The Baltimore Ravens head into Sunday’s season opener with a roster full of players who can tilt the game fast, and the Indianapolis Colts are walking into a matchup loaded with problems. The 2026 NFL season begins September 13 at 1 p.m. ET, and with the Jesse Minter era getting underway in Charm City, Baltimore has no shortage of names that could set the tone immediately.
Derrick Henry is the clearest place to start. He’s the kind of back you assume will seize control the moment a game starts to settle, and this matchup looks tailor-made for that kind of takeover. Baltimore is still sorting through the early wrinkles in Declan Doyle’s new offense, but Henry is the one player the Ravens should be able to lean on from the jump.
The concerns about Henry’s age and possible decline keep coming up, but the production and the preparation keep answering them. He’s been doing this at an absurd level for years, and last season he was running behind a guard group that was flat-out rough. Daniel Faalele and Andrew Vorhees were dreadful, finishing as the 55th and 59th best guards in the league in 2025, per Pro Football Focus.
That picture looks better now with John Simpson and Vega Ioane in front of him. They don’t have to be perfect.
Henry just needs them to be solid enough to let him do what he does. The Colts’ interior defensive line doesn’t exactly scream stop sign, either, with Grover Stewart posting a 57.3 PFF grade in 2025 and DeForest Buckner struggling against the run with a 56.3 run defense grade.
Baltimore also added a proven edge threat in Trey Hendrickson, and Sunday gives him a clean chance to make an immediate impact. Colts quarterback Daniel Jones is expected to play after returning from the torn Achilles he suffered nine months ago, which makes this his first game back since December. Even if he’s healthy, that’s still a quick turnaround, and Hendrickson should be ready to test him.
The Ravens signed Hendrickson to a four-year, $112 million contract because they needed a premier sack artist, and that’s exactly the role he’s built for here. He has already sacked Jones twice in his career, and this is a strong opportunity to make that three.
Jesse Minter’s defense should bring pressure, too. During his last two years coaching the Los Angeles Chargers, his defenses ranked in the top-10 in sacks both seasons.
In the secondary, Nate Wiggins gets a chance to prove he’s more than Baltimore’s CB1. He wants to look like an All-Pro corner, and Week 1 puts him across from Alec Pierce on the boundary. Pierce is coming off a 1,000-yard season that earned him a four-year, $114 million contract, but he also enters the game dealing with an ankle injury.
Shane Steichen said Pierce “should be good to go,” but if the ankle is still bothering him, Wiggins could make it a long afternoon. Wiggins is slender, but he plays with force and thrives in press coverage, which is exactly the kind of style that can disrupt Pierce’s route tree and especially his go routes.
Another Raven who could make Pierce’s life miserable is Malaki Starks. As Baltimore’s deep safety, Starks is tasked with patrolling center field and cutting off explosive plays. His rookie year was solid, but 2026 is a chance to take a bigger step, and the matchup suits him.
Pierce lives on the deep ball. He averaged 21.3 yards per catch last year, and that wasn’t a one-off, either, because in 2024 he was at 22.3 yards per catch. Starks already showed he can punish that kind of profile, picking off two passes last season when he got over the top and took away deep throws.
With Baltimore expected to create pressure up front, those kinds of errant throws could be there again. That gives Starks a real shot to impact the game in the same way he did on those two interceptions last season.
Up front, Calais Campbell is back for his 19th NFL season at age 40 and still looks ready to matter. He’ll be a key part of the defensive front, especially if Nnamdi Madubuike is unavailable, and that puts him right in the middle of the fight against Jonathan Taylor.
Taylor is the true force the Colts build around on offense, and stopping him is a major job. Campbell has handled that matchup well over the course of his career. In the three other meetings between them, Taylor never got past 53 rushing yards when Campbell was on the field.
The one exception came in a 2025 Week 6 game when Taylor ran for 127 yards against the Arizona Cardinals’ eighth-worst run defense. But outside of that outlier, Campbell has generally been part of defenses that kept Taylor contained. With Travis Jones and John Jenkins also helping on the interior, Baltimore has a real chance to keep that pattern going.
In Other News...
Zay Flowers Just Eased One Big Ravens Concern Before Week 1
Zay Flowers took a meaningful step for Baltimore on the second injury report of the 2026 season, going from limited to full participation after dealing with a hamstring injury. For a Ravens offense that wants its top receivers available and ready from the start, that kind of update matters even this early in the week, especially with Week 1 approaching and the usual early-season caution still in play.
The Colts also had a busy report, with A.J. Haulcy, Drew Ogletree, Sedrick Van Pran-Granger and Anthony Richardson all receiving status upgrades. Alec Pierce remained limited with a heel injury, though Indianapolis still expects him to play Sunday, leaving the biggest eye on Baltimore's side squarely on Flowers and whether the relief in his status holds through the rest of the week. [Read more 🡒]
Derrick Henry Just Earned Rare Praise That Ravens Fans Will Love
Scott Hanson, the longtime host of NFL RedZone, recently put Derrick Henry in some pretty rare company, and it is the kind of recognition Ravens fans can appreciate. Hanson singled out Henry as one of the greatest red zone players of the NFL RedZone era, mentioning him in the same breath as Christian McCaffrey while pointing to the kind of scoring presence that has defined Henrys career.
For Baltimore, the praise lands because Henry has already been exactly what the team hoped for when the field gets tight and the end zone gets close. He sits among the all-time leaders in rushing touchdowns and remains a major part of the Ravens offense, a reminder that even as the league keeps changing, Henry is still one of the toughest finishes in football to stop. [Read more 🡒]
Ravens Open Week 1 With A Huge Nnamdi Madubuike Concern
The Ravens are heading into Week 1 with a notable hole in the middle of their defense, as defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike will not play against the Colts while he continues to work back from neck surgery. Madubuike has returned to practice, but he has not yet cleared the full week of work needed to be available for game action, leaving Baltimore to open the season without one of its most important interior defenders.
There is still optimism that Madubuikes absence will be short-lived, which gives the situation a different feel than a long-term setback. Baltimore is also monitoring linebacker Teddy Buchanan, who did not fully practice this week as he continues recovering from ACL surgery, so the first week of the season already brings a little extra uncertainty to a defense that expected to have more answers by now. [Read more 🡒]