The Ravens’ secondary suffered a serious setback when safety Marcus Williams dislocated his wrist in the Week 5 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Now, two of the Ravens’ biggest offseason signings are sidelined after defensive tackle Michael Pierce decided to have season-ending surgery on his torn biceps suffered in Week 3 against the Patriots.
Williams is the bigger loss of the two.
Rookie Travis Jones has stepped in for Pierce and has played well. The Ravens have been mostly stout against the run.
Williams leads the team with three interceptions and is a force in the secondary after some early communication issues led to breakdowns.
The good news is the Ravens expect to get Williams back this season. The Ravens enter the Week 6 game against the New York Giants still ranked dead last in passing yards allowed, despite improvements the past two weeks.
“He’ll go on IR and then the timetable will kind of be based off what the IR number is,” coach John Harbaugh. “So, I don’t really want to get into the dates and times and stuff like that, but it will be a significant amount of time. It won’t be a season-ender, though.”
The loss of Williams means that rookie Kyle Hamilton and third-year player Geno Stone are going to have to fill the void.
“I expect those guys to continue to grow and to play well,” coach John Harbaugh said about Hamilton and Stone. “They both have their own styles, and I think they’ll both play well for us, but they both have to step up and do a great job. Of course, Chuck [Clark] as well; we move a lot of guys in and out of that safety/nickel spot, so we’ll be moving guys around in there a lot.
“So, I’m looking forward to all of those guys kind of as a team, as a group, kind of filling in for Marcus [Williams] and not losing a step on that.”
Stone, a seventh-round pick (219th overall) of the 2020 NFL Draft, has quietly put together a solid season. He has been stout on special teams, which is always unsung. In the Week 5 game against Cincinnati, Stone played 35 defensive snaps (56 percent) against the Bengals. He finished with two tackles.
Stone also did a good job of trading off routes with cornerback Marcus Peters before a key snap that led to a huge loss in the red zone for Cincinnati. Harbaugh has lauded Stone’s football IQ.
“I’ll say this about Geno [Stone], if this is kind of what you’re saying – He’s really good at that stuff,” Harbaugh said. “Geno came in, really wasn’t expected to play in the game on defense, but he always knows the game plan, he always knows the checks, he always practices well, and he’s always prepared. That’s one of his best strengths.”
Hamilton, the 14th overall pick in this year’s draft, has been a work in progress. He had some breakdowns in the Week 2 game against the Dolphins that led to some huge completions downfield. He bounced back the following game against the Patriots and forced a key fumble that ended a potential scoring drive.
Hamilton played 14 defensive snaps (22 percent) against Cincinnati. Harbaugh said not to read too much into the snap counts. He said both Stone and Hamilton will continue to get opportunities with Williams out.
“They have their strengths, and we’ll try to put them in a position to make the most of their strengths if we can,” he said.
