The Baltimore Ravens are well aware of the immense talent they've amassed on their 2025 roster. This is especially true for the defense, which boasts several Pro Bowlers in the front seven and secondary. Additionally, the team has five former first-round picks, following the drafting of rookie safety Malaki Starks in the spring and the signing of veteran Jaire Alexander over the summer.
Even though they have yet to take a snap together in a meaningful game or even put the pads on for the first time, they're already being projected to be one of the best units in the league. Following the first practice of training camp on Wednesday, three-time First Team All Pro inside linebacker and team captain, Roquan Smith, told reporters that: "This is probably the most talented defense that I've been on."
Coming from a player who is just one year removed from leading a top-ranked defense in 2023 and was part of other elite units prior to being traded to the Ravens from the Chicago Bears midway through the 2022 season, that's extremely lofty praise.
However, just because a defense is loaded with hard hitters and playmakers, it doesn't mean they are guaranteed to achieve greatness or will be feared by rivals.
The Ravens are two-time defending AFC North champions, coming off a 2024 campaign in which they swept the Cincinnati Bengals and blew out the Pittsburgh Steelers in two of their three meetings, including the playoffs. Yet, four-time Pro Bowl cornerback Marlon Humphrey isn't satisfied with just beating them on the scoreboard. He wants to have the edge on the mental warfare front as well.
"I know when I first got here, obviously the Ravens defense, I felt like teams feared what we did," Humphrey said Thursday. "Now, we are trying to get that back, but I mean I don't think the Bengals fear our defense. I don't think the Steelers fear our defense. So those expectations, when it's in your own division, people kind of like, 'Sweet, we play the Ravens.' I think whatever expectations are put upon us, it doesn't really phase me, it doesn't really phase this team. So, to me, expectations are just something, a talking point I guess amongst the media."
The two-time First Team All Pro is absolutely right in his assertion that neither of the top two challengers to their supremacy in the division has any reason to be afraid of their defense in particular.
Some of the biggest and most prolific games in the career of Bengals star quarterback and wide receiver tandem of Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase have come against talented Baltimore defensive backfields. In 2024 alone, they connected 21 times for 457 yards and five scores in losses that went down to the wire and could've gone either way.
11 catches
— NFL (@NFL) November 8, 2024
264 yards
3 TDs
Despite the loss, Ja'Marr Chase put up video game numbers @Real10jayy__ pic.twitter.com/a1gDiuDk3D
While the Steelers haven't been carving up the Ravens' defense nearly to the same degree since Ben Roethlisberger retired, and even dating back to the later stages of his career, they have consistently found ways to muster up just enough offense in crucial moments late in games.
It resulted in them prevailing 8-of-9 times from 2020-2024 before Baltimore finally turned the tide in the last two meeting. With four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers under center this year, they probably feel even more confident that they'll be able to swing the pendulum back in their direction when they face off head-to-head twice in the second half the 2025 season.
Although the Ravens are still viewed as a prideful defensive team and a physical unit on that side of the ball, their identity has become more centralized around their prolific offense since the ascension of Lamar Jackson into stardom.
As Humphrey said, there was a time when opposing teams, but especially AFC North foes, both looked forward to and while simultaneously dreaded playing the Ravens. Doing so meant that they'd be at the mercy of one of the most physically imposing and intimidating defenses in the league. They never gave any quarter, especially during the golden age when Hall of Famers Ray Lewis and Ed Reed led the charge and were the faces of the franchise.
Earlier in the offseason, Humphrey expressed a desire to reestablish the Ravens' dominant defensive identity this upcoming season. Second-year defensive coordinator Zach Orr likes and agrees with the sentiments of the stalwart leader of his secondary and knows that it will take more than words to make it come to fruition. He was once part of upholding that elite standard as a Ravens player before he became a coach. Now he wants to instill the fear of going up against his unit throughout the entire league and not just their division.
"We want to be the most feared unit in the league." DC Zach Orr pic.twitter.com/XnxqCtzHIR
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) July 26, 2025
"We want to be the most feared unit in the league and it's time for us to get back to people being scared of playing us, and that's what we want to feel when we're out there," Orr said. "Obviously, [Humphrey] is out there; we trust him. He feels that way. I feel that way, too. So that's one of our goals this year is to be the most dominant, feared defense in the National Football League. So, let's go do it. And it is not just going to happen by us talking about it, we've got to come out here and put the work in, and then when Sunday or gameday comes, we've got to go do it."
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