Most improved position groups from the 2022 NFL offseason:

Baltimore Ravens safeties

Safeties – Baltimore Ravens

Additions: Marcus Williams & Kyle Hamilton

Departures: DeShon Elliott & Anthony Levine

And lastly, we get to a Ravens group of safeties, which over the last couple of years wasn’t a weak-spot and former defensive coordinator Wink Martindale ran his defense largely through that unit. Chuck Clark is the green-dot guy for them, who will communicate all the calls with the rest of the defense. However, with him being in the last year of his contract, they have already re-invested into that group and brought in players who will allow them to play in a few different ways.

If you look at how Baltimore’s defense was structured under Wink, they were in multiple fronts. In general, there were a lot of three down-linemen with heavy rotations and two outside linebackers asked to attack the chests of blockers on the edge. To not allow any real creases to ball-carriers on early downs. Then on third downs, no other team in the league would probably put as many bodies at or near the line of scrimmage to make it tough on protections to figure out who exactly is coming and mostly they would send one more than the offense could block, with man-coverage across the board, along with some match-zone principles.

That meant their safeties were put in quite a few tough situations, having to match up with slot receivers and with Clark dropping down as a robber or picking up tight-ends as a member of the box. The other guy was asked to drift into the deep middle, with lots of space for guys stemming vertically down the seams. And when you look at the coverage numbers, whether it was DeShon Elliott or the guy who replaced him after tearing his biceps and pectoral muscle six weeks in, with Brandon Stephens, that becomes clear. Combined, they allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete 41 of 56 passes for 571 yards and five touchdowns versus one interception, with passer ratings of 128.8 and 120.6, respectively. Clark, in comparison, was at two TDs and INTs each, with a passer rating of 81.9.

Still, those guys were heavily involved in Baltimore’s pressure packages, as the two names I mentioned along with Clark were blitzed 76 times last season. I don’t believe we’ll quite see that same type of defense, but rather see more quarters principles to complement what they want from a blitz perspective. Where I see former Michigan DC Mike Macdonald now returning to Baltimore to play more top-down on the back-end. In doing so, they signed free agent Marcus Williams to a five-year, 70-million dollar deal, with about half of it guaranteed. The Ravens then used the 14th overall pick on the consensus number one safety in the draft in Notre Dame’s Kyle Hamilton.

Williams is a phenomenal single-high option, with range to make plays in-between the numbers, but also great instincts and anticipation skills to drive down in two-deep looks and shut down easy yardage for the opposing offense. Hamilton, on the other hand, presents a freakish physical profile at 6’4”, 220 pounds, being able to charge up the alley, squeeze down from the slot or truly play in the box as a run defender. While his reliable tackling skills make him an attractive option to play anywhere between the hashes in zone or match up with tight-ends. Not only are those two major upgrades, in my opinion, but with the change in defensive play-callers, I believe Williams can excel as somebody who can rotate into the high post. Hamilton can then be the guy who cleans up all the mess they create as they send extra bodies in passing situations, while being two ultra-dependable tacklers will transform the whole defense to some degree.

They did lose Anthony Levine, who has been a special teams stalwart for them for a decade, but he only played three percent of the defensive snaps in each of the past two seasons.

Also considered: Indianapolis Colts

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