The Ravens’ penalty problem is showing up exactly where you’d expect it to show up first: on offense, in the middle of a brand-new operation that has spent the early part of the season trying to find its footing.
Baltimore has 17 penalties through Week 3, tied for seventh-most in the NFL. Of those, 12 have come on offense, which also ranks tied for third-most leaguewide. The numbers point to the same place the eye test does - a unit still working through the mechanics of a new system, new voices and new bodies up front.
This was always going to be messy. The Ravens are installing a new offense with an offensive coordinator who had never called plays before, while also asking a revamped offensive line to sort out new verbiage, concepts, footwork, cadence, tempo and more snaps under center than Lamar Jackson has been used to in his time in Baltimore. The group didn’t play together in the preseason, and it doesn’t even have a center who had previously played the position in the league before.
That’s why the early procedural issues shouldn’t exactly come as a shock. A year ago, when offensive coordinator Declan Doyle was on Ben Johnson’s staff, that offense’s install was slowed by procedural problems well into November. Baltimore is dealing with a similar kind of growing pain now, only with even more moving parts.
Head coach Jesse Minter said the issue has already become a clear point of emphasis.
“I would say it is a major point of emphasis,” Minter said. “Right now, we have too many - I would say - operational penalties on offense. To have the lazy excuse of, 'Well, it is a new offense, and we have all these new things, new players, new cadences' - that would be a lazy excuse.
“So, it is a major, major point of emphasis. We are not getting set sometimes when we are going quicker; so, a receiver is moving his feet, we are snapping the ball, and it goes from second-and-1 to first-and-15 - couple instances like that.”
That’s the kind of sloppiness that can erase a promising play before it even has a chance to breathe. Baltimore got away with several basic offensive line penalties in Week 1 that wiped out big gains, but those mistakes are harder to shrug off when the team has also blown a 15-game since 2019 in which it held a double-digit lead.
Minter didn’t hide from the issue, and neither does the stat sheet. The Ravens are in the bottom seven in false starts and the bottom 10 in holding.
Their offensive penalty Expected Points Added sits at minus-7.97, which ranks 30th in the NFL. And the interior of the line has already shown signs of communication and coordination trouble.
There is a possible fix waiting in the wings. Switching to veteran center Ethan Pocic, who has nearly 6,000 NFL reps, could help once he is deemed fit and ready enough after Achilles surgery.
More practice reps would help too. But the bigger truth is that this group may simply need time, and maybe even some injury luck, before anyone can reasonably expect it to be a procedural strength.
The challenge doesn’t get any easier this week, either. The Ravens are set to play on what should be a soft and sloppy field in Brazil on Sunday, which brings its own set of problems for an offense already fighting its own habits.
“It is a major point of emphasis,” Minter said again, “and I think it is just your daily habits of how you operate that carry over, and need to carry you in those moments."
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