The Ravens only registered one sack today, but knocked McCarthy down 8 times and had 5 batted passes

Lamar Jackson's average time to throw today was just shy of a quarter of a second faster than any other game this season. His average depth of target was his lowest of the season by 3.9(!) yards. Smart gameplan against the Vikings' heavy blitz.

6 rookie edge defenders have been on the field for 50+ pass-rushing and have a 10.0% PFF pass-rush win rate or better 1. Jalon Walker - 14.9% 2. Donovan Ezeiruaku - 14.4% 3. James Pearce Jr. - 13.2% 4. Abdul Carter - 13.0% 5. Princely Umanmielen - 10.1% 6. Jack Sawyer - 10.0%

He was the second worst QB in the league in pressure to sack rate last year and this year has jumped all the way up to right around the top-10 best this year.

Caveat that it came against the Bengals defense, but Caleb Williams had his best game of the season yesterday. Still plenty to work on but you can see the growth from last year to this year. Big time throw rate: up from 3.9% to 4.7% Pressure to sack rate: down from 28.2% to 13.5%

The Bears averaged 2.6 yards BEFORE contact on designed runs in Cincinnati yesterday. 0.439 EPA/play on designed runs. Just a dreadful day once again for the Bengals defense.

Quietly, Andrew Vorhees has had two really nice performances in the past three games. Feels really important for the Ravens to get at least one of their guards to an above average level down the stretch of the season if they are to be successful.

Lamar Jackson, Malaki Starks, Travis Jones, Charlie Kolar, Isaiah Likely and Andrew Vorhees all earned their highest PFF grades of the season last night

I would like to see it

The Ravens rank 1st in the NFL in yards per carry, and tonight is the first time all season that they will have Lamar Jackson, Patrick Ricard and Derrick Henry all on the field together. Good chance for them to stretch front seven's horizontally and hurt them between the tackles again too.

The Ravens were at 1.8 yards before contact yesterday (tied for 5th best in the league heading into the MNF double header). Run game had a far batter day than expected without Lamar at QB to make things easier. Don't think they make an OL trade, but wonder if we see Emery Jones post bye.

Ravens Yards Before Contact Per Carry Weeks 1-4: 2.1 (1st in the NFL) Ravens Yards Before Contact Per Carry Week 5: -0.1 (2nd last in the NFL) That's the impact of Lamar Jackson being out.

Short thread on why the Oweh-Gilman trade was a move the Ravens needed to make: 1. The loss of Oweh doesn't move their floor imo Their team PFF pass-rush grade of 64.9 is tied for 5th worst in the NFL. Even if the pass-rush gets worse w/o Oweh, I'm not sure it moves the needle much lower.

Share of targets in the Ravens offense through the first four weeks of the season

A look at who is generating pressure for the Baltimore Ravens in the 2025 season so far

Coming up: we'll keep trying to figure out the Ravens reality with @gordonmcg.bsky.social & Bo Smolka plus @joeserp.bsky.social ahead of #WaiverWireWednesday and more. Listen PressBoxOnline.com/Radio Watch www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD6q...

The Ravens have run 11 plays on 3rd/4th down with 1-2 yards to go this season. Henry has been on the field for 6 of those, Hill the other 5. They have run just 1 read option on those plays. Small sample size but that feels suboptimal. They should force defenses to account for Henry+Lamar.

Launched a fun (imo) new series at PFF where we lift up the hood a little on the grading process. Highlighting five of the highest graded plays of the week: www.pff.com/news/nfl-wee...

Through two games LG has been a bigger issue for the Ravens than RG, and RG still isn't great

The Browns: Held Derrick Henry to 23 yards on 11 carries; Had Lamar Jackson under pressure on 42.4% of dropbacks And were still down by 31 points when both teams went to backup QBs because the Ravens flipped the field 3 times and got 21 points off turnovers and a blocked punt

Ravens Play Action % in Week 1: 18.2% Ravens Play Action % in Week 2: 33.3% Lamar on PA this season: 12/13, 187 yards, 4 TDs, 0 INTs

QBs who were under pressure at the highest rates in Week 1 1. Cam Ward - 52.9% 2. Caleb Williams - 45.5% 3. Brock Purdy - 43.6% QBs who were under pressure at the lowest rates in Week 1 1. Trevor Lawrence - 12.1% 2. Tua Tagovailoa - 22.2% 3. J.J. McCarthy - 24.0%

Best PFF Pass Rush Win Rate when lined up on the defensive interior since 2022 1. Aaron Donald - 19.8% 2. Dexter Lawrence - 17.5%

Completely hypothetical, but if we buy the Shedeur slide for a moment, if you were the Titans, would you rather: Cam Ward at number 1 overall OR Travis Hunter at number 1 overall, then a trade up into the 20s for a sliding Shedeur Sanders?

Looking at previous draft classes and Eric DeCosta's R1 draft selections, I think it's interesting that three players I see commonly mocked to them would be outliers based on previous years. Jahdae Barron (Age) Malaki Starks (Relative Athletic Score) Grey Zabel (Age, non-P4 school)

Using bet365s betting markets and odds, here's how the market currently sees the top-8 picks in the 2025 NFL Draft

Good draft imo

It's obviously not going to hit like it did in his prime, but Hopkins does add a skillset that the Ravens lack at WR. Had more contested catches than any receiver on the Ravens roster last season.

Teams I think have done the best in FA so far: Washington Minnesota Denver Chicago

Wrote about some things we learned from combine drills. Something that gets referenced a lot is Shemar Stewart's lack of production, but he was one of the highest graded edge defenders against the run in this class www.pff.com/news/draft-2...

I'm going to revisit this after yesterday and swap out Booker for Malaki Starks. The reports that he could slip out of R1 are wild to me - thought his floor was 20.

I think my two most obvious "if they are there at 27, the Ravens draft them" are Tyler Booker and Nic Scourton. More likely that Scourton makes it that far than Booker at this point imo.

I'd like to see a Kyle Hamilton+Nick Emmanwori safety pairing. Just for science.

Who Ravens fans are drafting in the first round using PFFs Mock Draft Simulator

NFL Combine travel off to a great start: Glasgow to Dublin flight got delayed so I missed my connection to Chicago (and subsequently Indianapolis). My suitcase must have been left out in the rain as everything inside it is drenched. 😂

Not trying to be hyperbolic, but this EDGE class feels like the deepest I can ever remember heading into the combine

My best guess pre combine

Heck of a season. Can't call this one. On one hand I think the Eagles iDL can overwhelm the Chiefs iOL, but on the other hand... Patrick Mahomes.

I'm bored waiting to connect to New Orleans. Here's a mock

Wrote a little about how Chris Jones can line up anywhere across the defensive line and still perform at an elite level. Likely that every Eagles offensive lineman will have to deal with him at some point in the Super Bowl. www.pff.com/news/nfl-chr...

I've now seen the Mike Green Senior Bowl rep from approximately 15 different angles and all I'm asking for is to see it from 5 more 😂

Underrated early key matchup in SB59 Milton Williams vs. Mike Caliendo Williams has been on an absolute tear down the stretch and has the second best PFF pass-rush grade on the defensive interior this year

Had some fun discussions on the PFF NFL Daily this week: What should the Chiefs do at left tackle/Where do the Baltimore Ravens go from here: open.spotify.com/episode/1jDw... How Josh Allen is taking care of the football better than ever before: open.spotify.com/episode/7zX8...

I really quite like the Pete Carroll hire in Las Vegas. No idea what the Raiders do at QB, and in the AFC West that's gonna be rough, but feel like he'll get the most out of the roster.

First round mock draft if every team just absolutely HATES the QBs in this class pff.com/mock (I simply do not care that you think I'm too high on Alfred Collins and Mike Green)

1. Add a good OC 2. Spend the FA war chest on Trey Smith and Tee Higgins 3. Profit pff.com/mock

Lamar Jackson is the winner of both the PFF MVP and Dwight Stephenson (best overall player in football) awards www.pff.com/news/nfl-pff... www.pff.com/news/nfl-pff...

🧵of my favorite stats from every playoff team in action on Wild Card weekend Ravens RB Derrick Henry is averaging 2.4 yards before contact per carry 0.5 yards more than any other season in his NFL career

Where I'd lean if I had an NFL Awards Vote: MVP: Lamar Jackson OPOY: Saquon Barkley DPOY: Pat Surtain II OROY: Jayden Daniels DROY: Quinyon Mitchell COY: Kevin O'Connell Comeback: Joe Burrow

Pre Week 18 Vibes Only Mock Draft