Healthy D-Line Provides Ravens Huge Boost

The Baltimore Ravens are getting healthy at the right time on their defensive front.

Oct 29, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Baltimore Ravens defensive tackle Travis Jones (98) pursues Arizona Cardinals running back Emari Demercado (31) during the second half at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images / Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

If there's one position group on the Baltimore Ravens' roster that needed the bye week more than any other, it's the defensive line.

The Ravens began the season with five defensive linemen on their active roster, and nearly all of them have dealt with significant injuries this season. Michael Pierce has been out since Week 8 with a calf injury, Travis Jones has played through an ankle injury for several weeks now, and Broderick Washington and Brent Urban both missed time earlier in the season as well. The only one who's avoided the injury bug this year is Nnamdi Madubuike, who was also the only healthy defensive lineman on the roster at times.

Thankfully, the bye week has done wonders for the unit. Pierce is close to returning from his aforementioned injury, and though he's questionable for Sunday's game against the New York Giants, he looks like a player ready to get back on the field.

"Yes, yes Michael looks good," head coach John Harbaugh said Friday.

It's not only Pierce that's benefitted from the break, though. Jones was enjoying a great start to the season before his ankle injury started to bog him down, but he now looks much more like the player who dominated early on. With both players back to full strength, or at least close to it, the Ravens will receive a major boost both literally and figuratively.

"It's huge. [Pierce and Jones] are great players," Harbaugh said Monday. "Those guys are game-wreckers inside. Those guys being ready to go, being 100% is a possibility for us – a massive possibility. [They're] two massive guys playing massively good football. That's the idea – inside the trenches – there. These games are going to be won in the trenches – that's where it's going to start. That's what we want to do. We want those guys out there doing what they do."

Baltimore's defense showed significant improvement just before the bye, and after getting healthy up front, that trend should only continue.

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