The latest news covering the Baltimore Ravens.
The latest and greatest content covering the Baltimore Ravens.
Ravens signing Yannick Ngakoue for second stint with team: Source
Jeff Zrebiec, The Athletic
What Ngakoue brings to Baltimore
The Ravens led the league in sacks last year, but they lost a big piece to that pass-rush puzzle when Jadeveon Clowney departed in free agency. They didn’t replace Clowney with a veteran, leaving them heavily dependent on 33-year-old Kyle Van Noy and a host of young edge rushers taking a step forward. The early returns have been OK. Van Noy has four sacks over the past two games.
Former first-round pick Odafe Oweh had 2 1/2 sacks in Week 2. David Ojabo, a 2022 second-round pick, is healthy again and showing signs of progress. However, the Ravens’ pressure rate is down from last year under first-year defensive coordinator Zach Orr. The Ravens are also last in the league in pass defense. Ngakoue is a player who has shown that he can impact the quarterback.
Source: Ravens to sign Yannick Ngakoue to practice squad
Jamison Hensley, ESPN
Ngakoue brings experience to one of the Ravens’ youngest groups. Of Baltimore’s top four pass rushers, only Kyle Van Noy is older than 25.
The Ravens acquired Ngakoue in 2020 from the Minnesota Vikings, trading a third-round pick and a conditional fifth-rounder for him. But he never really clicked in Baltimore, finishing with 11 tackles and three sacks in nine games.
Ngakoue played only that season with the Ravens, signing with the Raiders in free agency after playing 20 snaps in Baltimore’s AFC divisional playoff loss at the Buffalo Bills.
…Pairing Ngakoue with edge rusher Montez Sweat last November had a significant effect on the eight-year NFL veteran, whose season was cut short after 13 games when he broke an ankle Dec. 10 and was placed on injured reserve.
Ravens K Justin Tucker Has Earned Grace, But …
Glenn Clark, Pressbox
It’s easy to forget how awkward the initial Justin Tucker decision was.
John Harbaugh told me on the record at the 2012 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis that the Ravens were NOT looking at the kickers. They had theirs. While the name “Billy Cundiff” is considered a curse word in this city, the truth is that outside of one particular kick, he was a pretty good kicker. In fact, he had been a first-team All-Pro just a year earlier (2010).
While I happened to know (and report at the time despite Harbaugh’s denial) that the Ravens were indeed scouting the kickers at the Combine, I also knew and reported that they were not committed to moving on from Cundiff. They wanted competition to help build Cundiff’s confidence back up for 2012. They believed he could still be the guy. They knew it was unlikely that they could trust a completely unproven kicker when they had an All-Pro-caliber kicker on the team who just happened to miss one, albeit very significant, kick.
That was an awkward summer. Justin Tucker was really talented. He had a hell of a leg. He had a track record of making big kicks in college. But he was unproven and the team had its sights set on winning the Super Bowl. NFL rosters aren’t built to be able to hold an apprentice kicker like they are with quarterbacks. If Cundiff were to be released, he’d be employed again quickly and wouldn’t be available if the Ravens realized weeks later they had made the wrong decision (as they felt they had with Steven Hauschka two years prior). If they put Tucker on the practice squad, he had probably shown too much throughout the summer and teams with kicking needs would be interested.
It was an incredibly awkward decision. Thankfully, it was a decision the Ravens got correct.
Ravens QB Lamar Jackson on Dak Prescott’s illegal pass: ‘It would’ve been a safety if I did that’
C.J. Doon, The Baltimore Sun
Perhaps lost in the drama of the Ravens’ 28-25 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday was a strange play in the first half.
With Baltimore leading 14-3 in the second quarter, the Cowboys were backed up near their own end zone, facing a third-and-10 from the 7-yard line. Quarterback Dak Prescott dropped back to pass and was tackled by Ravens defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike near the goal line. As Prescott fell to the ground, he tossed the ball forward to left guard Tyler Smith, who caught it and was immediately tackled behind the line of scrimmage.
The only problem? Smith was not an eligible receiver, resulting in a penalty for illegal touching.