The new season is upon us. The Cleveland Browns take on a familiar foe in Week 1 with the trip to face AFC North rival Baltimore Ravens.
Many things remain the same in Baltimore, but this is a different Ravens team that made some significant changes in the offseason. To get more info about Cleveland’s opening foe, I turned to Ravens Wire and editor Matt Stevens for some help.
Stevens graciously provided some great answers that should help Browns fans get a better feel for Sunday’s opponent.
Lamar Jackson is coming off a magical season. How close to replicating his MVP run can he come in 2020?
I think as we saw last year, Jackson has all the tools necessary to win an MVP award. But as physically gifted as he is, there was certainly a little luck and surprise element to last year’s impressive performance that helped get him there. If he wants to repeat in the same way he did last year, it’ll mean he’s running a ton yet again in 2020, which isn’t something the Ravens and even Jackson himself seemed super excited about in their offseason press conferences.
I think we see Jackson’s rushing ability take a backseat to the deep ball this season. He made a conscious effort to improve as a passer last year and we saw the end results. This offseason, he said he spent a lot of time working on the deep ball and believed it’s what’s needed to take the offense to the next level. If he holds true to that, Jackson is going to need to become far more consistent in his mechanics and protect the ball better.
That means not trying to win every game on every play and instead, realizing he can throw the ball away or go with the safer option instead of trying to carry the team himself.
How will the targets in the passing game get divvied up?
This is a really tough question because we’re not entirely sure how this offense will look this season. Last year, there was no mistaking that Baltimore was a run-first team. This year with the addition of two more wide receivers in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Ravens could actually have a surprisingly good passing attack that doesn’t necessarily need the run game to succeed to work.
At the same time, with four running backs capable of starting most places in this league, there’s little reason to go away from what they know works.
Still, I think tight end Mark Andrews is the top dog in this passing attack. He’s got a ton of speed for someone standing at 6-foot-5 and 256 pounds, and he’s a very skilled route runner. But I’d be shocked if Marquise Brown didn’t come close to tying Andrews’ targets in this game. Brown’s finally healthy and he was deadly fast last year with a foot injury slowing him down. With some questions in Cleveland’s secondary, as well as a newly acquired safety, Brown has a real chance to end this game early if he gets going like he did Week 1 last year.
Beyond those two guys, it’s a real guessing game where the targets go. This offense is built upon forcing defenses to choose which player they want to defend and going the polar opposite direction. If the Browns stack the box to stop the run, Jackson is going to air the ball out, which means guys like Devin Duvernay could be in line for more targets. If the reverse happens, Willie Snead and the running backs in underneath routes will be the primary read.
Who are some of the important newcomers to the team, and specifically how will the Ravens replace Marshal Yanda?
The addition of Calais Campbell really can’t be overstated. He was a beast in Jacksonville in 2017 and 2018 before a drop in production last year. But he’s motivated to prove he’s still a 10-plus sack guy and he knows he was brought in to shore up the run defense. He dominated throughout training camp but this isn’t an easy defense to digest even in the best of offseasons, so we’ll see just how quickly Campbell got up to speed and how much he still has in the tank.
The Ravens are hoping Patrick Queen is their next Ray Lewis or C.J. Mosley — the only two other inside linebackers Baltimore has drafted in the first round. His inexperience at LSU was downplayed by the team all offseason and it seems they’re going to let him go out there and rip it up with the understanding he’ll make some mistakes and hopefully quite a few big plays. But with no preseason action, it’s a little muddy just how ready for primetime Queen actually is. But with his speed, he’s liable to make the Browns pay for testing him at some point.
Baltimore is being really coy with their starting offensive line but it seems like it’s D.J. Fluker’s job for right now. Though he had a rough time in recent years, he’s clearly as motivated as ever, dropping 22% body fat this offseason and saying all the right things. He got a ton of reps with the first team throughout training camp and the Ravens almost always go with the veteran option if a rookie is competing for a starting job as well. All offensive linemen are big but Fluker is just a behemoth of a human being and I’m excited to see what Fluker looks like with a chip on his shoulder.
The Earl Thomas saga dominated the headlines. How well-equipped are the Ravens to move on without him in the secondary?
If you listen to the Ravens, you’d think they practically planned it and were moving on from Thomas because they had a better player behind him. But in reality, DeShon Elliott, Thomas’ replacement, is unproven and frequently hurt. He’s ended up on injured reserve in both of the seasons he’s been in the league, playing just six games in a reserve role.
But when healthy, Elliott is a heat-seeking missile. He’s not nearly as adept at Thomas in coverage but you’re not liable to see him become a lead blocker for Derrick Henry either. I have no doubt the Browns will test him early and often but I’d also expect him to blow someone up over the middle at some point in this game. Real boom or bust play from Elliott’s short career, and I mean the “boom” part literally.
Who wins and why?
I think the Ravens walk away with the win but it’s going to be close. Baltimore clearly looked at everything happening this offseason and chose the path with fewer waves. They’ve retained almost all of last year’s 14-2 roster, seeing only one change in the starting lineup on offense. While there are four new starters on defense, they’re all head-and-shoulder better than last year’s counterpart.
The Ravens clearly wanted continuity and I think that’s a strategy to start the season off hopefully more in sync than the rest of the league. While every other team has a bunch of new moving parts or a new coach, Baltimore is effectively going into Week 1 with the same squad that played in Week 17. That’s the difference in this game as the Browns struggle to get on the same page at times. Ravens 23 – Browns 20