The Baltimore Ravens will need a full reboot on defense for 2027, and they have truly needed one since losing the AFC Championship Game in 2023, and Thursday night's shameful display should provide all the data points any reasonable front office would need to start dismembering this roster ahead of next week's trade deadline.
The defense is a joke, allowing over eight yards per play in the first half and free runners all over the middle of the field and no semblance of a pass rush. Rookie head coach Jesse Minter looks like a foil for a power-hungry front office, and pushing out John Harbaugh to hire someone failing miserably as a head coach and a defensive coordinator is quite a trick. Baltimore lost for the fourth straight game, with undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano pretending to play quarterback this time; they head to Week 10 with two AFC victories all season (horrible Colts and Titans) and they have become an utterly noncompetitive football entity.
Losing Lamar Jackson for the season (he isn't coming back to play meaningless games after going to IR with a thumb injury) isn't the problem The defense that is stocked with bad football players (far too many either overpaid by failed GM Eric DeCosta or over-drafted by him or both). Minter has made them worse than they were under scapegoat coordinator Zach Orr the last two years and there is no reason for hope.
Malaki Starks, a supposed difference maker, got destroyed when he actually had to show up in coverage, on a 50-yard TD pass to Parker Washington that made it 17-3 at the end of the first half and effective ended this game. The final was 33-10 at M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore (4-5) has now won three times in its last 12 home games and is 6-9 since last Thanksgiving and has been utterly noncompetitive against winning teams for years.
"Obviously, the results are not acceptable," Minter said amid many rambling answers in which if he wasn't excusing a lot of this garbage he was coming closer to it than he should.
Here's what we learned from this slopfest, in which Kyle Hamilton left and did not return (Minter said he didn't have an update):
Derrick Henry running the Wild Cat is cute, but Jacoby Brissett, who just lost his job to Gardner Minshew and couldn't function against the woeful Cowboys defense is fixing nothing. The Ravens have a lot of time between now and Tuesday afternoon's deadline to make the decisions that need to be made.
Henry has to go . Ronnie Stanley, a middling left tackle nearing the end of his career, should go if at all possible . Calais Campbell, 40, is wasting the final year of his career here. Rashod Bateman should have been gone years ago. DeCosta having the guts to lecture the media and fans on how Marlon Humphrey (he is getting clowned by former Ravens players and coaches all over the country) was a $19M corner was something. Humphrey got picked on immediately in this game and has to be benched for TJ Tampa ( no one is trading for Humphrey , who got beat by a blocking TE for a 50 yard gain to open the game, seriously).
This is an unserious franchise that seems to take its fans for fools. I expect zero accountability from the failed GM or his boss, the billionaire owner who couldn't be bothered to do much during the coaching search. But if they don't starting trying to reposition this franchise before they host the Chargers on Monday Night Football, it's a new low.
Minter delivered a dissertation about this team not being as awful as it clearly is when asked about direction at the deadline, which sums up their general MO when it comes to what they sell in Owings Mills, and reality.
If your players are going to quiet quit from week to week, and the Ravens won't admit defeat that they put together a cheap and nave coaching staff (only the Ravens and Dolphins had no former NFL head coaches employed ) and they won't bring in former head coaches to help Minter, then it's time to let defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver do the job and call the defense.
Minter has been a barely-functional head coach. He needs to learn how to have a spine and hold players accountable and establish protocols and standards in practices and games. He can't be trying to fix a defense he keeps breaking at the same time. Pick a lane, but Minter has been an unquestioned disaster to this point.
They gave up 223 yards in the first half in the rain, at home, and had an 11% pressure rate (impossible, right?) with their alleged "closer," $30M a year pass rusher Trey Hendrickson made no impact, again. This after having Josh Allen and Joe Burrow have perfect passer ratings in the second half against them the previous two weeks, and Deshaun Watson overcoming a 10-point lead in the second half to blow that game.
DeCosta wanted a novice after winning the power struggle with Harbaugh after last year's pathetic season. He got it. The middle of the field was open the entire game and the defense has no soul.
Part of the reason Minter looks out of his depth is because he can't command a presence from this team and get them to focus and show attention to detail. Not with this crew.
They had a silly penalty on a return on special teams to back up Fagnano way deeper than he needed to be. They jumped offsides on a fourth-and-short when this was still a football game to give Jacksonville a big first down. They had false starts on successive plays in the first half, with veteran tight end Mark Andrews ( a colossal DeCosta mistake who did nothing of note again and botched a direct snap) committing the second one - he leads all tight ends in that category and in drop percentage.
In a desperate spot to start the second half ... we got yet another brutal false start to further compromise a QB who was not ready for this assignment. But when your most overpaid players are also your worst players, and they are never held to account, then why wouldn't these issues permeate the entire roster ? A fumble on a kickoff return was a nice touch, too.
"It's ownership of players and coaches that keep happening ... the pre-snap penalties are unnaceptable," Minter offered. Funny thing is they are acceptable but the biggest culprits - Andrews and Stanley - are made men from the GM and beyond reproach, apparently.
After the rookie offensive coordinator badly embarrassed himself and the entire organization with ridiculous play calling Sunday in playing a key role in his quarterback room getting decimated, Doyle finally grasped the severity of the situation Thursday.
He was committed to Wild Cat and gimmick plays and throws behind the line of scrimmage. He leaned heavily into tackle eligible and 13 personnel (three tight ends), trying to bleed the clock and keep this game as close as he could for as long as he could. Made sense, especially with Fagnano's right ankle heavily taped in the rain.
Still wasn't nearly enough, but at least he tried this time. Once the Jaguars opened up a 14-point lead Fagnano had to drop back (he threw one pass beyond the line of scrimmage in the first quarter) and he was under constant duress and it just got uglier from there.
Fagnano is incredibly raw and limited and even with a rudimentary game plan and all that scheming, in a short week he had no chance against this defense. Fagnano was quite poor in the second half. Brissett will start in primetime for this fallen franchise next.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/ravens/onsi as Ravens Coach Jesse Minter Must Cede Play Calling Duties: And 3 Other Takeaways From Thursday's Debacle .
