Ravens Urged to Address D-Line With Final Offseason Move

The Baltimore Ravens may have one of the NFL's best overall rosters, with a potential argument for the best, but no team is ever truly done building its roster.

Believe it or not, the Ravens still have a few notable needs on the roster. One of those needs lies along the interior defensive line, as with Michael Pierce retiring and Brent Urban remaining unsigned, they're thinner in that area than they'd probably like to be.

Baltimore added some defensive line help at the NFL Draft, namely in sixth-round defensive tackle Aeneas Peebles. However, Peebles is relatively small for an interior defensive lineman at 6-0 and 282 pounds, so the Ravens are still lacking a big-bodied lineman like Pierce.

As such, Pro Football Focus' Mason Cameron believes the Ravens should sign a dedicated run-stuffer as their "final" move of the offseason.

"Michael Pierce‘s retirement leaves Baltimore's defense without its most consistent run defender," Cameron wrote. "The Ravens added some young depth in Aeneas Peebles in the 2025 NFL Draft, but another veteran in the ranks would be an asset.

"Maurice Hurst and DeMarcus Walker are two names to target. Hurst has been hampered by injuries but isn’t far removed from a career-best 84.6 PFF overall grade in 2023, while Walker has the durability but a middling grading profile (65.5 PFF grade in 2024)."

Hurst spent the past two seasons with the division-rival Cleveland Browns, though he only played eight games last year due to injury. He had 16 tackles, four tackles for loss and half a sack in those games.

Walker, meanwhile, played all 17 games for the Chicago Bears last year, recording 47 tackles, seven tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. He is technically a defensive end, but would probably play along the interior in Baltimore's 3-4 defense.

General manager Eric DeCosta said after the draft that the Ravens would look into signing a bigger defensive tackle, so whether it's Hurst, Walker or someone else, it will be worth keeping an eye on for the rest of the offseason.

"I think we got some great football players at important positions, guys that can make plays on the football [and] guys who can get to the quarterback. I think that's great, and probably the one thing we couldn't do is get that big wide-body-type guy [along the defensive line], and I think that's something that we'll assess and address after the draft, and we're already starting to talk about that, so we're aware of that, but I think the guys we took can really impact the defense for sure, and we're excited about them."