{"id":292197,"date":"2026-07-17T13:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T17:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=292197"},"modified":"2026-07-17T07:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T11:42:12","slug":"mike-green-breakout-ravens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/07\/17\/mike-green-breakout-ravens\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Green Breakout: Controversial Pass-Rusher Has Lofty Expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Green had a relatively quiet rookie season for the Baltimore Ravens, which is surprising given all the controversy surrounding him in the buildup to the 2025 NFL Draft<\/a>. Widely believed to be a first-round talent, the Marshall pass rusher fell to the back half of the second round thanks in large part to two sexual assault allegations. It’s worth noting that Green denies any wrongdoing and was never charged, but there’s no denying these allegations impacted his draft stock.<\/p>\n

Baltimore ultimately decided the risk was worth the reward and selected him with the 59th-overall pick. Mike Green was nothing more than a role player as a rookie, finishing the season with 3.5 sacks, 17 tackles, and 14 quarterback hits while appearing in all 17 games and making two starts. However, despite his relatively slow start, Jeff Zrebiec of\u00a0The Athletic<\/em><\/a> believes he can thrive in Year 2.<\/p>\n

“New defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver believes Green could have very easily had a 10-sack season and showed the player a video cut-up of all his near misses to prove it,” Zrebiec writes. “With head coach Jesse Minter<\/a> and Weaver now leading the defense, the addition of veteran Trey Hendrickson and second-round pick Zion Young<\/a> on the edge, and the potential return of interior disruptor Nnamdi Madubuike, Green could benefit in a big way.”<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Mike Green Named Ravens Top Breakout Candidate In 2026<\/h2>\n

Nobody denies that Mike Green has the talent to break out in a big way, but only time will tell if he makes that step. The good news is that he won’t be the primary focus of the opposing game plan. Baltimore spent big on longtime division rival Trey Hendrickson<\/a>, and it’s safe to assume opposing blocking schemes will focus on slowing down the four-time Pro Bowler. In theory, this will give Green more opportunities to win one-on-one matchups and get after the quarterback.<\/p>\n

The biggest question is how new head coach Jesse Minter will utilize Mike Green. Minter did a phenomenal job as the defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Chargers and proved that he knows how to get the most out of his talent. However, Minter’s arrival means there’s a scheme change, and it’s impossible to say how Green will react to the new coaching. Perhaps the organization prefers rookie Zion Young’s style of play.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Jeff Hanish – Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mike Green had a relatively quiet rookie season, but one analyst believes the former second-round pick could make a Year 2 leap in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":292220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,10,6431],"tags":[32930,7638],"class_list":["post-292197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-ravens","category-nfl-teams","tag-mike-green","tag-ravens-featured"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292197"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292744,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292197\/revisions\/292744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}