Ravens News 7/8: Tone Setter

Biggest needs for AFC teams ahead of training camp: Chiefs offensive tackles, Steelers receivers top list

Josh Edwards, CBS Sports

Ravens: Offensive guard

Baltimore is currently in a position to start two players along the offensive line who played a combined 191 offensive snaps in the NFL last season. Utility man Patrick Mekari has been able to step into any role asked of him. However, the Ravens traded Morgan Moses to the Jets, and veteran offensive guard Kevin Zeitler signed with the Lions. Roger Rosengarten was drafted in the second round as the replacement right tackle and Andrew Vorhees, a seventh-round pick from the prior year, is penciled in as the starting left guard. Left tackle Ronnie Stanley has battled injuries in recent years. There is a lot of unknown in that unit.

With defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald accepting a head coaching job in the Pacific Northwest, it provides a bit more mystery as to how the defense will perform this season. Edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney and linebacker Patrick Queen are gone from last year’s roster. Will they be able to facilitate enough of a pass rush with Odafe Oweh, David Ojabo, Kyle Van Noy and Adisa Isaac?

2024 NFL offensive line rankings: Lions take top spot, led by Penei Sewell and Frank Ragnow

Zoltan Buday, PFF

25. BALTIMORE RAVENS

For parts of the 2023 season, the Ravens’ offensive line looked like a top-tier unit. However, the team lost three starters: Kevin Zeitler, John Simpson and Morgan Moses. And while Tyler Linderbaum is already one of the best centers in the NFL, Ronnie Stanley has not been the same since his injury in 2020. The rest of the offensive line will consist of either unproven young players or offensive linemen who flashed ability as backups but have yet to show they can repeat those outings as starters.

Every AFC Team’s Most Underrated Player Heading Into 2024

Connor Orr, Sports Illustrated

Baltimore Ravens

Marlon Humphrey, cornerback

Humphrey got a plug on NFL Network’s list of the top 100 players before last year, which was great. I think he deserves it again for his game against the San Francisco 49ers alone. He allowed just one completion and five yards after the catch in that game. He muscled up and played physically against the NFL’s biggest bully-ball team and he was involved in the Ravens’ pass-rushing package. I don’t think we talk enough about Humphrey’s ability to be a tone setter and uniquely fit Baltimore’s defense. I greatly respect Pro Football Focus’s rankings, which have never featured Humphrey as a top-10 overall cornerback (he was close, coming in 12th one year). And, I don’t think they are necessarily wrong when we’re talking about the cornerback position globally and traditionally. But I don’t know many more players who were as essential to the Ravens’ being the Ravens last year as Humphrey. The 2017 first-round pick out of Alabama has always been on the radar. I’m not telling you about a “hidden gem” per se. I am asking you to ask yourself: What would the Ravens be without him?

Deonte Harty is coming home to play for the Ravens. Returning is his specialty, after all.

Giana Han, The Baltimore Banner

“It was kind of jaw-dropping,” Boardman said. “As soon as he kind of split the defenders and saw the open field, we knew that he was going to score. … It wasn’t surprising, I guess, that he did it, because I knew what he was capable of doing. But it was just kind of awesome to see that it actually happened in reality.”

And Harty has stuck. He’s played 56 NFL games over five seasons, with a Pro Bowl season his rookie year.

Now he’s on a team that has found recent success with undersized players. Last year, the Ravens saw 5-foot-9 wide receiver Zay Flowers, a first-round pick, and the 5-8 Mitchell, an undrafted rookie, take off. Murphy, who now coaches in North Carolina, saw Mitchell play at East Carolina and said he and Harty have similar speed, quickness and hands.

If you watched every Assumption game while Harty was there, you would have seen him return a punt or a kickoff for a touchdown approximately once every three games (14 touchdowns across 44 games). He set nine school records, seven of which were on special teams, four DII records and one NCAA all-divisions record (14 career combined return touchdowns).

Chesney explained that Harty has next-level speed, vision and something he calls “leverage” and Murphy refers to as “shake.” Harty can accelerate, decelerate and change direction rapidly, making it difficult to get a clean hit on him.

AFC North Whiparound: What to expect from in-season edition of ‘Hard Knocks’

Jeff Zrebiec, The Athletic

We can’t predict what December will bring, but which player on the team you cover is most made for reality TV?

Middle linebacker Roquan Smith has been a quote machine since joining the Ravens, but you quickly learn that the weekly tough talk is part of his personality. It’s interpreted as trash talk by the media/opposing teams looking for headlines or bulletin board material, but he says similar things every week. It’s not jarring when context is included. Cornerback Marlon Humphrey, on the other hand, is unpredictable. He can be moody and mercurial, and quite frankly, difficult to deal with at times. But he also seems to like the give-and-take, says or tweets whatever is on his mind and he’s never shown an ounce of concern about what others think about it. He has some “interesting” thoughts and viewpoints, too. If he’s in the mood, his podium sessions are some of the most entertaining interviews you’ll see all year. He can be thoughtful, honest and revealing. This is a guy who acknowledged last summer that he sought owner Steve Bisciotti’s advice on his love life. So yeah, he’s built for this.