The Ravens Brain Drain is Real

The Ravens have the league’s No. 1 offense led by the most dynamic athlete ever to play the position of quarterback. Lamar Jackson has an array of weapons to beat opposing defenses in any number of ways; the offensive line is improving, while the QB and offensive coordinator Todd Monken are in lockstep as the lead violinist and conductor, respectively. They are simpatico. Yet despite their unprecedented success in Baltimore, the thing we want to focus in on most – the thing that RavensFlock discusses most at the end of the bar is the team struggling defense.

The Ravens’ defense is 25th in points allowed; 27th in overall yardage allowed and they are 32nd in passing yards allowed. And then there’s this daunting stat: No team has ever won the Super Bowl with the league’s worst passing defense.

During training camp, there were discussions among the team’s beat writers about the pending cuts the Ravens’ brass would have to make to get down to the mandated 53-man roster. The consensus at that time was that the Ravens were going to have a difficult time trimming down the secondary – so much so that the team would have to cut a few really good players, or, try to trade one or two to gain draft picks or acquire players to fortify a positional area of need.

And now, 10 games into the season the Ravens pass defense is an abomination. The safeties are clueless. The coaching staff seems equally as clueless and there’s really no end in sight. Instead, we keep hearing things like this from John Harbaugh, and may I remind you, the NFL is about to enter Week 11.

“We have to play our coverages better in those situations, especially the deep middle and the intermediate middle part of the field. [Those] are the areas that have been a problem for us. We’re just very inconsistent back there in that sense, and we’re going to be attacking that. That’s probably the one major thing, if I was going to be a priority thing on it. Obviously, probably everybody would agree with that. That’s the number one target that we have to get better at, is that aspect of our pass coverage. So, we worked at it through the weekend, and we’ll continue to work at it, and everybody is determined to get better, and we have a growth mindset to get better at everything with a high sense of urgency, but that one area has to get better.”

Not that opponents need an invitation to attack the Ravens safeties and inside linebackers in the passing game (there’s 10 weeks of tape to prove it), but Harbaugh just gave them one.

There’s too much talent on the defense for them not to be playing better. So, what should they do? Fire Zach Orr? And if they did, who would take over, Dean Pees? Been there, done that. There’s not another defensive coach on Harbaugh’s staff with a resume that suggests that he could be a defensive play caller. And at this point in the season, it makes no sense to bring someone in from the outside. It’s too late.

It’s also too late for the Ravens to bring in more talent for Orr to use now that the trading deadline has come and gone. Before the deadline, the only thing that GM Eric DeCosta was able to do is acquire a talented receiver (Diontae Johnson) who seems to be struggling to acclimate himself into Monken’s offense. And they added a cornerback (Tre’Davious White) who has been a healthy scratch with his previous employer (LA Rams) since Week 4.

That really moved the needle, right?

Now I’m sure that DeCosta rang a few phones throughout the league to make a couple of moves for defensive help. We’ve heard that he was in on Calais Campbell and Marshawn Lattimore but nothing materialized. It’s safe to assume that DeCosta held true to the organizational credo, “right player, right price”. And maybe the asking price for players like Jadeveon Clowney, Za’Darius Smith and Jevon Holland didn’t marry up with the credo.

But so, what?

When you are as close as the Ravens are to being a championship caliber team, you need to reach a little more, you need to dig a little deeper into the team’s wallet and redefine “right price”. Sometimes you have to go for it, particularly when a championship is within reach. The Ravens organizational hubris that keeps them clinging to their silly little meaningless credos oftentimes results in paralysis by analysis. And it’s quite possible that the team could waste the best year of Lamar’s career.

Maybe some of you are thinking, “hey, you realize that there’s a salary cap, right?” Well, any of the aforementioned players could have easily fit into the Ravens cap picture and even if they didn’t, the right player is worthy of some special salary cap gymnastics if he’s a difference maker, a player who might push the defense over the top.

The Ravens can’t keep leaning on Lamar to put on these clinics week after week, particularly when the weather starts to turn, and the elements affect performance and play calling. But still, DeCosta held firm and did next to nothing to help the defense.

Who knows, maybe DeCosta thinks the defensive coaching staff stinks too, and giving them better players at the expense of future salary cap space is akin to handing a line cook at Denny’s premium ingredients and expecting a 5-star, four-course culinary experience.

The losses of defensive coaches Mike Macdonald, Denard Wilson and Anthony Weaver have been nothing short of a defensive brain drain. The shifting zones of 2023 that worked so well have shifted out of M&T Bank Stadium. This Ravens team struggles with any zone concept and the redundant pledges to correct the issues were old weeks ago. When Orr took over for Macdonald, he let it be known that the defense would continue to do what they had done under the Seahawks new skipper and then build upon it.

Well, they haven’t. The defense has crumbled like a house of cards. Orr is for the moment, incapable of fixing it and Harbaugh is no help. He’s no Mike Macdonald. The brain drain is real.

This week Harbaugh invited the Steelers to attack their weakness by reiterating what they are during his Monday presser. But hey, the Ravens gave up their weekend to fix things so I’m sure the coverage embarrassments will only get better. It can’t get any worse.

Can it?

[Related Article: Mr. Jackson Goes to Pittsburgh]

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Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2024/11/12/lombardis-way/defense-suffers-a-brain-drain/