The Baltimore Ravens were perhaps the most injury-riddled team in the NFL in 2021. The team lost All-Pro players like Ronnie Stanley, Marcus Peters, Marlon Humphrey, and eventually Lamar Jackson, not to mention the countless other players who suffered significant injuries throughout the season. It was a tough campaign for a Ravens team that had championship aspirations. Headed into the 2022 offseason, the team had many holes triggered by a lack of depth and a plethora of lost free agents.
Thus far, the team has added and even brought back plenty of contributors, but fans seem to be anything but happy about the moves.
Their logic is faulty, as many of the additions/retainment moves were at valuable positions. The team upgraded the safety and offensive tackle positions with the additions of Marcus Williams and Morgan Moses, respectively. Bringing back guys like Calais Campbell and Josh Bynes were also very solid moves to ensure a lack of drop-off at key positions on the defense.
So then why are fans so upset over these moves?
The most likely answer is the fans don’t feel like enough upgrades were made, and perhaps they fear that the front office is now satisfied with the state of those positions, and will not address them at all via the 2022 NFL Draft. Or maybe they feel that the team’s bigger needs, edge rusher and cornerback, have not been properly upgraded. Most of all, the fanbase is accusing the Ravens brass of “refusing to go all-in” on a championship.
This thinking is understandable, as there have been several big-name players on the market that the Ravens failed to land. Many will point to the Za’Darius Smith debacle and somehow assign blame to the front office for a decision they had no control over. Perhaps it’s that the team didn’t throw money at premier corners like JC Jackson. Or maybe it’s that Baltimore couldn’t land future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner, despite his public admission that he chose the Los Angeles Rams to return to his hometown and play against his former team, the Seattle Seahawks, twice a year. Whatever the case may be, many fans have been left with an empty feeling – and wanting more!
With all that said, it’s worth reminding everyone that we aren’t even halfway through the month of April. Why some fans believe the sky to be falling is beyond me, but well, here we are.
Let’s break down the naysayers’ arguments one-by-one, shall we?
“Draft Picks Won’t Contribute Right Away!”
The Ravens have always coveted depth and contributors to stash and develop in their draft picks, but ideally, we’d like to see the team get immediate contributors. We are also used to seeing them pick in the bottom third of rounds, which makes the 2022 draft unique in recent memory. With the highest pick they’ve possessed since 2016, when they chose Ronnie Stanley sixth overall (an immediate starter, by the way), the chances of adding an immediate-impact player are much higher than usual for Baltimore. With nine picks in the first four rounds of the draft, they will also have plenty of opportunities to be aggressive and move throughout the draft. This would energize the fanbase, especially if they moved into the top-ten for a blue-chip prospect like Kayvon Thibodeaux, Sauce Gardner, or Kyle Hamilton.
Even if they didn’t move up, however, the Ravens would still be able to add a top-15 talent, and ten players overall to a roster in need of more depth. It’s hard to be upset over the possibility of adding more bodies after the injury-depleted season we just suffered through.
“They Didn’t Make Enough Upgrades in Free Agency”
I would say that this is a very weak argument. Baltimore didn’t exactly have a ton of cap space to work with, but still managed to get arguably the best safety on the Free Agency market in Marcus Williams, as well an established and reliable starting tackle – which by the way was a massive weakness for the team in 2021 and led to some of the team’s injuries – in Morgan Moses.
Meanwhile, the returns of Campbell and Bynes are more critical than many seem to realize. Campbell was perhaps the defense’s best and easily most reliable player in 2021, although some fans will simply be enraged by the fact that he had just 1.5 sacks last season. Counting stats are moot points when looking at the bigger picture of how vital he was in the trenches. His return is as massive as he is.
At the second level, Patrick Queen began to excel when Bynes stepped into the lineup. It’s hard to imagine Queen regressing with someone as smart and savvy as Bynes is next to him. The former first-round pick will instead continue to flourish. I’m as disappointed as any of you that Wagner decided to stay on the West Coast, but the Ravens made the best offer they could, and when it failed, they brought back a player who, while much less flashy, helps solidify the defense in more ways than just by tackling.
“They Refuse to Go All-In!”
To these folks, I ask you this: What does “going all-in” look like to you? Is it adding Hall of Famers to a lineup that has several All-Pros already? Is it moving draft picks to add proven or high-upside talents? Whatever it is, you’re arguing that Baltimore is refusing to do this when we are barely a month into the offseason.
There remains plenty of time for this “all-in” mentality – or the Ravens’ idea of it – to reveal itself. And even if Baltimore doesn’t set about creating a super team like a teenager who just opened this year’s Madden, you are ignoring how talented this roster already is. Just because the Rams and other teams find ways to add tons of talent every single year doesn’t mean that what the Ravens are doing is wrong. Baltimore remains one of the steadiest teams in the league because they are constantly stocking the cupboards with talent to ensure that they never have a significant drop off. Sure, the Ravens never seem like heavy-weight favorites for a championship, but they are always in the mix. That does pay off, believe it or not, and I expect that will do so again sooner rather than later.
The AFC has gotten significantly stronger, yes, but the Baltimore Ravens have still managed to be in the mix with some of these great teams and no fan seems to be willing to give the credit that the team rightfully deserves. I simply ask that Ravens Flock does one thing: relax.
There remains a lot of time between now and the start of the 2022 season for big moves to be made. And even if Eric DeCosta and the Baltimore Ravens brass fail to make a move that you would consider “flashy,” or one that signals they are “all in,” I ask you continue to have faith that Baltimore will remain a contender.
There is no reason to be losing hope in this franchise, Flock. Keep calm and truss the process.
