Ravens Take Home Top Ranked Secondary Honors

The Baltimore Ravens have spent much of their offseason tweaking their defense, attempting to fill perceived holes in an otherwise-stacked lineup. Their defensive line isn't yet a finished product, with their still attempting to find long-term answers on the edge well into team minicamp, but their secondary has never been a question.

They've drafted their way into several cornerstones in their secondary, pairing one of the league's brightest rising stars in Kyle Hamilton at safety with their perennial Pro Bowl cornerback in Marlon Humphrey. That's to say nothing of their pieces of the future in rookie sensation Nate Wiggins, the recently-drafted free safety Malaki Starks or Jaire Alexander, the veteran corner that the Ravens picked up for pennies in free agency.

For their exquisite team-building and management of talent, the Ravens earned a decisive spot at the top of PFF's secondary ranking.

"The Ravens added PFF’s ninth-highest-graded cornerback from a year ago, Jaire Alexander, this offseason to pair with the NFL's seventh-highest-graded cornerback, Marlon Humphrey," John Kosko wrote. "They also drafted Malaki Starks, PFF’s top-ranked safety in the 2025 NFL Draft, to join the league’s best safety, Kyle Hamilton."

"While safety Ar’Darius Washington suffered a torn Achilles tendon in May and is likely to miss the entire 2025 season, Baltimore’s philosophy of drafting the best player available has given the unit tremendous depth, assuming Starks lives up to his draft status."

They could potentially have stars lining up at both cornerback and safety slots, the kind of luxury few teams are ever afforded. But Lamar Jackson makes for enough of a draw that winning players want to come to Baltimore, even more so when they're old college friends of the quarterback.

This secondary, one that Kosko assumes could be "extremely difficult to throw against in 2025," is the Ravens' meal ticket on defense. They had a tough time shutting down aerial success through the first half of last season, but recent adjustments should limit that from being a problem again with this core.