Ravens Jaylon Ferguson plans to reward the team’s confidence in him entering year two
There was a lot of pressure and expectations put on the third-rounder out of Louisiana Tech heading into his rookie season. He finished his collegiate career as the nation’s all-time leader in sacks at the FBS level and the player whose record he broke was none other than Baltimore Ravens’ legend and franchise sack leader Terrell Suggs who left join the Arizona Cardinals in the desert in free agency.
He came in as a rookie expected to not only start the opposite of Matthew Judon but he was tasked with filling the shoes and living up to the legacy of a future first-ballot Hall of Famer. Thankfully for Ferguson, the Ravens brought in a familiar face to the franchise in veteran edge defender Pernell McPhee who played with Suggs from 2011-2014. Both he and Judon took the rookie underneath their wings to show him the ropes and alleviate some of the burdens of replacing the production of Suggs and Zadarius Smith who also departed via free agency.
“He taught me how to [play] off what I’ve got,” Ferguson said on Glenn Clark Radio. “Use my body — tall — [and] use my head when I fake instead of trying to build me into the perfect football player — this height, this strong, this weight. He taught me that I can do everything he can do.”
However, his reprieve from the pressure to perform like a seasoned vet didn’t last long. McPhee was lost for the remainder of the season after suffering a torn triceps injury in a Week 7 bout with the Seattle Seahawks and he was thrust into a full-time starting role. He answered the call and performed well and while he only finished with 2.5 sacks and nine quarterback hits, he improved more and more both a pass rusher and as an edge setter against the run.
Many pundits believed that adding an edge rusher was just as high on the Ravens’ offseason to-do list as linebacker or offensive guard following the retirement of Marshal Yanda. However, the fact that they didn’t select a single player at the position in the draft despite having multiple selections in the early rounds when some first-round talent had slid down the board and were ripe for the picking spoke volumes to their confidence in Ferguson’s ability to take the next step in his maturation and help their defense improve their sack numbers that ranked in the middle pack of the league in last season.
“There were some talks of maybe picking up some pass rushers, etc this season or bringing back some guys,” Ferguson said. “But the road’s totally clear, and here it is Year Two. We [didn’t take a] big pass rusher in the draft. I think we’ve got a pretty good squad right now. I’m happy. It’s real confidence for me.”
With Judon set to play under the franchise tag that he officially signed last week, Tyus Bowser entering the final year of his rookie deal, and McPhee under contract just for the 2020 season, Ferguson could find himself in the leading role that many envisioned for him as a rookie.
At 6-foot-5 and 275 pounds with the flexibility to bend around the edge and the power to plow through would-be blockers, the player nicknamed “Sack Daddy” in college for his pass-rushing prowess could be a versatile piece in defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale’s scheme that lines and gets pressure from anywhere along the line and be used creatively on stunts and twist.
