Once a defensive powerhouse, the Ravens have struggled on that side of the ball to start 2025, burning through cap space and raising long-term questions about Jackson’s future.
After their defense finished in the top 10 in points allowed per game, total yards allowed, and yards allowed per play, the 1-3 Baltimore Ravens‘ unit has fallen off a cliff through the first four games of the 2025 NFL season.
No team has allowed more points than Baltimore’s 133, the most it’s allowed during any four-game stretch during John Harbaugh‘s stellar 18-year tenure as head coach. Only the Dallas Cowboys have allowed more total yards. Only the New York Giants have given up more first downs. Only the Washington Commanders have generated fewer defensive turnovers.
When you have Lamar Jackson, one of the most talented quarterbacks to ever play football, and Derrick Henry, a historical anomaly of a running back with unprecedented ability and endurance (perhaps with a current fumbling problem), all your defense has to do for Baltimore to contend for championships year in and year out is just be decent. It’s early, but right now the Ravens improbably have one of the league’s worst defenses, and Jackson is too good to waste a season of his prime with this kind of play.
Of course, there are reasons why Baltimore’s defense has struggled in ways we haven’t seen in a very long time. Two of the Ravens’ early-season opponents, Buffalo and Detroit, boast two of the league’s most potent offenses. Their game against Kansas City was an interesting test against a Chiefs offense that, until Sunday, had struggled, though they showed signs of life in the second half last week against the Giants.
While Patrick Mahomes and Co. were off to a slow start, the Chiefs will represent the measuring stick for other aspiring title contenders like the Ravens as long as No. 15 remains under center. Kansas City had 70 offensive plays across nine possessions, entering the red zone seven times in a 37-20 romp at Arrowhead. Baltimore left Missouri not just embarrassed and humbled, but battered and bruised on both sides of the ball.
Already without Pro Bowl defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike for the season with a neck injury, starting defensive lineman Travis Jones with a bad knee, and starting pass rusher Kyle Van Noy with a hurt hamstring, Baltimore lost Pro Bowl linebacker Roquan Smith and starting cornerbacks Marlon Humphries and Nate Wiggins to injury during the Chiefs game. Per Spotrac, roughly 30% of the $95.1 million the Ravens spent on defense this season is currently on the shelf. While that $95.1 million total is the ninth-most spent on a defense in the NFL, the $68 million active Baltimore defense represents the seventh-lowest cap total in the league.
And to compound matters on defense, which needs to drastically improve its 27th-ranked 5.7 yards allowed per play, Jackson left the third quarter with a hamstring injury after being sacked. While Harbaugh said this doesn’t look like a season-ender for Lamar, Baltimore may have to play its upcoming schedule, with three straight home games against the Texans, Rams, and Bears, without its two-time MVP. Already two games behind the archrival Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC North, the Ravens’ margin for error is slim enough as it is.
Baltimore already faces the age-old problem of juggling the salary cap with a franchise quarterback, an issue that seriously compounds over the final two years of Jackson’s contract. While his 2025 cap hit is $43.5 million, already fourth-highest in the league per Spotrac, that number explodes to $74.5 million in both 2026 and 2027 before his five-year, $260 million deal expires. It’s why Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said the team began initial contract extension talks with Jackson earlier this year, who serves as his own agent.
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Baltimore obviously wants Lamar for the long haul and needs to lower that cap number to improve the roster around him, which currently includes a defense that’s not pulling its own weight. Of course, Jackson stands on the sideline every game and right now sees a defense that fully negated an offense that has scored 131 points over four games, the fourth-highest total in the league. If DeCosta and Co. can’t put a defense next to him that helps him contend for Super Bowls, maybe Jackson starts to think that another franchise may be better equipped to help him win championships.
Of course, injury and opposition are big factors, but right now at this early juncture of the season, the Ravens’ defense is a liability. Until something changes, Jackson is set to hit unrestricted free agency in March 2027, shortly after his 30th birthday. It’s up to Baltimore to put a defense out there that makes Lamar want to suit up in purple and gold as he begins the next decade of his life, and the duration of his prime years as an NFL superstar.
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