ESPN named several Ravens to AFC North All Decade Team

The talented and well-decorated group of staff writers that cover the NFL at ESPN have been spending the week reflecting on best and worst things about league of the last decade before the page is officially turned toward the 2020 season and the next decade. They’ve constructed lists that include the best and worst head coaches, teams, fantasy players and offenses, and defenses.

For their latest set of lists, their NFL Nation reporters were tasked with selecting two of the best players from their teams, the top coach, and put together an all-division team of the 2010s. The AFC North All-Decade Team featured several Ravens on the roster of best players from arguably the most physical division in the entire league.

Recently retired offensive guard Marshal Yanda was named the Ravens’ Player of the Decade and is joined on the All-Decade by former teammates Ray Rice (running back), CJ Mosely (middle linebacker), Terrell Suggs (outside linebacker), Ed Reed (safety), Sam Koch (punter), and Justin Tucker (kicker). John Harbaugh beat out Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers for head coach of the decade.

“[Yanda] isn’t just the best Ravens player of the decade. Yanda is among the most accomplished offensive players in the NFL over that span,” ESPN’s Jamison Hensley wrote. “Since 2011, Yanda’s eight Pro Bowl selections tied Tom Brady and Drew Brees for the most by an offensive player.”

“He protected Joe Flacco during his unbelievable Super Bowl run in 2012 (11 touchdown passes, no interceptions in the playoffs); anchored the offensive line in front of last season’s NFL MVP, Lamar Jackson; and opened holes for an offense in 2019 that set the league record for most rushing yards in a season. Yanda retired this offseason as one of three guards in NFL history to earn eight Pro Bowl selections and win a Super Bowl, joining Larry Allen and Alan Faneca.”

Yanda wasn’t the only Raven to build themselves a strong case for enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame over the last decade. Tucker established himself as the best kicker in the game, the best of his generation, and arguably the best of all-time since joining the team as an undrafted free agent out of Texas in 2012. The most accurate and arguably the most clutch kicker of all time was an honorable mention as the team’s Player of the Decade after being Baltimore’s most reliable scoring weapons during some rough and inconsistent years on offense.

“He has gone from being undrafted in 2012 to becoming the most accurate kicker in NFL history,” Hensley wrote. “Tucker’s 90.8% success rate (265-of-292) is tops among all kickers with at least 100 field goal attempts. He also ranks as the NFL’s most prolific kicker, becoming the first to produce six seasons with 30-plus field goals made — all which occurred in the 2010s.”

Both Yanda and Tucker were unanimous selections to the All-Decade team that the NFL released back in April so their appearance on this list comes as no surprise. Harbaugh receiving the nod over Tomlin shouldn’t be a shocker either since he’s the only coach in the division to make it to and win a Superbowl in the last 10 years while no other team has even made it to the conference title game.

“[Harbaugh] also the only coach in this division to earn a No. 1 seed during that span,” Hensley wrote. “What keyed Baltimore’s success is Harbaugh’s willingness to change and take risks.

“In 2012, Harbaugh made the unconventional move of switching offensive coordinators in Week 15, which sparked the championship run with Joe Flacco. Last season, Harbaugh embraced a self-described ‘revolutionary’ offense with quarterback Lamar Jackson that led Baltimore to a franchise-record 14 victories. Harbaugh capped the decade by winning NFL Coach of the Year, becoming the first AFC North coach to receive this honor since Marvin Lewis in 2009.”

As more the other Ravens that made the teams: Suggs started off the decade with a bang by being voted Defensive Player of the Year in 2011, helped the Ravens win the Superbowl the following year and spent all but last season in the division while padding his own Hall of Fame resume and climbing the all-time sacks list. Rice was an integral part of the team’s Superbowl run in 2012 and was one of the best all-around backs in the league before his career and tenure with Ravens ended in 2014.

Mosley earned the nickname ‘half man half amazing’ during his five years as the field general in the middle of the Ravens defense from 2014 to 2018. Even though he was only in the division for two seasons before retiring after a short stint with the Texans and Jets in 2013, Reed cemented his Hall of Fame legacy with a Superbowl victory in 2012 and was still a cerebral mastermind in the backend that could still make plays in the twilight of his career even when his physical skills started to wean.

Koch is one of the most underrated Ravens and players in the league and is a master technician of his craft. He doesn’t have the biggest leg but his surgical precision and plethora of punts helped make the Ravens’ special teams unit one of the most feared and respected in the league. The way he was able to get the defense out of a hole deep in their own territory after the offense stalled out and setting up opposing offenses with long fields by flipping the field with a single swing of his leg is one of the best weapons Baltimore has been blessed to have at their disposal.