play0:19Justice Hill takes a screen into the end zoneLamar Jackson passes it out to Justice Hill, who has blockers in front and scores a touchdown.
play0:19Lamar Jackson gets picked off by Leo ChenalLamar Jackson tries to connect with Mark Andrews, but Leo Chenal is able to snag the ball out of the air.
Lamar Jackson exits with a hamstring injury (0:26)Lamar Jackson is sacked on his final play of the game as he would be removed because of a hamstring injury. (0:26)
Justice Hill takes a screen into the end zoneLamar Jackson passes it out to Justice Hill, who has blockers in front and scores a touchdown.
Lamar Jackson gets picked off by Leo ChenalLamar Jackson tries to connect with Mark Andrews, but Leo Chenal is able to snag the ball out of the air.
Lamar Jackson tries to connect with Mark Andrews, but Leo Chenal is able to snag the ball out of the air.
By the end of the game, Jackson was sidelined by a hamstring injury, too. And he wasn’t the only Baltimore player missing. As we start to break down what has gone wrong for the Ravens during this slow start, injuries are the natural place to begin the conversation. Something that the Ravens managed to avoid in 2024 has come back to bite them in spectacularly difficult fashion so far in 2025.
What’s wrong with one of the league’s perennial contenders? And can those problems be fixed in time for the Ravens to get back into the hunt for the AFC North, let alone a potential trip to the Super Bowl? Let’s dive in.
Every fan has written off a frustrating loss or a disappointing season from one of their favorite teams to injuries. While it might be just as valid, almost nobody considers things from the opposite perspective. When was the last time you heard anyone credit their team for being remarkably healthy over a great season?
The Ravens weren’t just healthy in 2024. They were a historical outlier of health. By the FTN Fantasy’s adjusted games lost metric, the Ravens were both the healthiest team of 2024 and the third-healthiest team of the past 14 seasons. They were the healthiest offense and the healthiest defense in the league. They were your friend who gets up and goes to yoga and Pilates and does an hour of cardio before you even roll out of bed sort of healthy.
It’s more difficult to pick out their 11 preferred starters on defense since the Ravens made more wholesale changes on that side of the ball because of performance, but I’d land on six games not at full strength. Cornerback Nate Wiggins was sidelined for three games, while linebacker Roquan Smith, edge rusher Kyle Van Noy and cornerback Marlon Humphrey each missed one.
During the game, things got worse. Smith left the game with a hamstring issue in the second quarter and did not return. Humphrey was also sidelined before halftime (calf). Wiggins made it to the fourth quarter before being carted to the locker room after suffering an elbow injury in a collision with Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco. That’s six starters, four of whom were Pro Bowlers last season.
Awuzie was found lacking in a couple of spots against the Chiefs, including in coverage on a touchdown pass to Hollywood Brown, but the defenders who were getting picked on for the Ravens were their rookies up the middle. Teddye Buchanan has stepped in as the primary middle linebacker next to Smith, while first-round pick Malaki Starks has been an every-down player at safety. In an ideal world, the Ravens wouldn’t be relying on those guys in key roles in September of their rookie years.
The Chiefs worked on Buchanan in the red zone. They hit Pacheco for a touchdown in the flat on a play where the rookie linebacker was distracted by backfield movement and was two steps too slow to get out in coverage. Buchanan and Martin both ended up covering a crossing route on another score, leaving Tyquan Thornton to run a seam past Buchanan for an 11-yard touchdown. Buchanan also missed a tackle on Brashard Smith in the flat for a 17-yard gain.
And as such, the Ravens haven’t been able to flesh out the back half of their roster as much as they might like, with nobody joining them in free agency for more than $5 million. They had to move on from Marcus Williams after he was benched last year, but Starks was their immediate replacement with no significant veteran addition at safety. Ar’Darius Washington, who took over for Williams last year, has been sidelined all season after tearing his Achilles in May.
At cornerback, the Ravens let Brandon Stephens leave in free agency and signed Awuzie and Alexander — both coming off injury-hit seasons in 2023 and 2024 — for a combined $5.3 million. They let Patrick Queen leave in free agency after extending Smith, and while that might have been a financially prudent move, the spot next to the All-Pro linebacker hasn’t been filled effectively or consistently.
Without Madubuike and Van Noy, the Ravens are down their top two pass rushers. The only player on the team who has a sack besides Madubuike is Tavius Robinson, who picked up a coverage sack during Sunday’s loss. Defensive coordinator Zach Orr has needed to turn the blitz rate up over the past two weeks, with a team that blitzed just under 21% of the time last season now sending extra rushers more than 37% of the time against the Lions and Chiefs.
Of course, the Ravens struggled last year before turning things around, too. That involved hiring Dean Pees as an adviser to the 33-year-old Orr, who was a first-time defensive playcaller. It also involved benching or cutting players like Williams, Eddie Jackson and Trenton Simpson while moving Hamilton into a full-time free safety role. There isn’t the same sort of depth or alternatives available to the Ravens this time around. The guys who would be filling in are already in the lineup.
Last year’s Ravens were obviously spectacular running the football, as the combination of Henry, Jackson and a healthy offensive line delivered remarkable results. Baltimore led the league in rushing yards and averaged 5.8 yards per carry, the best mark posted by any team in a single season since 1948. They were explosive, efficient and deadly in the red zone.
When Henry rolled off runs for 30, 46 and 49 yards in Week 1 against the Bills, it looked like the Ravens were on that same track again in 2025. And since then, there has usually been an explosive run or two per game. Henry had a 28-yarder in the first quarter against the Lions. Jackson had a 17-yarder before leaving against the Chiefs, while Hill came in late for that 71-yard touchdown.
The Ravens are averaging 6.2 yards per carry, which is even better than their 2024 mark. They have 19 gains of 10 or more yards and have turned 22% of their rush attempts into double-digit gains. All of those figures lead the NFL. By yardage measures, the Ravens are dominating on the ground. And by EPA per rush attempt, the Ravens are sixth in the league — even with Henry’s three fumbles weighing things down.
This year, even while they average more than six yards per carry, the Ravens are 28th in success rate when they run the ball. Take Jackson out of the mix, and their running backs are 30th in success rate. There are still explosive plays, which are great, but outside of those one or two big runs per game, the Ravens are getting shut down when they run.
Lamar Jackson passes it out to Justice Hill, who has blockers in front and scores a touchdown.
Jackson, meanwhile, took a major step forward in avoiding negative plays in 2024. He threw just four interceptions all season, and after a 7.4% sack rate over his career before 2024, he dropped that down to 4.6% last season. A high sack rate always seemed to be one of the trade-offs for the magic Jackson was capable of creating outside structure as he extended plays, but he was playing at a high enough level to even take that out of his game a year ago.
After taking 23 sacks all season, though, Jackson has already been brought down for 15 in 2025. Only Cam Ward has been sacked more, and the Titans’ rookie has dropped back 30 more times than his Ravens counterpart. Jackson’s 12.6% sack rate is the worst figure in the league. Those sacks are all negative plays, and while they’re better than interceptions, some of them can be drive-destroying.
It didn’t help that the Ravens were without Stanley for most of the day, as the starting left tackle left after the first quarter with ankle issues. He was questionable coming into the game with ankle trouble. Patrick Ricard, Baltimore’s starting fullback, also missed his fourth consecutive game with a calf concern. However, Likely did make his season debut after recovering from foot surgery.
The Ravens don’t have an exclusively boom-and-bust offense, but they do have a very inconsistent attack right now. There are too many negative plays in the way of fumbles, sacks and runs that don’t keep the offense on schedule, leading to difficult third-and-long scenarios. Jackson and his teammates have been capable of the spectacular this year and shown as much, but last season’s Ravens were far more consistently impactful on offense.
I think so. Playing lesser competition will help. The Ravens project to face the league’s eighth-easiest schedule from here on out, which will go a long way to making their lives easier. Harbaugh suggested after Sunday’s loss that none of the injuries was season-ending, which means that the Ravens should be able to get their key players back in the weeks to come. Of course, there aren’t any guarantees that the guys who are healthy now will stay healthy for the rest of the season.
This is probably the point, though, where Ravens fans have to recalibrate their expectations. Per ESPN’s Football Power Index, the Ravens have a 2.5% chance of finishing with the top seed in the AFC after Sunday’s loss, down from a conference-high 20.4% before the season began. In addition to being three games behind the Bills, the Ravens would lose any head-to-head tiebreaker against the Bills or Chiefs after losing to both in September.
On the other hand, the AFC North still feels wide open. The Steelers are 3-1, but they’ve struggled badly on defense and needed some spectacular turnover timing to beat the Jets and Patriots this season. The Bengals are 2-1 and won’t have Joe Burrow (toe) for months to come, and the 1-3 Browns are more feisty than good. The two games against the Steelers won’t come until December, and the Ravens should have more of their stars back before then.