Ravens RB Mark Ingram is No.44 on the NFL Network’s Top 100 Players of 2020 list
The former first-round pick of the New Orleans Saints out of Alabama and Heisman trophy-winning running back was the sixth Raven to be revealed on the NFL Network’s Top 100 Players of 2020 list. This marked Ingram’s third straight year making the list and his second-highest-ranking to date. He’s the highest-ranked Ravens running back since Ray Rice was voted No.13 in 2013.
While reigning league MVP Lamar Jackson was the face of the 2019 Ravens and became just the second-ever unanimous winner of the NFL’s top individual honor, Ingram was the heart and soul of last year’s team that finished with a league-high and franchise-best 14-2 regular-season record. He provided the team with spark both on the field as a dynamic playmaker and off the field as a vocal leader and one of the loudest voices in the locker room.
“Not only is Mark a good player, but his energy off the field is just electric,” said Ravens corner and Ingram’s fellow 2019 Pro Bowler Marlon Humphrey. “If you’re down, you’re not going to be down for long.”
He was the one that made the popular ‘Big Truss’ catchphrase go viral. It became synonymous with the sense of pride not just for his Ravens teammates but it became a rallying battle cry for the entire organization, fan base, and city of Baltimore during the team’s incredible run through the 2019 regular season.
“It was Lamar [Jackson] who was saying it for a while even when we were here last year [2018] as rookies,” said Ravens right tackle and another 2019 Pro Bowler Orlando Brown Jr. “Then Mark comes here and does the ‘Big Truss’ and everybody is on it now.”
Ingram was an absolute beast on the gridiron in his first year with the Ravens. He was bruising battering ram that didn’t shy away from contact, sometimes even sought it out, and could also make defenders miss in the open field with his swift footwork. His excellent vision and mastery of understanding the mesh point of zone read and read-option plays where Jackson would decide let him keep the ball or pull it from his belly was nearly flawless and made him a perfect fit in Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman’s system.
“On the first play, he was not easy to bring down,” said Miami Dolphins corner Eric Rowe.
He and his teammates got the first taste of Ingram as the Ravens lead back on opening weekend last year when he broke a 50-yard run on his very first regular-season carry that began with him breaking a few arm tackles and ended with him plowing through a pair of Dolphin defenders with authority. It effectively set the tone for not just that game but the incredible season he would go on to have as the tone-setter for Baltimore’s revolutionary rushing attack that shattered both individual and team single-season records in 2019.
Las Vegas safety Damarious Randall, who faced Ingram twice last year as a member of the Cleveland Browns, called him a bowling ball that isn’t afraid of car crash collisions at the second and third levels of the defense and cosigned with Rowe’s sentiments about him being incredibly tough to bring down.
“He looks for what we call the smoke,” said Randall referring to a popular colloquialism among today’s youth refereeing to one’s lack of fear in taking on any challenge or obstacle standing in their way. “He looks for the contact.”
Even Humphrey admitted that Ingram just hits the holes that his offensive line opens up for him in the run game differently than any other player at the position since he’s been in the team. And by differently he was referring to the violent and sudden north and south one cut no hesitation vigor that the nine-year veteran still runs with after nearly a decade in the league.
“He’s a hard-nosed running guy,” said Cincinnati Bengals running back Giovanni Bernard.” When you combine him and Lamar [Jackson] in the backfield that obviously makes a defensive coordinator’s job a lot more difficult.”
Ingram’s soft hands, underrated route running capability, and ability to make video-game-like moves in the open space surprise even his teammates at times. Against the Houston Texans at home in Week 11, he made a series of insanely athletic moves to score a 12-yard touchdown that even left the Madden 21 cover athlete in utter disbelief.
“When he ducks under the tackle and then he jumped over another person got his leg hit and scored a touchdown, I’ve never seen that in person,” said Jackson who made his fair share of mystifying plays during his MVP campaign in 2019. “You don’t see that in real life.”
Heading into his 10th season, Ingram will turn 31 before Christmas yet he doesn’t have the same tread on his tires as most running backs that last this long in the league since he has had his career preserved and extended by being in several backfield partnerships and committees over the years, including last season when he eclipsed 1,000 yards rushing but still finished second on the team in that statistical category behind his electrifying dual-threat quarterback.
The Ravens have a rich stable of backs this year with third-year pro Gus ‘The Bus’ Edwards and second-year change of pace back Justice Hill returning and the addition of rookie J.K. Dobbins who the team drafted in the second round out of Ohio State and has makings of an All-Pro talent.
However, the Ravens run the ball more than any other team in the league and are expected to make more of a concerted effort to run Jackson less going forward so there will still be plenty of touches to go around in what Baltimore’s General Manager Eric DeCosta calls a four-headed monster in the backfield but of you include Jackson, the Ravens have literal hydra in their running game that could keep up their tremendous production no matter who is toting the rock.
