetoric. The franchise is in steep and steady decline, they can’t even figure out how to add a kicker to their 53-man roster the right way, they can’t win at home, and they are the NFL’s unmitigated premier choking dogs since DeCosta took over in 2019 no matter who the coaches and coordinators are.

Minter: The front office could have helped empower him and amplify his (quite muted to this point) voice by kicking some of the gross under-achievers out at the deadline and making it easier him to bench others. They could have let the fanbase know that they accept this mess for what it is and stop scapegoating coaches and hanging them out to dry, and started going young for the future. Was a good time to alter expectations that this is some kind of a franchise anywhere close to a Super Bowl – you know startup coaching staff, with more startup starters. But that would take humility and maturity and dignity from a front office.

Derrick Henry/Calais Campbell: Even if they wanted to stick around here to be a part of the rest of this lost season, they will regret that over time. This could be the end for both of them, and they both should be first-ballot Hall of Famers. Being 32 for a RB and 40 for a DL is unreal, neither has a chance to win or standout much individually the rest of this season and Henry, in particular, could carry such a physical toll (he was leading the NFL in carries after playing Week 9) it wrecks whatever might have been left for 2027. Would be amazing to see them get a shot at playoff glory, but that ain’t happening in Baltimore.

Winners

Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown (14) makes a catch for a touchdown against Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey (44) during the second half at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Md. on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Tyler Loop: The Falcons were not the only team sniffing around former Ravens kicker Jake Moody, as we hear it and they didn’t just immediately take a shine to him. Too gross negligence for the Ravens to lose him, and there is a decent chance Moody kicks quite well for rebuilding Falcons with no pressure and in a dome … Injury to Loop or not, his performance was about to get him benched for Moody, and if Moody had done the job, Loop wasn’t coming off IR. Now the youngster, who clearly has not been the same since missing the kick in Week 18 to knock the Ravens out of the playoffs, gets another chance to maybe send a positive message before the offseason.

Over-entitled veterans: Send a message to Marlon Humphrey and eat some of his contract to send him someplace he wouldn’t want to be? Nah. Clear a path for Trenton Simpson – the only youngster on the entire roster really making a case for a contract extension – by doing something with aged Roquan Smith? Nope. Minter couldn’t even come out and criticize them by name this week with the media (saves that for Loop only, apparently). Expect them to continue to keep these overmatched coaches under their heels.

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