Inside linebacker
Current roster: L.J. Fort, Chris Board, Otaro Alaka
There’s a good case for inside linebacker actually being an even bigger need than outside linebacker. However, outside linebacker is far more important of a position in today’s NFL, which gives that the edge in this case. Still, at least the Ravens have Judon as a star player at outside linebacker while inside linebacker doesn’t even have a guaranteed starter.
Baltimore has three inside linebackers currently on their roster with L.J. Fort as the most experienced among them with 11 starts over seven seasons in the NFL (eight of those starts came last year for the Ravens). If Baltimore plans on using Fort as their starting weak-side linebacker, they’ll need a guaranteed starter at middle linebacker, which they just don’t have on their roster at all right now.
Even if all three of their linebackers were starter-quality players, the Ravens wouldn’t have enough depth to go into the regular season. But that’s not the case at all. Board was a part of the competition for a starting spot last season but not only didn’t he win it, he ended up only playing 64 defensive snaps over 15 games, which speaks volumes. Alaka has yet to play a single NFL game. All that means Baltimore can’t count on either Board or Alaka to be functional depth and need to find more help to at least create competition behind the starters.