A look at five Baltimore Ravens moves that may launch them into the Super Bowl

Most fans of the Baltimore Ravens are happy with how the off-season has gone. The team went from not knowing what the future held to knowing that Lamar Jackson will be their starting quarterback for the foreseeable future.

What moves will stand out if the Baltimore Ravens make it to the playoffs or the Super Bowl?

5. Decision to extend Lamar Jackson’s championship run

There were so many rumors about passers for the Baltimore Ravens this off-season that it is hard to keep track of them all. But Lamar Jackson getting a new contract was the best thing that could have happened to the Ravens this summer, and it did.

You can disagree about the long-term questions and the cap hits that will happen in the future. No one can argue, though, that extending Lamar Jackson was the best thing the Baltimore Ravens could have done to open their Super Bowl window this year.

First of all, the best choice Anthony Richardson was usually part of Baltimore’s long-term plans. Even if that works, they won’t be able to fight in 2023. Jackson is one of the best players in the NFL, and when he’s on the field, bet on nfl games online odds of the Ravens winning are usually worth a gamble.

Aside from that, the biggest difference between the franchise tag and the extension in the short run is just the salary cap hit. The franchise tag is a one-year deal, so the Ravens can’t change how much it costs them to pay him. Since they gave him a new deal, his cap hit this year is actually less than it was before.

This made it easy to sign both Rock Ya-Sin and Odell Beckham. Even now, they’re still in great shape because of how he trimmed his hit. As was said, the cap hit will come back in a few years, but the cap will keep going up, so the percentage of the hit will hurt less.

Jackson was the key to the Baltimore Ravens’ hopes in 2023, so keeping him and freeing up cap space in the short term is the biggest win of the offseason.

4. Doubling down at the wide receiver position

When the Baltimore Ravens signed Nelson Agholor in free agency, it was thought that this was so typical of the Ravens. Now they have a former first-round pick who hasn’t lived up to expectations, so they’ll sell him as their big free-agent move.

But these Ravens weren’t the same old ones, and they didn’t just stop with Agholor. Odell Beckham made the first big move. Beckham is 30 and just got over tearing his ACL, but when he is at the top of his game, no one is better than him. This was a big step, but it was still a gamble.

But Beckham, Agholor, and Rashod Bateman might have helped the Ravens build a strong offensive line. The Ravens didn’t want to be “solid.” They want to win a Super Bowl, so they brought in Zay Flowers to make a bigger splash. Flowers and Bateman were both picked in the first round and are still on their rookie contracts. Beckham was also a first-round pick, and he and fellow first-round pick Nelson Agholor are the only pros in this group.

Beckham is coming back from an illness, Agholor hasn’t lived up to his draft status, Flowers is a rookie, and Bateman has been hurt before. Still, if they only used one or two, questions would be raised. The fact that the Ravens had all four shows how serious they were about making sure they had solid players on the field. This is the kind of play that can help a team win.

3. Working toward young blood at cornerback

It was hard to decide to move on from Marcus Peters, but it was the right choice. In 2021, Peters was coming back from a major injury, which changed the way he played. When you think about how old he is and how bad his injury is, it’s hard to say if Peters will ever be the player he used to be.

It’s not clear who the Baltimore Ravens brought in to replace Marcus Peters, but they tried out some younger players. Trayvon Mullen and Rock Ya-Sin were both picked in the top 50, and they are both younger than Peters. Mullen is 25 years old this year, while Ya-Sin is 27.

Both of them have played in the NFL, but neither one of them has stayed there. Still, the Ravens will be fighting now, and whoever wins has enough young players to stay for a few years. After that, they kept adding people to this group. They also picked up Kyu Blu Kelly. When you look at Kelly and Jalyn Armour-Davis, you see two very young players in their first two years who are getting ready to make the most of fighting for jobs.

The idea is that between one of these four and someone like Daryl Worley, they can find someone younger and with more potential in the long run than Peters. Even based on how Peters was when we last saw him, there is a good chance that one of these guys can be an upgrade right now.

2. Upgrading to Todd Monken

When they talk about how Todd Monken is an improvement, too many fans forget what Greg Roman did for this attack. Greg Roman may have been Lamar Jackson’s best assistant for the first few years of his career.

But wherever Roman goes, there is usually a one- or two-year boom followed by a lack of ability to draw answers from that. At every stop, it’s the same. So it’s not surprising that it happened in Baltimore.

Lamar Jackson basically outgrew his shoes, but Roman kept trying to force them on him even though he was a size or two too big. Now, Todd Monken will come in to take this attack to the next level.

When you watch Monken, two things stand out. First, he’s going to move the ball a lot farther down the field. Second, he has many different looks. He will run with big wide receivers and pack the tight ends and fullbacks close together so that he can throw long. The Baltimore Ravens needed this very much.

Roman got them to where they can fight for a spot in the playoffs. With Monken, he might give them that extra spark that takes them from being in the running for the playoffs to being in the running for the Super Bowl.

1. Baltimore Ravens’ move for Kyle Hamilton to replace Chuck Clark

The Baltimore Ravens got a late-round pick in exchange for Chuck Clark. Even though it shouldn’t be a big deal and most fans will miss Clark, the move has a lot more meaning than that. This means that we won’t know what Kyle Hamilton can do until 2023.

Hamilton was chosen to take Clark’s place. But it may have been best for him to start his first year as the third safety. Late in the season, the team put him in the slot, and he did well there. It just gives him a new way to change up his game.

The Ravens moved Brandon Stephens back to safety, so now the safety depth chart is better than the spot cornerback depth chart.

In terms of their lineup, the Baltimore Ravens have the option to position Kyle Hamilton as a strong safety. But when they play nickel defense, the Ravens can bring in a third safety and move Hamilton to the slot. Even in a dime, they can then move Hamilton to the dime look or even go with four safeties, including Geno Stone in the box.

Hamilton’s ability to play in so many different positions in the back end gives the defense a real chance to get to the next level. This doesn’t even take into account how well Roquan Smith and Hamilton can talk to each other and play off of each other now that they know each other so well.