Baltimore Defence

Edition #216

Good morning!

We’re now officially halfway through the week, there is NFL football tomorrow night and the Jets are just 4 days away from stunning the football world, you have to be positive at 0-0.

Today we’re going to continue to preview the game on Sunday with a look at the Baltimore defense. If you’ve missed the preview articles so far, here is a look at the Baltimore offense and a look at the Baltimore rookie class.

I also recently wrote a piece for Jets X-Factor previewing the battle between Baltimore WR1 Rashod Bateman and Jets CB1 Sauce Gardner, so make sure you check that out.

There aren’t a lot of quick throws today, but let’s get into it.

• The Jets hosted veteran corner Jimmy Moreland yesterday for a workout. Moreland was a 7th-round pick of Washington’s back in 2019, he moved onto Houston in 2021 before being claimed on waivers by the Eagles before being released on the 24th of August. Moreland only played in 8 snaps last season but was a regular with Washington between 2019/2020. In total, he’s allowed 84 receptions on 111 targets with 1 touchdown, 1 interception, and 3 pass breakups.

• The Jets announced some signings to the practice squad. RB Zonovan Knight was signed after being released earlier this week, WR/RET Diontae Spencer and tackle Eric Smith were also signed to the practice squad. To make room the Jets needed to release two players and they chose WR Calvin Jackson Jr and LB DQ Thomas.

• The Jets now have 16 players signed to the practice squad, so all the spots are now taken. Here’s a reminder of the players already signed: DE Bradlee Anae, WR Tarik Black, WR Irvin Charles, WR Diontae Spencer, RB Bam Knight, OG Chris Glaser, OT Grant Hermanns, OT Eric Smith, CB Craig James, DT Jonathan Marshall, LB Hamsah Nasrildeen, FS Will Parks, DT Tanzel Smart, QB Chris Streveler, LB Chaz Surratt, LB DQ Thomas, TE Kenny Yeboah.

• CBS Sports released their annual rookie power rankings as we head into week one of the season. They only list 15 players and the Jets had three entrants including Sauce Gardner (#2), Breece Hall (#4), and Garrett Wilson (#7). Jermaine Johnson missed out as he’s not projected to start, but I have a feeling he’ll be featured at some point. The list is headed up by Aidan Hutchinson of the Detroit Lions.

When you think of the Ravens defense you often think of a physical dominating pressure defense that instills fear and a sense of hopelessness in the opposition, with the likes of Ray Lewis and Ed Reed the Baltimore defense has consistently been one of the games best over the last 10-20 years.

Pass Defense

2021 didn’t go to plan. Baltimore suffered a number of injuries to key players and ended the season having allowed 278.9 passing yards per game, the worst pass defense in football. Bengals QB Joe Burrow threw for 941 yards and seven touchdowns in two games against Baltimore, it was easy picking throughout.

Moving the ball through the air against Baltimore in 2022 should prove difficult. Cornerback Marcus Peters is healthy and so is Marlon Humphrey, they added veteran corner Kyle Fuller. At safety, they brought in Marcus Williams, formerly of the New Orleans Saints, drafted Kyle Hamilton 14th overall, and have returning safety Chuck Clark.

Mike Macdonald

Among the influx of talent, the Ravens will also be welcoming back a familiar face in first-year defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald who will be replacing Don Martindale who was let go and ended up with the Giants.

Macdonald spent 7 years with Baltimore before taking the defensive coordinator job at Michigan, where he utilized the skills of Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo as the Wolverines claimed their first Big 10 title in 17 years. The Ravens selected Ojabo in the 2022 NFL draft, but he’ll be unavailable for at least four weeks of the season as he rehabs a torn Achillies.

Macdonald is known for his defensive creativity but he has also become notorious for his flexibility, letting his player strengths dictate his system, which in a nutshell is his defensive philosophy. The Ravens blitzed on over 30% of their snaps last season and I’d expect that to change with Macdonald, he’s stated he’ll stay aggressive but that doesn’t necessarily mean sending the house. He plans to mix up zone and man-to-man coverage in the secondary and not isolate his corners as much as Wink Martindale did.

His philosophy is also to keep it simple, freeing players to play fast and spent less time trying to work out complicated coverage schemes. Second-year linebacker Odafe Oweh has spoken at length about the simplicity this off-season: "The way he breaks things down, it's real simple, The guys that are new to the game -- guys like me -- he makes it easier, in terms of dropping (into coverage) and everything like that. Just little parts of the game that were supposed to be complicated, but he makes them real simple."

Run Defense

The pass defense may not have been a familiar sight for the Ravens in 2021 but the run defense was. Their 3.8 yards per attempt allowed was the 2nd best mark in football and they were also top-10 in rushing touchdowns allowed (13), rushing yards allowed (1,436), and running first downs. Part of that is the ease of which teams were able to pass on the Ravens, but a bigger part is pure talent.

Last year defensive lineman Calais Campbell, safety Chuck Clark and linebacker Josh Bynes led the way for the Ravens against the run, and the same is expected in 2022, especially with the addition of Travis Jones at nose tackle, Michael Pierce from Minnesota, and Marcus Williams from New Orleans, all of whom are no slouches against the run.

This will be a really stern test for the Jets considering their offensive line will have only been together for a couple of weeks. Breece Hall and Micheal Carter may have to find their own space to work while the line gets used to playing together and communicating as a unit. If the line can create running lanes it’ll be a great sign for the future.

Pass Rush

Despite blitzing at one of the highest rates in the league, the Ravens didn’t find pressuring the QB all that simple. They generated just 34 sacks which was below average (9th worst), their 23% pressure percentage was also in the bottom 3rd of the league, and while it was better than the Jets managed, it was still disappointing for a team known for their ability to make QBs uncomfortable.

Outside linebacker Tyus led the team with 8 sacks, closely followed by Justin Houston with 6, both players will be back this season. Odafe Oweh led the team with 49 total pressures and his sack numbers are projected to increase in 2022 after managing five last year. The Ravens like to move Bowser around with him popping up on both sides of the line, so Fant and Brown will need to be aware of where he is at all points.

As mentioned earlier, Wink Martindale had a tendency to blitz to create pressure but Macdonald is likely to rely more on his player’s ability to win more one-on-one battles, just like he did in college with Michigan, but if the Ravens struggle to win those battles it will force him to bring more pressure, isolating his corners and giving Joe Flacco/Zach Wilson an opportunity to exploit matchups on the outside.