Baltimore Ravens: Don’t Buy the Hype

Lamar Jackson got paid, they brought in some veterans on offense, and drafted an explosive wide receiver. The June hype for the Ravens seems to be that they will be making the playoffs and giving the Cincinnati Bengals a run for their money for top of the AFC North. I am not buying it. Unless something catastrophic happens to one of the other quarterbacks in the AFC North, I have the Ravens finishing last in the division.

After the end of last year’s season PFF came out with an overall ranking of 2022 NFL Receiving Corps and here are how the AFC North teams ranked overall:

1st Cincinnati Bengals

11th Pittsburgh Steelers

24th Cleveland Browns

29th Baltimore Ravens

I know many factors play part in a team’s success, but I am just puzzled how bringing in an older OBJ, Nelson Agholor, and a rookie bolsters this offense. Durability is a common problem for their offense, and I can’t really imagine a season that the Ravens won’t have a durability issue. Lamar Jackson has not completed a full season under center since 2018. OBJ didn’t play at all last season and is coming off another knee injury. I had to look up what team Nelson Agholor played for the past few seasons (New England if you forgot). Zay Flowers seems like an explosive athlete from Boston College, and I hope he succeeds but he needs to prove he can beat NFL cornerbacks. Not to mention the J.K. Dobbins rumblings from mandatory minicamp, where he did not participate, and he wants a contract extension. J.K. Dobbins has only been well enough to play in 23 regular season games since he started in 2020.

I went back and looked up some stats for Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Deshaun Watson, and Kenny Pickett and came up with some interesting regular season information via Pro Football Reference.

L. Jackson Games Played Yards (Air) Rush Yards Total

2018 16 1201 695 1896

2019 15 3127 1206 4333

2020 15 2757 1005 3762

2021 12 2882 767 3649

2022 12 2242 764 3006

J. Burrow

2020 10 2688 142 2830

2021 16 4611 118 4729

2022 16 4475 257 4732

D. Watson

2017 7 699 269 1968

2018 16 4165 551 4716

2019 16 3852 413 4265

2020 16 4823 444 5267

2021 0 0 0 0

2022 6 1102 175 1277

K. Pickett

2022 13 2404 237 2641

These statistics just make me believe that the Ravens are not surpassing any of the other teams in the AFC North. The Bengals are the team to beat and Burrow and his wide receivers are only going to improve the longer they are together. The Steelers are always competitive, Pickett looked promising, and their wide receivers are excellent. They all are coming back with the same offensive coordinators from the year before, whereas the Ravens are all learning a new system under Todd Monken. The dark horse of the AFC North is the Cleveland Browns. If Watson can get back to playing how we know he can then this becomes an even tighter race in the division. He has great potential but with everything that has gone down to this point only time will tell.

Lamar has been banged up the last few seasons at the crucial end of the season. The wear and tear he puts on his body every year seems to be catching up with him and his passing game needs to improve for the sake of his health. I am not sure this is that year that he proves himself elite and in theory last year should have been, considering he was looking for a huge contract. A new system, new receivers, and the pressure of being paid well to produce seems like a tall order for this upcoming season.

I looked up stats on OBJ via Pro Football Reference and noticed that out of the 8 regular seasons he played in, he only had 4 seasons over 1,000 yards. I thought it would be more and 2019 was the last time he accomplished that. His touchdown numbers have also decreased over the years and his last double digit touchdown total was 10 in 2016. Nelson Agholor stats show a couple touchdowns a year and averages close to 530 yards per year. It looks like they brought in guys that won’t really impact the offense enough to send them to the top of the AFC North. Mark Andrews is an elite tight end and wide receiver Rashod Bateman has some pop when he is healthy, but we all know Bateman won’t be available and Andrews can’t do everything. It's the end of June and all the teams are getting hyped for the upcoming season, but I am not buying the Baltimore Ravens.