Ravens Secondary Experiencing Growing Pains
It started to show itself last week against the Cardinals rookie quarterback, Kyler Murray. It was blatantly obvious against the Chiefs quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, the following week. There is no doubt, at this point, that the Ravens secondary is nowhere near the overwhelming force we anticipated it would be. Is it because it is injury-plagued, is it because of communication, or is it because of the scheme? Yes, to all the above.
You can’t lose a shutdown corner like Jimmy Smith without being impacted. With the salary cap and roster necessities, you just can’t have enough cornerbacks in this NFL. With the way quarterbacks are now throwing the ball around the field, at times, other than the pass rushers, everyone on the field has to be able to cover. Adding to the loss of Jimmy Smith was the slot cornerback Tavon Young, one of the top rising slot corners in the league. The Ravens were forced to dig deep. What once looked like a shut down secondary, with a backup cornerback in the way of Brandon Carr on the bench, what could go wrong? We could lose two cornerbacks before week two. Much like our young linebackers, Tyus Bowser and Timmy Williams, Anthony Averitt and Maurice Canady simply have not stepped up as anticipated leaving huge holes in the secondary.
The loss of Eric Weddle and Terrell Suggs had a devastating effect on the Ravens ability to use pre-snap deception and to run the type of cover schemes that Defensive Coordinator “Wink” Martindale has always run. Even without the pre-snap chicanery that the defense was very good at with Eric Weddle on the field, they have trouble just getting lined up in the called defense. It doesn’t take a football expert to see they are having communications problems both pre-snap and post-snap as wide open receivers are flying down the field without a Ravens defensive back in sight. The reason the Ravens defense has been great was their ability to change on the fly, to analyze the situation, and make changes, even without the coordinators knowledge. Even in preseason, new safety Earl Thomas had mentioned what a great help Jimmy Smith was. And he should be, after all, he has been here the longest of any of the cornerbacks. He has seen it ebb and flow with each change of coordinator and so he has a great base of knowledge and everything that has been added since. Now he is gone making his loss doubly painful.
The Ravens defensive scheme is one of the most complicated schemes in the National Football League. Last year, with the appropriate individuals in the proper spots, they were simply devastating to passing games. A lot of that goes back to communication as I have stated earlier. The problem I see with the scheme, much like a complicated passing scheme is confusing to new quarterbacks, the complicated scheme the Ravens run, unfortunately, probably has to be simplified just to keep opposing players covered. Then the best defensive scheme in the league goes out the window and you become like every other team. The quandary for Martindale is balancing the talent you have and their knowledge of the system, with adjusting the system so they can effectively run it. I understand that everyone has to be able to move around in this system to make it effective and so offensive coordinators can’t plan on a defender being in a certain position, but I would like to see more of Earl Thomas in the back and more of Tony Jefferson close to the line of scrimmage. That maximizes both their talents. Jefferson is a good box strong safety and a critical part of their communication in the back, but perhaps on passing down, Chuck Clark would be a better fit. Once again, communication is bad already so do you pull one of your best leaders off the field to get better coverage. The Ravens do have scheme issues and I don’t think that is a surprise to them but if the answers were easy, they would have done it already.
The Ravens are one of the best teams in the league at the present and definitely the cream of the crop in the division, but as we have seen with injuries, that could change quickly. The Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta, I am sure, is working the phones to try to find some secondary talent as well as some pass rushing help (but that’s another story). DeCosta is very stingy with draft picks, as we know, and there has been some talent out there, but we know our GM isn’t going to trade the future and break the bank if he feels the talent exists here and they just need to step up and get the job done.
