Ravens Have Important Defensive Position Battle

The Baltimore Ravens are in about as good of a spot as any of their contemporaries, having constructed a team built to contend in the present while keeping an eye on the future. They've made moves to bring in veterans around the margins, surrounding a home-developed cored that they're continuing to extend for the long-term.

The NFL Draft has brought them countless building blocks over the years, with their whole current foundation all tracing back to one savvy pick nearly a decade ago, a raw, project of a quarterback prospect in Lamar Jackson. They've gone on to put together a perennial contender using their noses for talent in the near-decade since that draft day steal, but may have to rely on youth a little bit more than usual in assessing their lineups for next season.

Bleacher Report's Alex Ballentine cited Baltimore's linebackers when putting together every NFL team's most important positional battles to monitor amidst offseason training and preseason preparation, given the lack of success last year's Patrick Queen replacements had in filling the critical void.

"[Baltimore] found that out the hard way as Malik Harrison and Chris Board tried to replace Queen and Smith and were not nearly as productive. This year, the Ravens will turn to third-year player Trenton Simpson and fourth-round pick Teddye Buchanan to pick up the slack at the position."

Buchanan, one of the more noteworthy selections from the Ravens' deep draft weekend haul, looks to make the leap into instant impact after his lone season at Cal and 114 productive tackles and a dozen for loss. Simpson, for his part, was quietly eased into last year's starting lineup, making a fair amount of run-stopping plays without exactly thriving in isolation, evidenced in his the 121.4 passer rating he allowed to his assignments.

The Ravens' roster has few holes, but it's up to the Baltimore coaching staff as to whether they want to roll the dice with their fourth-round draft pick or the shakily-rising third-year pro along the line.