OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- As a first-year head coach for the Baltimore Ravens, Jesse Minter has not shied away from the championship pressures surrounding the team.
When he first stood in front of the players, Minter gave out the date, time and location of the Super Bowl.
“I know what they want to accomplish,” Minter said. “I know what we’ve kind of set out as our goals. It’s really not about anything else. And so I think you go to work every day to try to put the team in position to be able to achieve those things. We know what the standards around this place have been and where we want to go.”
The oddsmakers also believe Baltimore will be among the NFL’s best teams. According to DraftKings, the Ravens are tied with the Buffalo Bills for the second-best Super Bowl odds (-1000) and are tied with the Los Angeles Rams for the highest projected win total at 11.5.
But, despite the heightened expectations, the Ravens have a handful of questions to answer:
Who is going to be the Ravens’ kicker?
Minter says he expects Tyler Loop to remain Baltimore’s kicker heading into the season opener in Indianapolis. Beyond that, it’s up to Loop’s leg.Loop missed three of eight field goal tries in the preseason, which led Baltimore to sign veteran Jake Moody to the practice squad for added competition. If Loop struggles early in the season, the Ravens can turn to Moody, who was 18-of-20 (90%) last season for the Bears and Commanders.
“We have got to make kicks,” Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said. “[It gives us a] fresh set of legs to look at, evaluate, compare, see how it all works out. In the end, it is a performance business, right? Looking at it this preseason, we decided it was probably worthwhile to bring somebody else in to see how they look.”
Loop put together an impressive training camp, which suggested he had moved past his last-second missed kick in Pittsburgh that ended Baltimore’s season. Then, even after hitting long kicks in pregame, Loop has missed from 49, 51 and 58 yards.
One of the reasons why the Ravens added Moody is because he has a strong enough leg to kick in the wintry months of the AFC North. He hit a 56-yard field goal in the Commanders’ season finale in Philadelphia, where the wind chill was 28 degrees.
When Ravens special teams coordinator Anthony Levine called Loop to inform him about Moody, Loop told him, “Coach I am ready for it. I understand what is going on, and I am going to accept this challenge.”
When will Pro Bowl defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike return?
The Ravens are confident that Madubuike (neck injury) will play in one of the first four games, which is why Baltimore didn’t put him on injured reserve. The only uncertainty is when he will make that return.
“I am probably more bullish on that right now than I even have been,” DeCosta said. “So, we feel really good about it.”
Madubuike is coming back from a career-threatening neck injury that caused him to sit out the last 15 games of last season and required surgery in April. His last game was almost a full year ago -- Sept. 14.
His ramp-up to the season has been a cautious one. He has suited up for every practice of training camp but been limited to individual and positional drills.
Madubuike took another step toward returning last week, when he had a few reps in team drills.
“What that looks like for Week 1, I think it is still a day-to-day thing, I would say,” Minter said. “But, we certainly have seen some things that indicate great things ahead for Nnamdi.”
When Madubuike returns, Baltimore will have a formidable pass rush with him in the middle and Trey Hendrickson on the edge. From the start of 2023 until he was put on injured reserve on Sept. 27 last year, Madubuike’s 21.5 sacks were the most by an NFL defensive tackle.
“I am as encouraged now as I have ever been about Nnamdi,” DeCosta said. “We are very excited when we look at him and what he brings on our defense.”
Who is lining up in front of quarterback Lamar Jackson?
The Ravens lost three-time Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum to the Las Vegas Raiders on the first day of free agency, and Baltimore still hasn’t officially named his replacement. Minter said the Ravens will decide between Jovaughn Gwyn and Ethan Pocic by the time the players come back Tuesday to start preparations for the season opener.
“I feel confident that we will go into game week with that pecking order for Week 1,” Minter said.
It looked as if Danny Pinter were closing in on the starting job before he sustained a season-ending right knee injury on Aug. 20. Gwyn is considered the front-runner after replacing Pinter with the first team, but he has played only 11 offensive snaps in three NFL seasons. Pocic is the more experienced center with 97 starts, but he is coming back from a torn Achilles that he sustained in December.
“I feel really good about how both of those guys have responded with the reps we have given them, but that is where we are at right now,” Ravens offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said.
This could be a situation in which Gwyn begins the season as the Ravens’ starting center, but Pocic finishes the season as the starting center once he is more fully recovered from the Achilles injury.
Will wide receiver Rashod Bateman be suspended?
DeCosta said the Ravens have received no indication on how long the NFL is going to take to investigate Bateman, who was arrested in June on family violence charges after he allegedly smashed the windshield of a car carrying his 3-month-old daughter and her mother.
Bateman is subject to discipline under the NFL’s personal conduct policy, and the baseline suspension for violations involving family violence is six games.
“It is obviously something that we are very disappointed about [and] that we have to deal with these kind of things,” DeCosta said. “I think right now, [it is] a little bit of a distraction at some points. ... In these matters, we just really kind of sit back and wait for the league and for the authorities to kind of tell us what is going on. We will wait.”
Bateman, who is the Ravens’ No. 2 wide receiver, continues to practice with the team. If Bateman sits out any time, it would mean an increased role for Ja’Kobi Lane, a rookie third-round pick who was the star of training camp.
“We feel like we have got a young group of receivers -- a bunch of guys that can make plays,” DeCosta said. “[I am] excited about that. We will just have to wait and see what happens.”
