Baltimore Beatdown
The rookies won a big game on Sunday, snapping a two-game losing streak by going on the road to Cincinnati and dominating the Bengals to a 24-0 win. Let’s see how the rookies performed.
Multiple defensive rookies put up tremendous effort in Sunday’s shutout. Malaki Starks earned a 61.4 coverage grade from PFF, only allowing one reception. He finished the game with five tackles, a pass defensed, and a forced fumble, and his 88.9 run defense grade led the team. While Starks has not been flashy, he has performed about as consistently as you could ask for a rookie safety playing 90% of snaps every week. He hits his landmarks in coverage, sorts through the traffic physically in the run game, and has done well to limit mistakes over the top.
After a couple of high-ceiling games following the bye week, Green has seemingly hit a bit of a rookie wall. While he did manage a sack in this game, it was more of an effort/coverage sack than a win. That was his only pressure on Sunday on 20 pass rush snaps according to PFF. His run grades have also dropped over the last couple of weeks, indicating some struggles there as well. Right now, it’s not hurting the Ravens too much with Dre’Mont Jones emerging as a threat and Zach Orr cooking up some nasty pressure packages. Still, I’d like to see Orr and his staff lean into focusing on Green’s pass-rushing abilities for the last few games of the season with the return of Tavius Robinson offering some more heft in the run game.
Buchanan played 12 snaps before leaving the field for a non-contact injury on a punt coverage play. Head coach John Harbaugh confirmed on Monday that Buchanan did, in fact, tear his ACL, which will end his rookie season. It’s a disappointing conclusion to an exciting season for the fourth-round pick. It can’t be overstated just how impressive it was for Buchanan to come in as a Day 3 draft pick and earn a starting spot as an inside linebacker, one of the hardest transitions from college to NFL play. Buchanan was second on the team in tackles before this injury; hopefully, he can recover in time to retake his starting job in 2026.
Vinson only played six snaps on Sunday, coming in relief for Ronnie Stanley, who left at the very end of the game. On Monday, Harbaugh said that Stanley would have to be evaluated throughout the week as he deals with soreness. If Stanley can’t go, that could line up Vinson for his first career start, assuming the Ravens don’t go with Joe Noteboom. Vinson has recently gotten the gameday activations over Noteboom the last couple of weeks, which shows confidence in the young rookie. But we’ll have to see if the Ravens have enough confidence to give him a start if Stanley is unavailable.
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