The 2026 Baltimore Ravens, as they complete the first month of the regular season, look eerily similar to the 2025 version that prompted ownership to blow-up one of the most experienced and expensive coaching staffs in the NFL.
Those similarities had best change now. These Ravens better forge a new, sound identity, starting Sunday against the lowly Titans. Or there is a very real chance they end up in a similar spot to last year’s edition and nowhere near their Super Bowl dreams.
Honestly, this looks way too similar to the stunt the Orioles tried to run this offseason – super inexperienced staff with a suspect roster and outsized ambitions – and while I knew as early as May 10 the O’s were cooked, there is more potential for rookie head coach Jesse Minter and rookie offensive coordinator Declan Doyle to bail GM Eric DeCosta out than Craig Albernaz was ever going to do for certified-loser Mike Elias … But the similarities are troublesome.
The idea that simply hiring young and energic coaches was coach to curb some of DeCosta’s roster’s least endearing characteristics (fourth-quarter failures, inadequate approach at home, terrible offensive line, most of the money going to guys at the end plus an overabundance of rookies on the roster) has already proven fool-hearty. If anything, the problems are more acute and worse in many aspects, and Marlon Humphrey (highest cap hit of any corner in the NFL) definitely looks a year older and the chasm between Zay Flowers and anyone else paid to catch a football for the Ravens is more stark than ever, and this upcoming potential soft spot in the schedule better prove to be just that.
Because if not, and this is a middling team plagued by the same ‘ol issues that got John Harbaugh whacked, then there are going to be real questions to be asked about Minter’s ability to run a sideline and call plays at the same time, and there will be even more pressure on this overrated front office to convince Lamar Jackson to stick around with any quick path to a Lombardi Trophy.
No one wants to hear about learning curves and growth when you let the QB get to his walk year and you fancy yourself an elite franchise and you crow about how anyone would want to coach your team and you have the pick of the field. DeCosta went green and he went cheap, and if this brain trust doesn’t’ start bucking a bevy of ugly trends ASAP, this has a chance to snowball in a truly ugly way.
Kyle Hamilton calling the defense’s performance “unacceptable” after the near debacle in Brazil and putting the blame “on the players”, was a major red flag. And Minter’s outward demeanor is at it should be in the face of adversity, but he’d better be cutting a different tone with his staff behind closed doors.
“There are a lot of things that we will chase, that we need to improve,” Minter said Monday. “I think everybody would tell you that. But again, I think we have the guys to do it, and I appreciate the players feeling that way — but it is all of us.”
Defensive Downturn
Minter’s hire was supposed to fix two years of utter sputtering under former coordinator Zach Orr. His scheme is the star, DeCosta threw big money at aged/injured players – $100M cash in 2026 on Trey Hendrickson, Nnamdi Madubuike, Marlon Humphrey, Calais Campbell and Roquan Smith, alone – and there were no excuses on that side of the ball.
Minter had to address the spate of horrible fourth-quarter collapses, he had to be elite at second-half adjustments, he had to revive a moribund pass rush, he had to get top players to play to their contracts, he had to cull more turnovers out of them (interceptions, primarily) and fix their tackling issues.
Um, literally none of that has happened, and in many cases it looks kinda worse given all the assets deployed to correct it.
Fourth Quarter: 27th Press Rate, 24th Sack Rate, 28th Yds/Play (6.3), 30th pass yds (99), 2 blown-11-point leads
Pass Rush: 35.6% Press Rate (18th); 5.4% Sack (23rd), Hendrickson 1 sack 80 pass rushes
Pass Defense: 67.6% comp (26th), 1.0% INT/Att. (25th)
And, on top of that, we’ve added a new one to the checklist. Now they can’t stop the run despite getting a big lead on the Colts (thus eliminating any volume for Jonathan Taylor), and facing the Saints and Cowboys, who cannot run the ball (at least not on anyone else, and new Orleans barely even tried).
The Ravens want to show off all their first-round picks in the secondary and recent draft “discoveries” DeCosta wants to pump up, but, um, they’re getting torched back there when it counts, Minter is playing 90% nickel and dime, and so now we’re looking at this situation up front:
Run Defense: -2.12 EPA (30th); 5 Rush TD (T-29th), 56.5% Success Rate (25th)
Getting Madubuike back better be as huge as we think it can be. But, this ain’t progress and Orr would be getting eviscerated for this.
Offensive Collapse
DeCosta built a bad-at-best interior offensive line, and now it’s arguably the worst in the NFL and they are sending a guard in his fourth NFL game out to face Jeffery Simmons, probably the best defensive tackle in football right now. It’s so bad the goal-line and short-yardage film makes 2025 look like genius-level stuff, Jackson is somehow under more duress than last year despite not facing a real defense yet, and the churn on the OL has them well-blow replacement-level options now.
Oh, and they are also the most penalized offense in the NFL, which we told you would be the case without a real starting center on the offense (letting Tyler Linderbaum walk to the Raiders) and with a 30-year-old novice play caller installing an offense for the first time:
Pass Protection: 44.3% Pressure Rate (30th), 37.5% Blitz Rate (6th), 7 False Starts (T-3rd)
Run Blocking (RB runs): 1.18 Yds B4Ct (15th), 2.5/carry vs 8-man box (18th), 5.1% Expl Runs (20th), 0% 3rd/4th and 1 Conv (T-30th)
Zay And Pray: Flowers 234 Rec Yds/Rashod Bateman 125; Flowers 117 YAC/Henry 57, Flowers 9 Rec 12+ yds/Bateman 4
They host the winless Titans, go to Atlanta and then Cleveland before the schedule cranks up into the middle of the season. Another slip up or two, and the margins start getting tight if we’re talking about a path to multiple home games in the playoffs.
When does it stop being early, and start getting crucial? Seems to me, in the upper deck, it matters every week. In Owings Mills, well, you tell me.
Subscribe To “The Daily Flock” For Urgent Ravens Conversations And Content:
Add us as a preferred source on Google
