Can the Baltimore Ravens Finally Deliver a Championship for Their Legendary QB?

Advertisement
Other NFL team previews: 32. Titans | 31. Saints | 30. Browns | 29. Panthers | 28. Jets | 27. Giants | 26. Raiders | 25. Patriots | 24. Colts | 23. Dolphins | 22. Jaguars | 21. Falcons | 20. Steelers | 19. Cardinals | 18. Cowboys | 17. Seahawks | 16. Texans | 15. Bears | 14. Bengals | 13. 49ers | 12. Rams | 11. Broncos | 10. Commanders | 9. Chargers | 8. Buccaneers | 7. Packers | 6. Vikings | 5. Bills | 4. Chiefs | 3. LionsWe saw what the Ravens offense looks like with a star running back alongside Jackson. Jackson’s 119.6 passer rating was fourth-best of all time, and should have won his third MVP. Somehow there was still enough left on the bone for Derrick Henry to rush for 1,921 yards and a league-best 16 touchdowns. The 1,921 rushing yards is the 11th-most in NFL history for a single season. The Ravens had 7,224 yards, the third-most in NFL history.From Yahoo’s Ben Fawkes: “Baltimore is an underdog in Week 1 (+1.5 at Buffalo) and Week 4 (+1.5 at Kansas City), but favored in its other 15 games. The Ravens have a win total of 11.5 at BetMGM and the best odds (+350) to win the AFC. They drafted Malaki Starks and signed Jaire Alexander to beef up the secondary and have depth at nearly every position. Baltimore is a veteran team that was a dropped two-point conversion from potentially reaching the AFC championship game last season. The infrastructure is so solid here that it’s tough not to see Baltimore with double-digit wins yet again. Give the Ravens-Eagles Super Bowl exacta a look at 18-to-1.”[Get more Baltimore news: Ravens team feed]

[Get more Baltimore news: Ravens team feed]

[Get more Baltimore news: Ravens team feed]

[Get more Baltimore news: Ravens team feed]

[Get more Baltimore news: Ravens team feed]

[Get more Baltimore news: Ravens team feed]

Yahoo’s fantasy take

[Get more Baltimore news: Ravens team feed]

[Get more Baltimore news: Ravens team feed]

Best case scenario

[Get more Baltimore news: Ravens team feed]

Nightmare scenario

We’re told constantly that, like innings for baseball pitchers, it’s not good in this era for running backs to get too many carries. Going back to Henry’s freshman year of high school in 2009 (as an aside, his high school stats are so great they don’t seem real), here are his year-by-year carries: 313, 313, 309, 462, 35, 172, 395, 110, 176, 215, 303, 378, 219 (in eight games), 349, 280, 325. That’s nine 300-carry seasons, another that reached 280 and one in the NFL that might have passed 400 if he didn’t get hurt in his eighth game. Henry led the NFL in carries four times in five seasons (and would have led all five times had he not gotten hurt in 2021) and then he was second to Saquon Barkley last season. And despite all that work, Henry rushed for 1,921 yards last season at age 30 with a 5.9-yard average, which was 0.5 better than any other season in his career. Even though the 247-pound Henry isn’t built like other backs, he should be slowing down like most of his contemporaries have at his age and workload. But some outlier players — Nolan Ryan, Tom Brady, LeBron James to name a few — simply have defied the age cliff. Maybe this is the season Henry shows a sharp decline, but that has been the case the past few seasons and it hasn’t happened yet.

The crystal ball says

Advertisement