Trey Hendrickson has wasted no time looking like himself again in Baltimore. The bigger question for the Ravens is whether they can find him a true counterpart.
Sunday’s loss in Cleveland put the edge-rush puzzle back in focus. Hendrickson, still working through a finger injury that has already cost him two games and bothered him since Week 1, was active and disruptive again, logging a season-high eight pressures in the Ravens’ 13-10 defeat.
That pushed his season total to two sacks and 25 pressures, tied for 11th in the NFL, according to Next Gen Stats. His pressure rate now leads the league’s top pass rushers at 22.7%.
But there’s a catch: all of that production has come from the right side. Since 2021, Hendrickson has piled up 59 sacks as a right-sided rusher, according to Sports Info Solutions, and none when lined up on the left.
That split showed up in a very real way early Sunday. On a second-quarter snap at Cleveland’s 16-yard line, Hendrickson was moved to the left for the first time in his Ravens career, and it didn’t go well.
Trenton Simpson blew up a tight end screen from Hendrickson’s usual spot, Deshaun Watson threw the ball away, and Hendrickson’s rush ended with him on all fours after losing balance trying to counter an outside move. He had three more reps from the left side later in the game and didn’t win any of them.
The same issue extends beyond Hendrickson. Mike Green, the Ravens’ second-most gifted edge rusher, has also been better on the right side this season. Jesse Minter laid out the challenge Monday.
“We have to find the spots where you can move them around - potentially both of them - move them around and create different matchups,” coach Jesse Minter said Monday. “I think Trey is a really, really good right-side rusher.
… We have to find really good ways to make sure we’re still getting a lot out of Mike. I thought he played well the last couple games when we didn’t have Trey.
And so we have to make sure that we’re finding really good ways with both of them out there to be really effective."
Tavius Robinson has filled the box score more than anyone else at the position, with a team-high 3.5 sacks. But the down-to-down pass rush numbers haven’t been nearly as loud.
As a left-sided rusher, Robinson has only 11 pressures and an 8.7% pressure rate, one of the lowest marks among qualifying players, according to SIS. Second-round pick Zion Young and rookie Ethan Burke have not made much of a dent either.
Green’s best moments while Hendrickson was out came when he was lined up in Hendrickson’s old spot. In the Ravens’ Week 4 win over Tennessee and Week 5 win over Atlanta, Green posted six pressures and a sack on 42 pass-rush snaps from the right side, good for a 14.3% pressure rate. When he has lined up on the left this season, he has three pressures and no sacks in 40 pass-rush snaps, a 7.5% pressure rate.
There is still some reason to think Green can help even things out, especially with Joe Burrow up next and a run of Pro Bowl-level quarterbacks ahead. At Marshall in his breakout 2024 season, Green worked both edges and was actually more productive on the left, finishing with 11 of his 17 sacks and a 22% pressure rate from that side. As a rookie last year, he was also a little more dangerous on the left than the right.
Sunday’s matchup with Cincinnati also brings a tough individual test for whoever lines up across from Bengals right tackle Amarius Mims. Robinson, Green, and Hendrickson could all take turns there, and none will get much room to breathe. Mims, a 2024 first-round pick, has allowed just four pressures and one sack all season, according to Pro Football Focus.
On the offensive side, the Ravens also got a promising return from rookie receiver Ja’Kobi Lane. Back from the wrist injury that had kept him out since late in the second quarter of Week 1, Lane finished his first career game against Cleveland with four catches for 40 yards on five targets from Tyler Huntley.
He played 20 snaps as a receiver and lined up mostly outside while running a varied route tree, including six dig routes, four slants, three comeback/curl routes, three fades/go routes, and one each of an out route, corner route, seam route and deep-cross route. Three of his catches came on slants, giving him three on the season and tying him with Rashod Bateman for the team lead on that route. His other grab came on a curl route against Denzel Ward, where he separated on a third-and-6 and picked up eight yards.
Lane was not spotless. He nearly dropped his fourth catch and had some trouble creating separation against press coverage. Still, Minter came away encouraged.
“I think there’s parts of the game where [you can see] it’s his second game, and it shows that it’s his second game,” he said Monday. “I thought he had some really nice plays and some nice catches.
He had a couple really nice blocks as well. He’s always been that way.
I thought he played really well. I think he’d be the first to tell you, hopefully, he can now get in rhythm, and you’ll see some major jumps for him.”
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