The Ravens lost key players and multiple coaches from last season’s No. 1 scoring defense, but the unit still figures to be among the NFL’s elite in 2024.
The Ringer’s Diante Lee put the Ravens at No. 2 in his rankings of the 10 best defenses for the coming season on “The Ringer NFL Show” podcast. One of the main reasons Lee is high on the Ravens defense is the all-around play of All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton.
“They might have the greatest chess piece in the NFL defensively in Kyle Hamilton,” Lee said. “The way that they’re able to weaponize him specifically in this defense, it’s different than everything else in the league. … If you put him at the nickel, he can be the best nickel player in coverage, he can be the best nickel player as a blitzer, he can be the best nickel player as a run defender. That’s different, and that’s not even talking about what he can be deep down the field.”
The Ringer’s Steven Ruiz also praised Hamilton, ranking him as the third-best defensive player in the league, behind edge rushers Micah Parsons and Myles Garrett. Lee agreed and cited Hamilton as a prime example of the Ravens valuing versatile players “in a way that is lost on a lot of other defenses and franchises in roster building.”
Lee said the Ravens’ long-standing defensive philosophy is another reason why he believes the group will remain dominant under new Defensive Coordinator Zach Orr, even without standouts such as Jadeveon Clowney, Patrick Queen, and Geno Stone.
“I’m still confident in what they are because the core pieces outside of defensive coordinator are all there. And for as much as I think Mike Macdonald transformed what they did, what they do defensively tracks all the way back to Marvin Lewis being there as a defensive coach,” Lee said. “There’s an infrastructure there, and that’s another piece of it for me that I try to consider, if there’s a clear structure as to how they build. And Baltimore has a clear vision in how they build.
“It’s getting strong up the middle; they don’t prioritize edge rushers; and then what they do on the back end in terms of changing coverages. … When they need to pressure, they can. When they need to play soft coverage, they can. They were actually very good in man coverage. And they did all this without having a top-flight edge rusher, which speaks to me about what they are schematically and why I feel so good about what they can do. And you have [linebacker] Roquan Smith in the middle who has just been a problem-eraser for them from the moment that they traded for him. I have no reason not to believe that they’re still going to be a top two-to-three defense.”
