Ravens DE Calais Campbell already loves the team’s defensive scheme

Even though he has not stepped on a field as an official member of the Baltimore Ravens, formally met his new teammates and coaches, or even seen the inside of the locker room at the Under Armor Performance facility where the team holds practices and operates their day to day affairs, Calais Campbell already loves his new scheme and can’t wait to get on the gridiron and implement all that he has learned through virtual meetings in real-time and live-action.

“I love it,” said Campbell of Ravens Defensive Coordinator Don ‘Wink’ Martindale’s system in an interview via the official team website. “I think that he’s a brilliant mind. He understands how to put his players in position to be successful. I think he’s creative. When you start putting on the tape, he’s doing something different all the time.

The Ravens defense under Martindale has a reputation of being a very diverse and complex scheme on the outside looking in but from an internal view, Campbell praises his new coach’s ability to break down and simplify his system and any amendments he makes to it from week to week or in-game in a way that is easy for his players to comprehend and master.

“The way he kind of put it together, he simplified it for the players which I think is most important because you can be real creative but if your players can’t grasp it then that makes it tough.”

The Ravens acquired the five-time Pro Bowler and 2019 Walter Peyton Man of the Year recipient in what is being called one of the biggest steals and best bargains of the offseason when they traded a mere fifth-round selection to the Jacksonville Jaguars in exchange. He’s already been through his playbook several times and while he believes that it won’t take him long to master it, he does think the younger players, especially those entering their first years in the league might have more of a challenge early on.

“You have to go over it a couple times,” said Campbell. “I’ve always been a fairly quick study and I think my experience plays a big role. I feel bad for the rookies and some of the younger guys who have to learn a new system. You need those reps…Everybody leans different and all we have right now is a screen and somebody talking to you so its kind of tough.

“I will say that I think I have a good grasp on the defense. I feel like I have a good grasp of how the coaches want to use me where I could add value so I’m pretty excited.”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Ravens and the rest of the league to conduct a virtual offseason program, rookies league-wide might have a tough time acclimating to the pro level right away. Campbell expressed his optimism in hoping that some of the team’s first-year players get up to speed sooner rather than later, but he also shared that he does not like to rely on rookies and prefers to instead put his faith in veteran players that have already spent time in both the league and the system that he’s entering.

“This defense has a lot of good pieces that have been there for a long time, “said Campbell. “Guys who have played with Wink as their coordinator got a feel for him.”

One of Campbell’s best traits in addition to his massive 6-foot-8 and the 300-pound frame is his versatility that allows him to be used in a multitude of different ways and moved all over the defensive front. In Martindale’s diverse defense he’ll be an every-down player and an integral part of pressure packages.

“I pride myself on being very versatile,” said Campbell. “I can play a lot of places and I do think that adds value in a blitz heavy type of scheme because you can put me in different positions.”

Campbell even jokingly suggested that he has enough athleticism and versatility to even drop in coverage on rare occasions to really catch offenses off guard. While he said he much prefers charging forward rather than retreating back, he does have three career interception which may not sound like a lot for an elite defender but taking into account the position he plays and his ginormous size, that’s more than most down linemen record in their entire lives from pee-wee to the pros.

In all seriousness, Campbell brings up a great point that bodes well for what his role might look like in Baltimore and what kind of impact he could potentially have on a loaded defense that finished in the top three in 2019. Both he and fellow veteran new recruit, Derek Wolfe who was signed in free agency, will be schemed up to have tremendous success in getting to the quarterback themselves and help take some of the attention away from the edge guys to do the same.

The Ravens blitzes more than any other team in the league and while some might attribute that to Martindale trying to supplement his unit’s inability to get to the quarterback consistently with just their front four or five in the past, he’s actually just an aggressive play-caller that still likely won’t let up this season even with a pass rush reinforced by players like Campbell, Wolfe, and others.

Baltimore is just a season removed from finishing the year as the No.1 ranked defense in 2018 and didn’t fall far last year by coming in at third but this year’s group has top-ranked potential written all over it, at least on paper. Campbell knows that games are played and won on the field and not by just sizing up roster talent. He believes that the Ravens are going to have one of the best defenses in the league in 2020 and that he and the rest of the crew will have to go out and prove it every practice and against every opponent.

“We’re going to be a great defense, but I do want to make sure that we take it one day at a time and earn our stripes. We can’t just show up and teams are going to respect us. We’re going to have to earn it each and every day.”

The Ravens ranked outside the top 20 in sacks last year with just 37 and only five of them came from their down linemen. Even in what some might view as a down year compared to his previous two seasons where he eclipsed double digits, Campbell’s 6.5 sacks as Jaguar in 2019 was still more than the sum total of Ravens interior unit’s output put together last season. Look for both his sack numbers and the defense’s as a whole to go up in 2020 with the presence of himself and some of the other new additions.