by George Johnston IV
Every year each NFL fan base sits down in the offseason, and sets expectations for their team. This could range anywhere from being mid-rebuild to winning the Super Bowl. And for the last couple years with my Baltimore Ravens, it’s been to win the Super Bowl. However, they haven’t done that, and for the past 2 years, it seems like the Ravens have seemed to fail in the most tragic ways.
Take last year, where Zay Flowers fumbled a touchdown to put the Ravens 3 points behind the Chiefs. Or this year, when Mark Andrews missed an easy 2-point conversion to tie the game against the Bills. No matter how good the team, or how close the margins are, the Ravens just can’t seem to do it. But at the same time, those plays were not the only missed opportunities for the Ravens in each game.
Even though I had already watched the Divisional Round game, I decided to rewatch the highlights, and there were some things I saw that I didn’t notice during the live broadcast. For example, a lot of the completions that Josh Allen made went right through the middle of the field, where Roquan Smith and Malik Harrison are usually doing their jobs. But tonight, they were nowhere to be seen. Josh Allen pretty much had the middle all to himself, and it showed. Smith and Harrison had a combined 8 tackles today, while Josh Allen had 16 completions, most up the middle, and most of the Bills’ run game went right up the middle.
Mark Andrews had 2 huge misses that could’ve won the game for the Ravens. One was the missed 2-point conversion I said earlier, The other was a strip fumble where a Bills defender just took the ball out of his hands. His contract expires after the end of the 2025 season and with Isiah Likely having a great game, you’ll have to wonder if fans will start asking for the Ravens to let him go after his contract ends. Personally, I believe one bad game shouldn’t define a player, but fans aren’t happy.
So what do the Ravens do in the offseason? After not seeing huge success in the playoffs for a pretty long time, John Harbaugh could be on the hot seat coming into the 2025 season, since after that, his contract with the Ravens expires. There are a lot of players whose contracts expire, like LT Ronnie Stanley, LB Malik Harrison, and DBs Brandon Stephens and Marcus Williams. The team is projected to have about $23.5 million in cap space, allowing little flexibility in terms of free agents. Marcus Williams might be cut, the Ravens might be looking for a Ronnie Stanley replacement soon, and Brandon Stephens could be kept to help the secondary or left to free up cap space. Kyle Hamilton and Tyler Linderbaum could be cap space problems in the future, as they have been so good, keeping both would require a lot of work from GM Eric Decosta.
Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken, who has been instrumental in turning Lamar Jackson into a premier passer and an overall better quarterback has been interviewed by multiple teams, so the question is what would happen if he left.
It really sucks to see my team lose, especially in such a heartbreaking way. To all Ravens fans out there, I feel y’all, I really do. But as they say, the show must go on, and that's exactly what the Ravens Flock must do.
G4 out.
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