Ravens Rookie Watch: Mid-Round Pick Rotates With Starter

After hardly playing in the preseason, including sitting out the finale, the first-round safety was on the field for all but one of the Ravens' 85 total defensive snaps and logged seven more on special teams. He let a golden opportunity to notch his goal of intercepting a pass from Bills quarterback Josh Allen bounce off his arms and chest on the opening drive of the game. Instead of the possession ending in a turnover, Buffalo continued its march, and Allen ripped a 15-yard touchdown strike between him and All Pro safety Kyle Hamilton three plays later.

It wasn't all bad for Starks, as he showcased his positional versatility to  be interchangeable with Hamilton, which was highlighted by a play where he came down into the box to play strong and made a great run stop. It was one of his 7 total tackles, which was the third-most on the team. He also made a strong tackle on a quarterback sneak near the goal line for another run stuff.

OLB Mike Green

On a night where the pass rush struggled to generate consistent pressure on Allen, who dropped back nearly 50 times, the Ravens only had their gifted second-round edge defender on the field for 26 defensive snaps, which came up to just 31% of the team's total. Yet, his pass rush win rate of 15.4% was the fourth-highest among all rookies in the league with at least 10 pass rush snaps in Week 1, which was ahead of first-rounders like Abdul Carter, Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams, who were all top 20 picks. While he didn't register a pressure on his 14 pass rush snaps according to Pro Football Focus, there were several instances where he had nice wins against his blockers, including four-time Pro Bowl left tackle Dion Dawkins. Green was relentless in his pursuit of whoever had the ball and finished with a solo tackle.

LB Teddye Buchanan

One of the more surprising developments that emerged over the course of the game was how much time the fourth-round rookie saw the field on defense. While third-year pro Trenton Simpson started the game at the WILL spot, lined up next to three-time All Pro MIKE Roquan Smith, it was Buchanan who played slightly more total defensive snaps, 29-26, and out-snapped him on special teams as well, 26-11. He finished with 4 total tackles, including 3 solos and a run defense grade of 71.4 from PFF. While he didn't grade well in coverage per their metrics, he was in the hip pocket of Bills third-down running back Ty Johnson on a downfield route that resulted in an incompletion in the end zone. One of his most underrated plays was his an instance where he closed on wide receiver Khalil Shakir in space and while he kind of got stiff-armed, he still managed to help get him out of bounds short of the line to gain on a third down.

K Tyler Loop

The sixth-round rookie’s debut couldn’t have gotten off to a stronger start. He made a 52-yarder on his first career regular-season field goal attempt to cap off the Ravens' opening drive. He finished 2-of-2 after drilling a 49-yard attempt in the second quarter. However, his night was far from perfect. His missed extra point bounced off the right upright and loomed large in the final point differential, as the team lost by a single point.

"It was with my start to the ball," Loop said postgame. "I was just back there and kind of [had] a mental lapse in the process and kind of [went], 'Oh, here we go' and not the smooth process we've been working on, and it broke."

Loop also kicked a ball out of bounds on his first kickoff of the second half. That gave the Bills the ball at their 40-yard line, leaving them less ground to cover on a 12-play scoring drive that ended in a touchdown.

"Every team in the NFL is a good team. If you don't show up and bring your A-game every day, someone's going to beat you," Loop said. "That's where I understand that, for me, I have to do my best. I've have to show up for these guys and make my kicks and do my job. That's something that I strive for and I care about deeply. Now, we have the Browns this week, and it's time to get back to practice and get back to work [on] hammering in [and] just continuing to grow in that area and make kicks."

WR LaJohntay Wester

The sixth-round rookie played the fewest snaps of any player on the team as he was on the field for just four snaps, all of which came on special teams as a punt returner. Wester fielded two of the four punts, fair-catching on and returning the other for 6 yards.

DT Aeneas Peebles

Despite only playing a dozen snaps on defense, the sixth-round rookie flashed some impressive pass rush potential, finishing ahead of Green in pass rush win rate and tied three veteran players who played 38-plus snaps for the second-most pressures on the team with 2 and he batted down a pass as well.

CB Keyon Martin

The undrafted free agent out of Louisiana-Lafayette played all but one of his 21 total snaps on special teams. His 20 snaps in the third phase of the game were the fourth-most on the team. He nearly made a crucial mistake on the Bills' first punt of the game that would've resulted in a muff had it not hit a Buffalo player before making contact with him. However, he more than made up for it on the Ravens' first punt of the game in the third quarter when he flew down the field and made a perfect form tackle to limit the returner for no gain.

ILB Jay Higgins

The undrafted free agent out of Iowa played exclusively on special teams in this game with 21 snaps which tied two players for the third-most on the team accounted for 60% of the total.