The Ravens have spent the first five weeks looking like a team that can win every time it takes the field, even if the record hasn’t fully caught up to that idea yet. The offense has been strong enough to carry the load, but the bigger surprise has been how much Baltimore has had to lean on certain players to keep everything from tilting off course.
That’s where the top five comes into focus. This list is about more than raw production. It’s about who can bend the game, survive all the moving parts around them, and cover for the spots where Baltimore has had to patch things together.
Start up front with the rookie guard who has been forced into one brutal assignment after another and kept answering the call. When the center situation got messy and the Ravens were getting smashed in the A gap in Brazil, he slid inside mid-game and stabilized things.
The next week, in his first start at center, he handled Jeffery Simmons and kept him off the stat sheet for the second time since the start of the 2025 season. After that, he helped jump-start the run game again against a Falcons defense that came in ranked No. 1 against the run, getting to the second level and working people over even on the perimeter.
Since he took over there, the Ravens are undefeated, and he seems to get better every week.
The defensive line has also needed one player to shoulder a staggering amount. No one on that front has played more snaps since his return from a serious neck injury that kept him out for over a year, and it’s not close.
That workload matters because it allows Calais Campbell to stay on a pitch count and keeps Travis Jones from being asked to do too much. With Trey Hendrickson not healthy and/or not playing at all since halftime of Week 1, his return has been huge.
In his first three games back, he led the team in pressures while the defense as a whole was still shaky and the pass rush was especially uneven. Baltimore badly needed him to become himself again, and that’s starting to happen.
Then there’s the chess piece on defense. Rookie head coach Jesse Minter clearly had plans for him, and the comparison to what Minter did with Derwin James in LA makes plenty of sense.
Keeping him near the line of scrimmage has been critical. He leads the team with two interceptions, and both came with him in a linebacker role.
On Sunday, he picked off Tua Tagovailoa to end the game on a play where the ball didn’t even travel 10 yards in the air. He and the rest of the linebacker group have all three of Baltimore’s interceptions.
His ability to move around from snap to snap gives Minter room to experiment and mask some of the coverage issues elsewhere. When he isn’t on the field, the Ravens get exposed in the slot.
The most obvious offensive centerpiece is the receiver who, even with less than 100 routes run, has been the one consistently stretching the field. In a new offense built around explosive plays, he’s still the only one really delivering downfield with any regularity, and he’s doing it better than ever.
The preseason contract extension looks awfully smart right now. Doyle has moved him around more than before, used him in the slot 50% more often than ever, and fed him in the red zone more than ever as well.
His connection with Jackson has been obvious, and he looks on track for the best receiver season in franchise history if he can stay healthy.
At the top of it all is Jackson, who is making the whole thing go even while the offense has dealt with injuries, pass protection issues, and an up-and-down run game. He is leading the NFL with 10.1 yards per attempt, leading the NFL in play-action, and owns the league’s best passer rating at 155.8 in that category.
Overall, he’s sitting at 119.6, also best in the NFL. That’s with Flowers as the only real downfield threat consistently winning, with the line rotating through problems at center, and with Jackson’s legs not yet being used the way they eventually will be.
Every reason points to him coming back in Week 7 from the ankle injury and picking up right where he left off.
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Matt Hibners status is now part of that equation after a hand injury left him uncertain for the upcoming game, forcing the Ravens to consider another layer of depth behind Andrews. If Baltimore needs an extra tight end in the mix, Cuevas is in position to benefit from the opening, making this a situation worth watching closely as the week moves on. [Read more 🡒]
Derrick Henry Gave Ravens Fans A Practice Moment Theyll Love
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The timing matters, too, with the Ravens turning their attention to Cleveland and a defense that will have its own thoughts about Henrys style. Browns edge rusher Jared Verse has already commented on the way Henry runs, which only sharpens the intrigue around how Baltimore plans to keep leaning on its new power element as the AFC North schedule keeps tightening. [Read more 🡒]
Marlon Humphrey Is Tired Of One Weird Browns Problem
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Baltimores timing makes the next visit even more interesting, with both teams arriving on decent run-ins and carrying competitive records into another meeting that should matter in the AFC North race. Humphreys comments only sharpen the attention on a place the Ravens have had to navigate before, and it adds another layer to a series that rarely feels routine when these teams line up in Cleveland. [Read more 🡒]