Baltimore Ravens Offseason Grade: Did Eric DeCosta Build the Best Roster in Football?
If you’ve ever played poker in the high rollers room at a casino like the Borgata in Atlantic City or the Bellagio in Las Vegas, you’ve seen the NFL’s equivalent of the Baltimore Ravens in the Year of Our Lord 2025.
You saunter in, already feeling a bit over your head and over your budget and spot an open seat at the table, and there’s the “whale,” who likely parked his luxury yacht in a slip near the Borgata or rolled into the Bellagio in his Rolls-Royce before tossing the valet his keys. He doesn’t need to be in that room, he’s already loaded but is chasing that feeling of ultimate victory, knowing he has assets to assure his great-grandchildren come screaming into this world with a six-figure net worth.
That’s how I picture Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta, right now.
Lamar Jackson enters 2025 off the most prolific and efficient season of his career with 4,172 yards, 44 touchdowns to just four interceptions, likely motivated to prove he should have won the MVP. Meanwhile, Derrick Henry couldn’t have been more of a success, as Jackson and his new battering ram fed off each others strengths powering to the league’s most explosive and punishing rushing offense.
Oh, and Baltimore’s defense is built on some of the best homegrown talent around the NFL.
Don’t take my word for it, here’s what a rival coach told me a few hours after DeCosta and the Ravens signed former Pro Bowl cornerback Jaire Alexander last week …
“Baltimore seems to be in a good spot,” the coach told me, on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about another team. “And, they have always handled big personalities effectively. So, Alexander should help them defensively.
“I always think they do the best job of building a team, and they develop and bring in talent from the outside where they need it better than anyone else in the league.”
With an abundance of talent and resources littered across the roster, DeCosta and the Ravens got somehow, some way, significantly better this offseason, with sights set not on chasing the next big pot but finally eradicating the ghosts of postseason failures past, and getting past the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs and the chance to hoist a Lombardi.
What I Liked About The Ravens’ Offseason
This is a franchise with a long-established blueprint and a disciplined diligence to follow it.
Beyond the doubling down on a well-established physicality on offense by re-signing franchise tackle Ronnie Stanley, who only allowed two sacks last season and six dating back to 2022, Baltimore added an elite playmaker at the top of the depth chart at wide receiver by signing DeAndre Hopkins to pair opposite elite burner Zay Flowers.
Only two teams boasted a higher dropped passes rate than the Ravens did last season — sorry, to those with Mark Andrews flashbacks, and Hopkins dropped just two passes as Patrick Mahomes posted a 105.2 passer rating when targeting him. Jackson, Henry, Hopkins, Flowers might not sound like a law firm, but it may become an undefendable offense.
Meanwhile, defensively, Baltimore focused on neutralizing the likes of Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen, who have stood in their way of the Super Bowl over the past half-decade.
Chidobe Awuzie is a solid value signing with upside, and Alexander’s arrival is a big bet that the oft-injured 28-year-old can make it through just his second full season since 2020 and return to his 2022 form when he finished as Pro Football Focus’ No. 11 ranked cornerback.
As is tradition in Baltimore, DeCosta and crew nailed the NFL Draft. Beyond immediate contributors in Malakai Starks and Mike Green, the Ravens fortified the offensive line with Emory Jones in Round 3, before nabbing who has the potential to be one of the draft’s deepest sleepers in defensive tackle Aeneas Peebles.
This was, in a lot of ways, the quintessential Ravens offseason spent fortifying what was already one of the most talented and balanced rosters in the NFL.
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What Worries Me About The Ravens’ Offseason, 2025 Outlook
As has continually been the case for the Ravens, the only real concern here is whether the talent will rise to the moment in the postseason.
Jackson put the Ravens on his back in the fourth quarter of a 27-25 loss in Buffalo in the AFC Divisional Round, but losing a fumble that Von Miller returned for a touchdown and tossing an interception proved costly.
There’s little to find fault in with how the Ravens have operated this offseason, and the pieces they continue to surround their franchise quarterback with, but the open question remains whether it is enough to overcome the powerhouses in the AFC when the games matter most and mistakes are magnified.
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Baltimore Ravens’ Offseason Grade: A
The only thing holding this back from being a perfect grade is the fact that the Ravens selected former Marshall edge rusher Mike Green in the second round, despite some pretty heinous off the field allegations.
Now, of course, Green is due his due process and presumption of innocence until proven guilty, but there are organizations that took Green completely off of their board. Not Baltimore.
This was adding talent value (17 sacks in 2024 before wrecking the offensive line at the Senior Bowl), over values, when it came to selecting Green.
However, strictly on the merits of the talent added via the NFL Draft and free agency, I’m not sure there’s a franchise across the league that did more to elevate its already lofty ceiling than the Ravens did. Starks is an immediate starter and potentially the piece, alongside Kyle Hamilton, that puts Baltimore over the top as the premier secondary in the sport.
Hopkins is the explosive weapon the Ravens hoped they were getting in Odell Beckham Jr., a couple of years ago, and re-signing Ronnie Stanley is an absolute Coup for DeCosta and the front office. Not to mention for Jackson, Henry, and one of the more physically punishing offenses across the league.
The AFC is a proverbial gauntlet, but if the Ravens stay healthy, there’s more than enough elite talent scattered across the roster for the road to Santa Clara in February to be paved through Baltimore.
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