Devin Duvernay, selected 92nd overall by the Baltimore Ravens, finished his college career with 2,468 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns.
It was no secret that the Baltimore Ravens were looking to upgrade their receiving corps this offseason, specifically at wide receiver. It may have taken until their fourth pick (their third of the evening), but the Ravens selected Texas WR Devin Duvernay with the 92nd pick of the 2020 NFL Draft.
Probably not a name on many fans’ shopping lists this draft, Duvernay nevertheless looks to be a reliable target who plays mainly in the slot, someone who features solid hands (maybe Baltimore brass has learned from the Perriman debacle), plus the ability to kick on afterburner speed when in the open field.
To get a better idea of what Duvernay can do at his best, take a look at his highlight reel from Texas.
Duvernay finished his college career with 2,468 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns.
While you can consider the Ravens’ in the upper tier of teams when it comes to drafting prowess, picking quality wide receiver hasn’t been their forte. But when you take a look at Duvernay’s highlights and pair his ability with the names of Marquise “Hollywood” Brown and Marquise Boykin, two receivers taken in the 2019 Draft, suddenly the Ravens appear to be building a formidable stable of young receiving talent.
The Baltimore Ravens have a need for more help at wide receiver for QB Lamar Jackson and will have plenty of chances in the 2020 NFL Draft
The Baltimore Ravens spent the early parts of free agency, ahead of the 2020 NFL Draft, bolstering their defense. The additions of Calais Campbell via a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Derek Wolfe in free agency along with Baltimore re-signing a bunch of their own players should boost a defense that ranked fourth in yards allowed last season. But for all the Ravens did defensively already, they haven’t addressed any of their offensive needs.
One such need is at wide receiver, where Baltimore has historically been lacking elite talent. At the Ravens’ pre-draft press conference, general manager Eric DeCosta said he feels there are receivers on the roster ready to “make another jump.” However, he acknowledged the coaches and scouts have “found some guys they’re excited about” in the 2020 NFL Draft. In total, DeCosta said, “there’s probably 25 draftable wideouts in this draft.”
Baltimore would be foolish to not take advantage of that level of depth in this draft class. With quarterback Lamar Jackson winning the NFL’s MVP award last season, now is the time to surround him with even more talent and maximize the offense’s potential.
The Ravens tried to address their wide receiver woes last year, taking Marquise Brown in the first round and Miles Boykin in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Brown had a solid season in spite of an injury-ridden year and Boykin made the occasional big splash. With Baltimore re-signing Willie Snead and Chris Moore, most of the primary group from last season is set to return for 2020.
However, the Ravens’ passing attack struggled to move the ball at times last season when the run game was stymied as well. Though far less frequently than in previous years, untimely drops once again popped up for the pass catchers as well. While Baltimore has a decent group of wide receivers, there’s a clear need to find more depth and even find another top option opposite Brown.
As the Ravens have found out in recent years, resting on their laurels at the position has put them in a massive hole. Previously, Baltimore would drop few draft selections at wide receiver and then largely ignore the position with the hope someone would pan out. When that didn’t happen, the Ravens had to turn to older players as stop-gap solutions, asking them to do far too much and getting rather mediocre results in return.
Finding a starting-caliber wide receiver should be easy to do in the 2020 NFL Draft with some of the top options potentially being true No. 1 guy. If Baltimore has identified so many wide receivers they like, they need to ensure they land one or two of them in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Years later he has somewhat of an appreciation for those Notre Dame “haters” out there
Miles Boykin turned into a star player at Notre Dame as he was a large part of their offense that wound up 12-0 in the 2018 regular season and to date, been on Notre Dame’s only ever team to qualify for the College Football Playoff.
Boykin was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens a year ago and was part of the 14-2 Ravens who finished the regular season with the best record in the NFL. Boykin sat down with Campus Lore and shared what he loves most about the University of Notre Dame.
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You may recall during his time at Notre Dame it was revealed that the young man who grewup in Chicago’s south suburbs didn’t think very highly of Notre Dame until making a visit. Years later he has somewhat of an appreciation for those Notre Dame “haters” out there.
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Boykin finished his rookie year with 13 receptions for just under 200 yards while scoring three touchdowns.
Continuing our look at the Baltimore Ravens’ pending free agents this offseason, we focus our attention on wide receiver Seth Roberts.
The Baltimore Ravens got so close to the Super Bowl and will look to improve themselves this offseason to make another run in 2020. But before we get to free agency and the draft, the Ravens will need to handle their own pending free agents.
Roberts played in all 16 regular-season games in 2019, although he didn’t start any of them. Roberts played the second-most snaps in 2019 among Baltimore’s wide receivers with Willie Snead getting the most snaps. In spite of the playing time, you’d be hard-pressed to claim he was a dominant part of the Ravens’ offense.
Roberts converted his 35 targets into 21 receptions for 271 yards, with two touchdowns. It was Roberts’ least-productive season in both receptions and receiving yards in any season where he played at least one game. Stoll, Roberts was a reliable chain mover when he caught the ball, with 18 of his 21 receptions earning the Ravens a first down. But his target-per-snap rate of 7.3% ranked 107th among all wide receivers last season.
Roberts saw a season-high five targets in Week 4 against the Cleveland Browns. This game also saw him post a season-high four receptions. Roberts surpassed 39 receiving yards in a game just once, finishing with 66 against the New York Jets in Week 15. Roberts had one reception or less in eight of his 16 games — 105 wide receivers had more receptions than Roberts in 2019, while 98 had more receiving yards.
If we are to take some positives from the season, then we can point to the fact that Roberts did not grass any of his 35 targets. Both Pro Football Reference and PlayerProfiler do not credit him with a single drop all season. But from a pure production standpoint, there isn’t a lot to get excited about.
The Baltimore Ravens had eight picks in the 2019 NFL draft. But how did they all perform this season?
Eric DeCosta wrapped up his first season as the Baltimore Ravens’ general manager. By all accounts, DeCosta did a great job of finding capable free agents and trades, plugging them into Baltimore’s system to great results. Whether it was during the offseason or in the middle of the season, DeCosta seemingly got the right guys for the job, helping propel the Ravens to a franchise-best 14-2 record.
But a big portion of what DeCosta will be evaluated on is how his draft picks eventually turn out. Though a rookie campaign is hardly indicative of how a career will turn out, the teams that get the most from their draft picks early tend to be the teams still in the hunt in January.
Let’s take a quick look back at who the Ravens chose in the 2019 NFL draft and how their rookie seasons went.
Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
1st round (No. 25) – WR Marquise Brown
One of the biggest concerns for Brown coming into the 2019 NFL draft was his injury history and smaller frame. While Baltimore could have easily gone into the pick willing to have a limited rookie campaign due to Brown’s foot injury, they actually got him back in time for Week 1. However, Brown dealt with injuries all season long, ultimately missing two games and not quite getting to 100% at any point in his rookie season.
Still, Brown had an admirable season, especially by Ravens rookie wide receiver standards. He caught 46 passes for 584 yards and seven touchdowns.
When compared to the rookie seasons of every other wide receiver Baltimore has ever had, Brown sits near the top in every category. Brown ranks third in receptions, second in receiving yards and is tied for first in receiving touchdowns for a single season. If he can get healthy and faster for his second season, the Ravens might have broken their draft curse at wide receiver finally.
The former Cowboys wide receiver has hinted that he’d like to play for the Ravens. Should they have any interest in signing him?
Wide receiver Dez Bryant hasn’t played in the NFL since he was released by the Dallas Cowboys following the 2017 season. He had the proverbial cup of coffee with the New Orleans Saints in 2018, tearing his Achilles tendon during his second day with the team. Since then, all has been silent.
But Bryant hasn’t given up on an NFL return. On Twitter, he identified three “dream” teams he’d like to play for, and the Baltimore Ravens were among them.
Bryant clearly finds the prospect of playing with the presumptive league MVP, quarterback Lamar Jackson, an attractive one, as many wide receivers around the NFL should.
Bryant would bring a great pedigree with him. Between 2010 and 2017, Bryant amassed 7,460 receiving yards, which was the seventh-most in the NFL. He also had a well-developed nose for the end zone. Bryant’s 73 touchdowns in the span mentioned trailed only Rob Gronkowski.
Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images
The Ravens could certainly stand to upgrade their wide receiver corps ahead of the 2020 season. Rookie Marquise Brown (46 receptions for 584 yards) was the only wide receiver with more than 31 receptions and 500 yards last season. Baltimore’s wideouts were targeted 181 times, the lowest of any NFL team.
However just because the team needs a wide receiver does not mean it should sign Bryant. After all, this is a player who has been out of the league for two years, and he wasn’t exactly at the peak of his powers during his last days in Dallas.
In 2017 he offered practically nothing after the catch, with only 31% of his 839 yards coming that way. Bryant was also far from sure-handed, dropping 9% of his catchable targets. The Ravens have more than enough players to drop passes on the roster already — the AFC divisional-round loss to the Titans showed that. Plus, in an impassioned plea to the Cowboys, Bryant offered to come in and run the routes that 37-year-old tight end Jason Witten ran last season. If Bryant is offering his services as a tight end, then the Ravens’ interest should end there. Tight end is an area they are fairly set at with Hayden Hurst and Mark Andrews still on rookie contracts and with Nick Boyle signing a three-year extension last year.
There are quite a few other free agent options set to be available this offseason if the Ravens feel the need to add a veteran to the lineup. Of course, the 2020 draft class is considered to have one of the deepest wide receiver groups in recent memory. We should not forget Miles Boykin, who fits a similar role Bryant would be looking for. Boykin will be heading into his second season in 2020 and showed flashes in 2019 in limited opportunities.
There are a host of opportunities for the Ravens to get younger and better at wide receiver. Bryant definitely would not help them get younger, and I’m not sure he’d help them get better, even if they’re a dream destination for him at this stage in his career.
With every step in his remarkable career, Lamar Jackson has trounced his doubters. You’d think they’d run out of things to doubt…
It would likely be a profitable exercise after the 2019 NFL season to compile a book containing all the analysts who have doubted Lamar Jackson, and all the ways in which Lamar Jackson has made those analysts look downright ridiculous. Baltimore’s quarterback has been maligned at every turn on his NFL career path, and whatever the motives, it’s not working.
Thursday night in a 42-21 win over the Jets that moved Baltimore to 12-2, won them the AFC North, and kept them in position for the one-seed in the AFC, Jackson did a few more things to add to his MVP candidacy:
He broke Michael Vick’s single-season record for rushing yards by a quarterback, and now has 1,103 rushing yards on the season, with two games left to go. Vick’s record was 1,039 in 2006, over 16 games.
He completed 15 of 23 passes for 213 yards, five touchdowns, and no interceptions, breaking the record for touchdown passes in a single season by a player 22 years old or younger. Jackson stands at 33 touchdown passes on the season, Peyton Manning and Jameis Winston held the record before with 28.
He became the first player in NFL History with more than 4,000 passing yards and more than 1,500 rushing yards over his first two seasons. Again, with two games left to go in the 2019 regular season.
He recorded his third game of the season with more than four touchdown passes and more than 50 rushing yards. Cam Newton is the only other player in the Super Bowl with three such games in his career.
He became the first quarterback in NFL history with three games of five touchdown passes with fewer than 25 passing attempts in each instance. Jackson had all of those games this season. Eddie LeBaron, Don Meredith, Craig Morton, Ben Roethlisberger, and Drew Brees have each matched that feat in two different games — in their entire careers.
“Everybody was a fan of his — still is,” Jackson told Colleen Wolfe of the NFL Network after the game, when Wolfe asked Jackson if he had been a Vick fan. “I still watch his highlights. I go on YouTube and watch all the greats. Especially him. He was the guy who would spin defenders and stuff like that — he was amazing. It’s an honor to break his record.”
Of course, Vick isn’t one of the guys who have doubted Jackson — he sees too much of an evolutionary version of his own game to do that. But there is an entire cottage industry of people who get paid to opinionate about football who have insisted that Jackson isn’t legit for one reason or another. The all-timer, of course, was Hall of Fame general manager Bill Polian insisting as Jackson came out of Louisville for the 2018 draft that Jackson should switch to receiver — a take so weird, Polian eventually had to recant it.
Even when Jackson started lighting up the league in his second NFL season both as a thrower and as a runner, the guys broadcasting his own games, and supposedly doing their homework beforehand, were getting it wrong. After Jackson threw the first of three touchdown passes against the Bengals in a 49-13 Week 10 win, former NFL quarterback Rich Gannon had this to say from the booth:
“The Ravens do such a good job changing the launch point for Lamar Jackson. He rarely throws the ball from the pocket. They get him out on the edges, they cut the field in half, and he throws the ball so well and so accurately on the move.”
Stats and tape proved (and prove) a different story. Going into that game, Jackson had attempted 240 passes from the pocket, completing 134 for 1,611 yards, 10 touchdowns and five interceptions, and a passer rating of 95.9. At the time, Jackson had more attempts from the pocket than Kirk Cousins, Mitchell Trubisky or Josh Allen. Going into Week 15, Jackson had completed 192 of 286 pocket throws for 2,348 yards, 22 touchdowns, six interceptions, and a passer rating of 109.1. So, he’s actually improved as a pocket passer since Gannon’s erroneous evaluation. Perhaps he was inspired by it!
The analysts weren’t done, of course. After the Ravens beat the 49ers in a 20-17 Week 13 thriller in which Jackson rushed 16 times for 101 yards and a touchdown against San Francisco’s top-flight defense, 49ers color analyst and ex-NFL defensive lineman Tim Ryan made comments on a Bay Area sports radio station that got Ryan suspended from his job for a week.
“He’s really good at that fake, Lamar Jackson, but when you consider his dark skin with a dark football with a dark uniform, you could not see that thing,” Ryan said. “I mean you literally could not see when he was in and out of the mesh point and if you’re a half step slow on him in terms of your vision forget about it, he’s out of the gate.”
Ah. So it’s the skin color and the color of the football. Riiiiiight. Unperturbed, Jackson came out the next week against the Bills’ excellent defense wearing white sleeves in a game where he rushed 11 times for 40 yards and threw three touchdown passes.
Whoops, again.
Dec 8, 2019; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) runs with the ball against the Buffalo Bills during the first quarter at New Era Field. (Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports).
At this point, Jackson’s skeptics are in the uncomfortable position of having to really drill down to find things that bother them. On the morning of the Ravens-Jets matchup, FOX Sports analyst Doug Gottlieb said on the Colin Cowherd show that he’d rather have Jets quarterback Sam Darnold than Jackson over the long term. Now, while Darnold has shown development as a quarterback since the Jets selected him third overall in the 2018 draft (29 spots before Jackson, who the Ravens took with the 32nd overall pick), Jackson has outpaced Jackson in every possible fashion in 2019.
No matter; Gottlieb had come up with his own picayune pickings — now, Lamar Jackson can’t throw outside the numbers! How original.
“I would still to this day take Sam Darnold over Lamar Jackson – it’s the long-term play,” Gottlieb said “If you want to tell me that Lamar Jackson is a good long-term play, then you’re going to tell me that Cam Newton was a good long-term play, too. Lamar is Cam without the attitude and arrogance. You have to be mobile, but you also have to be able to throw and complete passes. He can do it on multiple platforms but he never throws outside the numbers… Unless they change the rules to where they can’t hit you outside of the pocket, they’re going to catch you and hit you. Cam was the biggest, strongest, and most athletic quarterback we’ve ever seen, and his body broke down at 30. We’re supposed to expect Lamar’s to be different?”
Yes, we know that Newton and Jackson are both mobile quarterbacks. And yes, we know that they’re both black. But to compare the two in a stylistic fashion is like comparing Kurt Cobain and Edward Van Halen — two individuals with highly effective, but massively different, styles. Newton’s body broke down primarily because he was getting bashed from the pocket, though that doesn’t fit the comfortable narrative. As far as Jackson’s durability, he’s far closer in style to Vick, and Vick played 143 NFL games from 2001 through 2015, starting 115. The only thing that could stop Vick’s career curve in the middle was a federal dog-fighting conviction, and 548 days behind bars.
As Warren Sharp points out, Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman has had running quarterbacks in each of his three stops as an NFL offensive coordinator — with the 49ers from 2011-2014, with the Bills in 2015 and 2016, and with Baltimore this season. in 91 starts, Roman’s quarterbacks have missed a total of three games due to injury.
“Mobile quarterbacks are so much safer when they’re out in space ‘driving the car’ as opposed to standing in the pocket, hoping that nothing surprises them,” Roman recently said of Jackson, per NFL reporter Andrea Kremer. “Lamar does a really good job being safe.”
As to Jackson allegedly never throwing outside the numbers… well, again, the stats tell a completely different story. Per the Sports Info Solutions database — a database well within the financial constraints of any major network — Jackson came into Week 15 completing 42 of 67 passes for 607 yards, 490 air yards, seven touchdowns, three interceptions, and a 108.2 passer rating (the same as Aaron Rodgers) on out, fade, corner, post-corner and seam routes — the routes most commonly thrown outside the numbers. Only Tom Brady (perhaps the greatest fade thrower in NFL history) and Deshaun Watson have more touchdown passes than Jackson on those routes.
But hey, don’t believe the numbers! Just take a look at this sick sidearm release on this five-yard touchdown pass to receiver Miles Boykin.
Undoubtedly, there will be more people doubting Lamar Jackson for their own reasons. We have a fairly good idea what the subliminal reasons tend to be. When you refuse to believe the tape, and refuse to believe the stats, and are bound and determined to go against the truth of one of the most remarkable quarterback seasons in NFL history, you are not only falling down on the job and obfuscating the truth; you are also denying yourself the pleasure of watching the quarterback position evolve to levels we’ve never seen before.
Sounds like a pretty rotten gig to me.
So. what’s next? Lamar Jackson doesn’t separate his whites and darks when he does his laundry? He can’t hit a curveball? Can’t sink threes like Steph Curry? He’s a Coldplay fan? He can’t throw ambidextrously?
Well, best not to bring that last one up, because who’s to say he can’t? At this point, wondering what Lamar Jackson can’t do seems an exercise in futility.
The Baltimore Ravens beat up on the NY Jets but not everyone had a perfect game in spite of the lopsided win. These are the studs and duds
The Baltimore Ravens once again handled their business, returning on a short week to blow out the New York Jets at M&T Bank Stadium. In the 42-21 drubbing that wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicates, the Ravens got back into the flow on offense but struggled in a few other spots.
Though there aren’t very many duds in their Week 15 win, Baltimore has a few spots they need to address moving forward. Here are the four studs and two duds from the Ravens’ win over the Jets.
Stud: Lamar Jackson
Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Jackson was expected to break the single-season rushing record in this game. But needing 23 yards, I’m not sure many really expected he’d do it on the opening drive. However, just like this entire season has been, Jackson was more impressive with his arm and leadership in spite of where all the headlines will focus.
Jackson was far from perfect, failing to connect on a few deep shots that he’ll likely be upset about. But it was still an amazing game from Jackson as he completed 65.2% of his passes for 212 yards and five touchdown throws on the night. But his best play of the game was easily the 4th-and-1 from their own 29-yard line where Jackson told the punt team to stay on the sidelines and found tight end Mark Andrews for 36 yards to convert.
Jackson looked every bit the MVP he’s likely going to earn this season while extending his lead on touchdown passes, TD% and amazing individual plays.
Boykin caught 77 passes and 11 touchdowns at Notre Dame but I’ll always remember this block before anything else he did in blue and gold.
With the Baltimore Ravens playing on and owning Monday Night Football this week it meant for a chance for the nation to get a closeup of MVP-frontrunner, Lamar Jackson. Before we get to the Notre Dame connection to this game let me just say that his meteoric rise to super-stardom makes me incredibly happy to be wrong about what he might be able to do in the NFL.
He’s not only the most exciting player going this season but he’s also got to be the favorite to win the MVP award after doing what he did to the Patriots a couple weeks ago on Sunday Night Football and again for his five touchdown passes and complete domination of the Rams on Monday Night Football.
Now to the Notre Dame side of this game:
Miles Boykin must have a thing for the Los Angeles Coliseum. In last year’s regular season finale you may remember what he did to spring Tony Jones, Jr. to the end zone to clinch a 12-0 regular season.
Boykin caught 77 passes and 11 touchdowns at Notre Dame but I’ll always remember this block before anything else he did in blue and gold.
It may have been out of hand at this point but its remarkable to me how Boykin’s highlight catch tonight occurs in almost the exact same spot as his block, nearly exactly a year to the day, that sent the Fighting Irish to their first College Football Playoff appearance. (Shoutout to Austin Hough of The Goshen News for pointing that out to me on Twitter).
I also wouldn’t be doing my proper work if I didn’t send mad-praise the way of Ronnie Stanley who has been an absolute monster for the Ravens and is a huge reason their downright nasty rushing attack works as well as it does.
The Ravens now sit at 9-2 on the season and atop the AFC North standings. Along with Boykin and Stanley, former Notre Dame corner back Bennett Jackson, Jr. is also currently on the Ravens roster.
I’ve only been contributing to the Irish Wire for a short time, but in that time, I feel like I’ve used it as a forum to serve as President of Chase Claypool’s fan club. And guess what? I’m ok with that! But during the course of our frequent …
I’ve only been contributing to the Irish Wire for a short time, but in that time, I feel like I’ve used it as a forum to serve as President of Chase Claypool’s fan club. And guess what? I’m ok with that!
But during the course of our frequent exchange of e-mails and direct messages, Irish Wire Grand Poobah Nick Shepkowski brought up the idea for the following: How would you build your perfect Notre Dame wide receiver? He says it was because of something Golden Tate tweeted in regards to Claypool earlier this week.
Me, being the sucker for any article idea with historical context, started mapping out my ultimate pass-catcher. A few rules before we get started on my list. First, each player can only be used once for the various characteristics. Of course some of these guys could be on there for various things, but we’re trying to spread the love. Next, my own historical reference dates back to right around 1990. Sorry Tim Brown, Tom Gatewood and Jack Snow fans. Finally, this is my list. I’m not going to pretend like I know everything. I welcome the debate. Now, on with the construction.
We start with my most important trait for a wide receiver.
