Getting to know the Ravens

Edition #170

🌟 Good morning!

It’s great to be in the final month before football, but does anyone else think that July always drags along? I’ve got my birthday and wedding anniversary this month, but it still seems to take forever as we patiently wait for football season.

There isn’t a great deal to get into today, but let’s put some thoughts down.

👎 NFL Network predicted every team’s record for the 2022 season and had the Jets going 3-14 on the season. Within those predictions he had the Jets taking losses at home against the Bears, Lions, Dolphins, and Jaguars, if the Jets lose all four of those games at home then we have problems, if the Jets only win three games then we have problems. If the Jets lose the final 9 games of the season as predicted here, then we have problems. The only victories NFL predicted were over the Patriots at home, the Bengals at home, and the Steelers on the road. Ouch!

💪 John Franklin-Myers sought out pass-rush specialist Coach Brandon Jordan to get some extra work in between OTA’s and training camp. JFM had a fine 2021 season which landed him a lucrative new deal with the team, but it’s good to see that he wasn’t just resting easy and coasting this off-season. Coach Jordan posted some videos online showing JFM working on his footwork.

🏋️ JFM wasn’t the only Jet getting some work in over the 4th of July weekend, Duke Mayweather who works closely with some of the NFL’s best linemen posted a video of Jets tackle Mekhi Becton getting in some extra work, but some people still had a moan about his weight from the video, but I’m full of praise for anyone putting the work in to improve. I’m looking forward to seeing Becton back on the field at training camp.

📢 I don’t like to talk about other teams too much on here, but this quote from Tyreek Hill on Tua is worth sharing: “It’s gonna be about 2 a.m. one night and you’re gonna wake up. You’re gonna walk in your kitchen, I’m gonna be washing your dishes.” 🤣

Getting to know the Baltimore Ravens

Over the course of this week, I’m going to start looking at the early opponents on the Jet’s schedule. Then after my break next week we’re going to focus on the positional battles in training camp and any news that comes out of the Jet’s final preparations for the 2022 season.

First of all, let’s just take a look at how the Ravens performed last year on both sides of the ball. Baltimore was good at moving the ball (6th in yards per game) but didn’t see the same success in terms of the points (17th). They were slightly above average in terms of red-zone scoring (14th) but slightly below average in TD’s/games (19th).

On the other side of the ball, Baltimore didn’t dominate on the defensive side of the ball like we’re used to seeing. They allowed over 23 points per game (18th), and allowed 6.0 yards per play (32nd). They managed to perform in terms of red-zone defense (12th) and third-down conversion (3rd), so it was an up and down season which ended with 6 straight losses and an 8-9 season.

When you think about the Baltimore Ravens you think of one of the best rushing teams in the NFL, but their rush play % was only ranked 11th in the league last year, back in 2019 when the Ravens ranked as the best offense in football they passed on just 50.1% in non-garbage time situations, in 2022 that number was at 62.6% - If the Ravens want to get back to dominating the ball they’ll need to ensure they’re rushing the ball at a top 5 rate and passing in non-garbage time situations at around a 50% clip.

What the Ravens do well is defend the run and that’s led by defensive tackle Calais Campbell and linebacker Josh Bynes. The Ravens allowed 3.8 yards per rush last season, 84.5 rushing yards per game, and 0.8 rushing touchdowns per game, all of which are top-10 numbers. The Jets on the other hand struggled to defend the run last season and ranked as a bottom 5 team in nearly every defensive category against the run.

There is little doubt that the Ravens will have a good rushing offense and it starts with Lamar Jackson who 3673 yards and 21 touchdowns in his first four seasons, 220 first downs have come through the use of the legs and the Jets are going to have to be watchful of the All-Pro QB. There are question marks as to whether both Gus Edwards and J.K. Dobbins will be healthy for week one, which may mean that free agent signing Mike Davis gets some work or even Tyler Badie. There’s an outside chance that Justice Hill who’s just 10 months removed from an Achillies injury may get the nod if Edwards and Dobbins don’t make it.

If we turn our attention to the passing game and there are a couple of really key numbers in here when it comes to the Jets and their ability to feel confident heading into week one. Baltimore allowed 278.9 passing yards per game last season which was ranked 32nd, they also allowed 31 passing touchdowns which was the joint 3rd worst mark in 2021, while only picking off 9 passes…both were bottom 10 numbers in the NFL. So the obvious way to beat the Ravens is through the air.

The second stat that interests me here is the QB sack % for the offense, Baltimore allowed a sack % of 8.53% which was ranked 29th in the league. If you look at the Jets they are designed to pressure the QB and the Ravens aren’t necessarily designed to stop it. Obviously, the more you pass the football the more opportunities there are for sacks, so if the Ravens revert to a dominant 2019-type run-pass ratio then the Jets will need to work slightly harder.

Like with most teams the Ravens worked hard to improve their weaknesses and only time will tell if they were successful. They added Marcus Williams and Kyle Fuller to their secondary in free agency before adding Kyle Hamilton and Jalyn Armour-Davis through the draft, they will also be welcoming back Marcus Peters after his ACL tear so chances are the secondary will look vastly improved come next season.

They added former Jet Morgan Moses to bolster Lamar Jackson’s protection and then took huge tackle Daniel Faalele out of Minnesota in the draft after taking standout center Tyler Linderbaum 25th overall. They also added TE pair Charlie Kolar and Isaiah Likely to provide more assets for Jackson in the passing game, retooled and restocked.

If there is one position where I don’t see a huge amount of talent it’s at wide receiver, with Rashod Bateman, Devin Duvernay, James Proche, Tylan Wallace and Jaylon Moore set to be their main options in the passing game. Looking at that receiver group I think it’s pretty clear that the Ravens are going to rely on running the football and production out of the tight end group led by Mark Andrews.

Just like the Jets the Ravens gave the ball away too much and didn’t force the takeaways needed. Having Marcus Peters and his 31 career interceptions return will help, as will adding Marcus Williams and Kyle Hamilton. Lamar Jackson threw a career-high 13 interceptions in 2021 and he’ll be looking to return that number below 10 where it has resided since he entered the league back in 2018.

Baltimore are sure to be a very difficult week one opponent, and while they appear to have fixed their problems on paper, you never know until the ball is snapped. As a Jets fan I’m not overly scared of any opponent this season, we have the talent to compete with anyone, it doesn’t mean we’re going to beat everyone…just that we can compete.