Grades & Snap Counts: Ravens' Stars…

After the Ravens’ joint practice with the Washington Commanders, Head Coach Jesse Minter was asked about what it meant to see the team’s top players shine in practice.

Baltimore didn’t play its starters in the preseason games, but they were on-point in joint practices.

“You want your best players, your most vocal players, your leaders, to not necessarily have to play the best, but play with the right mentality, play within the scheme, do the things that they are supposed to do,” Minter said. “Because now they can lead by example, and they can hold guys to that standard.”

The Ravens’ leaders led the way in a dominant 41-23 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1. Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, and Zay Flowers paced the offense, becoming the first trio in franchise history to post 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, and 150 receiving yards in a game.

Defensively, Roquan Smith and Marlon Humphrey came up with the Ravens’ two turnovers with an interception and forced fumble, respectively. Top outside cornerback Nate Wiggins locked up wide receivers all game long, and Kyle Hamilton was all over the field. Trey Hendrickson didn’t get a sack in his first game, but he put Colts quarterback Daniel Jones under a lot of pressure.

Here’s a look at the Ravens’ top Pro Football Focus grades and snap counts:

• Flowers’ 93.7 grade is the second-highest of his career, only trailing a 2024 game against the Denver Broncos in which Flowers had five catches for 127 yards and two touchdowns. With five grabs for a career-high 150 yards all in the first half before a hamstring injury, Flowers averaged a whopping 13.6 yards per route run.

• Flowers did much of his damage from the slot, as Offensive Coordinator Declan Doyle found ways to get him in space and away from top Colts cornerback Sauce Gardner. Flowers lined up outside on just 36.4% of his snaps against the Colts and matched up against Gardner just twice, catching one pass for 12 yards, per Next Gen Stats.

• One definitive feature of Doyle’s new offense is more snaps with Jackson from under center. That allows the Ravens to be more effective with play-action passing. Jackson was 7-of-8 for 128 yards on play-action passes versus the Colts, per Next Gen Stats. The 16 yards per attempt was the third-highest mark of his career in which he had at least eight play-action attempts.

• Hendrickson generated eight pressures (31.8%) and the Ravens had a 58.6% pressure rate and two sacks when he was on the field. His first sack as a Raven will have to wait, but he had a ripple effect on the entire pass rush.

• The Ravens’ offensive line has some pass protection and penalty problems. Rookie Vega Ioane and veteran Ronnie Stanley were flagged twice, John Simpson had one penalty, and Jovaughn Gwyn’s holding penalty took a touchdown off the board. However, the unit blocked extremely well in the run game. Derrick Henry finished with 110 yards before contact against the Colts, the third-highest single-game total of his career, per Next Gen Stats. Henry was hit at the line of scrimmage on just 8.3% of his carries, the lowest rate of his Ravens career.

• Making the first starts of their career, Ioane and Gwyn had some tough snaps with Colts interior defensive linemen DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart. It was a tough assignment, but Ioane was still the Ravens’ highest-graded starting offensive lineman overall (73) and Gwyn had the offensive line’s best run-blocking grade (88.2). Gwyn’s run blocking grade was tied for the highest mark among any center in the NFL in Week 1 (Los Angeles Rams’ Coleman Shelton).

• Humphrey yielded three receptions on four targets, but just for 29 yards, per PFF. He also had a deep pass breakup. On the other side, cornerback Wiggins shut down his Colts foes with zero catches allowed on just two targets and 34 coverage snaps, per Next Gen Stats. The Ravens are banking on Wiggins to become a shutdown cornerback this season and he did it in Week 1.

• Smith’s 91.4 PFF grade was tied for the third-highest mark of his Ravens career.

• Cornerback Keyon Martin will have a substantial role, as he took 23 defensive snaps. Undrafted rookie outside linebacker Ethan Burke played exclusively on special teams while second-round rookie outside linebacker Zion Young had 12 snaps.

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