John Harbaugh only has two losing seasons on his resume as head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Another losing season may be on the horizon with a perfect storm of salary cap issues and a discontented quarterback. The Ravens placed Lamar Jackson on the non-exclusive franchise tag, allowing him to negotiate with other teams who can trade two first round draft picks for him. There does not seem to be many team who are willing to match his own valuation of himself though.
If the Ravens had been the dominant, 14-2 team from 2019 during the last year of play, the current situation almost certainly would be overblown. Instead, the 2022 Ravens were erratic, at best. Despite Harbaugh squeezing every last drop of grit and determination from his team last season and just making the playoffs in a chaotic AFC, the team was a mess. Considering the Jackson controversy and their numerous injuries winning 10 games was an accomplishment in itself.
Baltimore Ravens Key Questions Without Lamar Jackson Signed
No Offence without Lamar Jackson
Although Lamar Jackson’s season ended prematurely when he was injured in week 12, the offence stuttered all season. Their poor performance culminated in a week 15, 3-13 loss to the AFC North basement dwellers Cleveland Browns. After starting the season 7-3 they lost four of their last five games.
The Ravens were ranked 24th as they scored just 34 touchdowns in 2022. They ended the season with the same number of passing touchdowns as the lowly Chicago Bears; only 10 teams managed fewer. Their offence was ranked 19th for passing touchdowns and 20th for rushing touchdowns. Injuries to Rashon Bateman and Mark Andrews along with Jackson’s knee issue were partly to blame, although the offensive line was a problem too. Ultimately Greg Roman carried the can (more of that later) but given the weakness of the defense, Baltimore may have a deeply rooted line of scrimmage problem.
Stark Raven Mad
Odell Beckham signing for the Ravens and partying the night away with Lamar Jackson set the media on fire this week. So, that fixes everything in Baltimore, right? Probably not. Even if Jackson remains a Raven those storm clouds are still gathering.
Spotrac estimates the Ravens have -$3.5 million in cap room space, with $3.9 million in space for the top-51. Overthecap calculates their “effective cap space” (estimated salary cap following all cuts and rookie signings) at just over $550,000.
The Ravens roster construction only amplifies their salary cap problem. With Jackson’s status still up in the air they do not really know how much money they can spend. If he leaves that could free up over $30 million but then they would only have two, inexperienced quarterbacks. Tyler Huntley has started eight games in his three-year career and Anthony Brown has only started once.
Beyond the quarterback situation they have already traded Chuck Clark and released Calais Campbell (who signed with the Atlanta Falcons). Safety Clark played more defensive snaps than any other Raven and only Patrick Queen made more tackles than Clark did in 2022. Justin Houston, who is currently an unrestricted free agent, was the only player to record more sacks than the veteran Campbell. If Jackson decides to stay and play on the franchise tag, they will have to release others or rework contracts to stay cap compliant.
Ravens cannot rush these things
Like the offensive line, the Ravens defensive line was also a concern. Baltimore ranked 25th in quarterback pressure percentage in 2022 (and that was with Campbell and Houston). They currently only have six defensive linemen so even with five outside linebackers they need to find more pass rushers.
In 2022 the Ravens 48 sacks was fifth in the league, not posing a problem in itself. However, Houston, Campbell and Jason Pierre-Paul (who, like Houston is currently an unrestricted free agent) were three of the top-six pass rushers. Those three made 38% of the teams’ sacks. Projecting forward indicates that pressure percentage could be even lower, which would be an issue. As if to support the idea pass rushers have not flourished in Baltimore since Terrell Suggs left, former Raven Matt Judon has made 28 sacks in two seasons as a Patriot. In his five seasons as a Raven, he made a total of 34.5.
Pass rush is not the only issue for the Ravens defense. Their 14 interceptions was merely 17th best last season. Of even more concern, they only managed three turnovers in the final five games of the 2022 season. Marcus Peters, who lead the defense in recovering fumbles is another defensive member without a contract.
More Birds Fly The Coup
Back on the offensive side of the ball, Baltimore lost a guard, a tight end, and a center. Their already limited offensive line (Football Outsiders ranked them 21st in 2022) now looks pretty basic.
The only two free agent signings they have made so far are both wide receivers. Although Odell was the most recent, the first signing of Nelson Agholor flew under the radar. Agholor has not caught more than 60% of his targets since 2018 in Philadelphia. Last season in New England he made just seven starts. Following the signing of Agholor with the addition of Beckham looks somewhere between unnecessary and bewildering.
Baltimore’s current roster construction looks even more chaotic considering the free agents they have not yet re-signed. Presumably Houston and Peters (only three Ravens played more defensive snaps than Peters last season) both want to stay in Baltimore but cannot yet sign a contract. Instead, the Ravens currently have two fullbacks to go with nine wide receivers! Stockpiling receivers (although there’s obviously no guarantee they’ll be on the roster come September) seems to suggest a move away from the offensive scheme they have been running under Greg Roman.
A New Pecking Order For The Ravens
Todd Monken has replaced 2022 offensive coordinator Greg Roman. Monken’s first offensive coordinator appointment was back in 1998 at Eastern Michigan. Since then, he has filled that role for Oklahoma State (2011-12), the Buccaneers (2016-18), the Browns (2019) and at Georgia (2020-22). That may suggest the Ravens have one eye on Stetson Bennet as they head to the draft with an uncertain quarterback situation. Bennett has not exactly been generating a lot of pre-draft hype though despite winning two national championships at college.
Monken does have history with Odell Beckham during the 2019 season in Cleveland. Beckham recorded a 1,000 receiving yard season in 2019, ending the season with 1,035 yards from 74 catches. However, he caught a mere 55.6% of the passes Baker Mayfield threw in his direction. The Browns would end that season third in their division with a 6-10 record. Odell did throw two passes that season and one was a 20-yard completion, so his 50% completion rate was close to Mayfield’s 59.4%. Beckham also had three rushing attempts in 2019, giving credence to the idea that Monken’s playbook is full of wrinkles.
How Jackson (or Huntley) adapts to those wrinkles will be fascinating. The Ravens quarterback transition could be smooth transition. Although, there are a few red flags when a coach has 11 different stops on their coaching journey; especially when none of those stops have been head coaching roles.
Monken, however, is not the only new face on the Ravens coaching team. There’s a new running backs coach, Willie Taggart who spent the last two seasons as head coach at Florida Atlantic University. The last time Taggart was a running backs coach was between 2007 and 2009 when he was at Stanford. He’s been a head coach ever since. He’s taken charge of five different college programs in the intervening 13 years.
The new quarterbacks coach in Baltimore, Tee Martin, has not been a quarterbacks coach since 2009 at New Mexico. He’s been a wide receivers coach or passing game coordinator ever since. Last season Martin was the Ravens wide receivers coach, so obviously they now have a new one of those too.
The Ravens also have a new Safeties and Linebackers coaches and a new strength and conditioning coach. Even if Lamar returns a lot of new relationships need to flourish.
Less free-agents without Lamar Jackson signed
The team and Jackson have until the 17th of July to finalize a long-term deal. If the team has to wait three more months to sign any free agents, they will be signing older players, left over from the first three waves of free-agency, rather than players they actually want. If they are still up against the salary cap they will have to sign a lot of rookies and it will be tough to make much headway in the AFC North with a team composed of inexperienced players. This situation could have been avoided if the Ravens had just signed Jackson to long term deal before the 2022 season.
Main Image: Tommy Gilligan – USA TODAY Sports
