Baltimore Beatdown
Vote for the Baltimore Ravens’ Defensive Player of the Year.
The 2024-2025 NFL season is complete, but before the chapter is closed, we want a final look at the joys that came from the Baltimore Ravens’ season.
So, let’s celebrate the successes by handing out our second-annual Baltimore Beatdown Awards. Today, we continue with Defensive Player of the Year.
Beatdown contributors will offer up our nominees, but the winner is ultimately decided by you, the reader, with a poll at each article’s end.
Kyle Phoenix: Kyle Hamilton
Throughout Hamilton’s career, he’s been an impact player on the stat sheet and it’s easy to note his effectiveness through the numbers and accolades. In Year 1, he excelled. In Year 2, he took a seismic leap and earned First Team All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors. His numbers were easily able to back it up, with 13 passes defended, four interceptions (one returned for touchdown) and three sacks. In his third season, while the numbers weren’t so gaudy, he was a crucial element to the defense’s adjustments.
Throughout history, few players prove they can be more than a top-tier box safety. Moving from the line of scrimmage to a deep safety role is a significant risk for defenses. But the move for Hamilton vastly improved the Ravens’ pass defense.
With the defense in shambles for 10 weeks, Defensive Coordinator Zach Orr called a risky gamble to move one of his premier impact players from the front line to the back end, and it course-corrected the season.
Hamilton finished the season earning Pro Bowl and Second Team All-Pro honors, this time as a deep safety. He still stuffed the stat sheet with 107 tackles (career high), nine passes defensed, two forced fumbles, an interception and two sacks, which in turn earned him ninth place in defensive player of the year voting.
Joshua Reed: CB Marlon Humphrey
After his 2023 season was marred by nagging injuries, Humphrey was viewed from the outside looking in as a depreciating asset heading into 2024 despite being one year removed from not allowing a single touchdown in 2022. Humphrey didn’t just return to form, he was the absolute best version of himself this past season. Known more for his knack for taking the ball away as a result of forced fumbles with his signature fruit punch move, Humphrey showed an ability to be a ballhawk that he never had before. He recorded the most interceptions on the team and AFC as a whole with a career-high six and he forced a pair of fumbles.
His turnovers weren’t fluky or a result of luck, they were often timely and a result of great instincts and anticipation. In several games when the Ravens needed a clutch stop or splash play to swing momentum back in their favor, Humphrey was the one who stepped up and made the play. Some prime examples included his late interception of Joe Burrow in the first matchup...
