Ravens on the roster bubble: Daylon Mack edition

With training camp set to open later this month, there will be a handful of Baltimore Ravens’ players that will be facing an uphill climb and tough competition in order to make the final roster for the 2020 season. It’s hard to rest easy knowing you’re on the roster bubble and in jeopardy of having the dream you’ve worked towards all your life snatched away in the very near future if you don’t make a good enough impression in a little over a months’ time.

The players featured in this six-part series face an even more daunting task than most would in their shoes in any given year because this offseason has been like nothing any of us has experienced in our or even our parent’s lifetimes with the physical restrictions and limitations placed on us all, professional athlete and common folk alike, due to the global pandemic caused by COVID-19.

According to multiple reports in recent weeks, the league and the NFLPA are considering shortening or canceling the entire preseason to give players more time to get into football shape after only being able to attend virtual workouts all offseason and decrease the chances of potentially exposing players, coaches, and other team officials to the virus to play exhibition games. These unfortunate developments have made not only life but making the roster much more difficult for fringe players that need every opportunity they can get to leave enough of a lasting impression on their organizations.

Here is the fourth Raven on the list of features that needs to have a strong training camp and preseason—if there is one—to keep his hopes and dreams alive, at least with this team:

DT Daylon Mack:

The fifth-round pick out of Texas A&M will face quite the uphill battle in training camp and during the potentially shortened or nonexistent preseason this year since the Ravens loaded up on interior defensive linemen this offseason and the fact that veteran Pro Bowler Brandon ‘Big Baby’ Williams will be returning to his natural nose guard position following the departure of incumbent Michael Pierce to the Minnesota Vikings.

Many thought that one of the team’s top offseason priorities would be to upgrade and add depth to the pass rush off the edge but the Ravens opted to remodel the interior of their defensive front instead. Baltimore acquired five-time Pro Bowler Calais Campbell via trade prior to the new league year, signed former Denver Bronco Derek Wolf a one-year deal, resigned Justin Ellis and Jihad Ward, and drafted a pair of rookies that include Mack’s former Aggie teammate Justin Madubuike.

After Pierce’s departure, Mack’s 2020 prospects looked somewhat promising but taking into account all of other additions, retentions, and reshuffling that has been made to the unit, his path to the final 53-man roster has narrowed significantly. Since the 340-pound space-eater that was nicknamed ‘Mack Truck’ in college for his hulkish size and playing style is a natural fit at nose guard, he’ll be competing with Ellis for not only the second spot on the depth chart behind Williams but for what will likely be the final defensive lineman spot on the roster period since neither one of them possesses much positional versatility or provides hardly any pass rush presence.

Mack appeared in just one game as a rookie and failed to make the most of the opportunity for more playing time in that Week 4 tilt with the division rival Cleveland Browns Williams was out with an injury. That day the Ravens gave up a whopping 193 yards and four scores on the ground because they couldn’t stop the run on the edge or up the middle. The Ravens brought in veteran reinforcements via free agency to bolster the interior of the defensive line behind Williams and Pierce and Mack was eventually placed on injured reserve, effectively ending his underwhelming inaugural season.

There’s still hope for Mack to make the final cut considering that he was just getting his feet wet as a rotational player in year one and most players make their biggest jumps in year two. He’s familiar with the system after being invested in his playbook for over a year and the game will likely slow down for him entering his sophomore season. If he can show that he can collapse the pocket and generate pressure as an interior pass rusher in addition to becoming the stout run stuffer that the team envisioned he would be when they drafted him, he’ll gain a possible edge at final cutdown time over his competition.