Ravens Rookie Review: Day 3 Pick Emerging as Starter

While the first-round safety has yet to make the splash play that fans have been clamoring for, he was a steady presence in the backend for the Ravens against the Browns. Starks kept a lid on the Cleveland passing game by not allowing anything deep down the field, with the longest play through the air being a 26-yard back-shoulder completion on the boundary. He freed up All Pro Swiss army knife Kyle Hamilton to play fast and physical downhill, logged the second-most defensive snaps with 68 and finished with the second-most total tackles with 7, including 4 solos, one of which was a touchdown-saving takedown on a longest run of the game for either team.

OLB Mike Green

Even before Pro Bowl veteran Kyle Van Noy left the game with a hamstring injury, the second-round edge defender was on pace to see more action on defense than he did in his debut. He finished with 45, which was nearly 20 more than he had against the Buffalo Bills, with just 26. Although he is still searching for his first career sack after striking out in the preseason and Week 1, Green came very close to reaching that milestone on his quarterback of former Ravens franchise quarterback Joe Flacco, who just managed to throw the ball away while getting taken to the ground. He logged a pass-rush win rate of 10.3% and his 3 pressures tied fellow edge defenders Tavius Robinson and Odafe for the second-most on the team, according to Pro Football Focus.

LB Teddye Buchanan

The fourth-round rookie went from being in a near-even rotation with third-year pro Trenton Simpson at the WILL spot to not only making his first career start but playing the vast majority of snaps next to three-time All-Pro MIKE Roquan Smith. His 60 defensive snaps played where just six fewer snaps than Smith but a whopping 45 more than Simpson, who only played 15. Buchanan didn't come off the field on defense until the Browns' fifth possession of the game and tied for the third-most total tackles on the team with a career-high 6, including a pair of solos. He worked exceptionally well with Smith when it came to fitting and stuffing the run , whichcontinues to flash as a factor in coverage.

K Tyler Loop

After a missed extra point loomed large in the Ravens' Week 1 loss, the sixth-round rookie bounced back. He did not miss a single kick against the Browns, making all five of his point-after attempts and drilling both of his field goals. The longest of the two was from 43 yards out. One struggle that has persisted from one week to the next is the inability to consistently get the ball into the landing zone on kickoffs. This is a widespread trend around the league. Loop gave the Browns' offense the ball at their 40-yard line twice. The first resulted from the kickoff coming up short of the landing zone, and the second went out of bounds. Against better opponents in tighter games, they can't afford to give up favorable starting field position.

"You're seeing the ball come up short or come up out of bounds, and we've just got to decide whether we want to risk that or not, but I don't really want Tyler kicking the ball out of bounds, and he knows that," head coach John Harbaugh said Monday. "That for sure shouldn't happen in my mind. The drive kick that comes up short, that's tougher, because that can happen. The ball is shaped funny, but we don't love that either. We still want to have a chance to cover the kick."

WR LaJohntay Wester

The sixth-round rookie saw his first offensive action of the regular season with 3 snaps, but the bulk of his playing time came on special teams as a punt returner, where he was on the field for 8 snaps. Wester fielded two of the five punts, fair-catching the first at the Baltimore 11-yard line and sparking the Ravens' first scoring drive by returning the second for 23 yards to the Cleveland 49-yard line. He might have finished the explosive play in the end zone had he not gotten tripped up by a shoestring tackle.

DT Aeneas Peebles

The sixth-round rookie nearly doubled his defensive snaps from his regular-season debut and continued to flash impressive potential both as an interior pass rusher and in particular as a run defender. His lone tackle was a solo that he earned after swiftly beating the block of three-time Pro Bowl guard Wyatt Teller and engulfing the running back at the line of scrimmage for no gain. Although he wasn't credited with any pressures, Fub had some nice pass-rush wins in rotational action over the course of the game as well.

CB Keyon Martin

The undrafted free agent out of Louisiana-Lafayette went from just playing one snap on defense to seeing the bulk of his action in that phase of the game, with 22 compared to 20 on special teams. After four-time Pro Bowl veteran Marlon Humphrey left the game with a groin injury, Martin filled in at the nickel spot and finished with 5 total tackles, all of which were solos. He also made an impressive play on special teams that helped spring Wester for his long return.

DB Reuben Lowery

After being a healthy scratch in Week 1, the undrafted rookie out of Tennessee-Chattanooga made his regular-season debut. He played just about the same amount of time on defense late in the fourth quarter as he did on special teams over the course of the game (5-7). Lowery checked in for Starks at free safety on the Browns' final drive of the game and was late getting over to the left back corner of the end zone on the garbage time rookie-to-rookie touchdown from Dillon Gabriel to Dylan Sampson.

ILB Jay Higgins

The undrafted free agent out of Iowa played exclusively on special teams for the second week in a row, with 22 snaps, which tied second-year cornerback T.J. Tampa for the second-most on the team accounted for 67% of the total.