As anticipation for free agency and the draft ramps up, the Ravens know improvement from within goes a long way in trying not to waste salary cap dollars or lean too heavily on rookies.
While teams dream of drafting immediate stars, development is tricky with plenty of good players needing a season or two to find their NFL footing. That said, wasting too much time on a sunk cost also hurts an organization. As much as teams try to master the science of drafting and development, much art remains, which is why even the most successful organizations still miss on plenty of draft picks.
Below is a look at five young Ravens players needing to show growth in 2025:
ILB Trenton Simpson
The 2023 third-round pick out of Clemson had his moments starting the first 13 games, but his playing time began to dwindle in late November and evaporated after the bye week with Simpson seeing a total of 15 defensive snaps over the final six games including the playoffs. That’s not the trajectory Baltimore envisioned for someone drafted to be the successor to Patrick Queen, especially since Simpson had the benefit of playing next to three-time All-Pro selection Roquan Smith. Instead, Smith himself struggled trying to compensate for Simpson’s inconsistency in coverage and processing, and veteran role players Malik Harrison and Chris Board eventually began splitting the weak-side job. With Harrison and Board scheduled to become free agents, the athletic Simpson must learn from his struggles and solidify a starting role as the Ravens try to address some premium positions this offseason.
G Andrew Vorhees
Had Vorhees never suffered an ankle injury on the final drive of the Week 3 win at Dallas, you wonder if the Ravens would have stuck with him instead of pivoting to Patrick Mekari at left guard and ultimately sticking with that alignment for the remainder of the season. The 2024 campaign wasn’t what he anticipated after rehabbing a serious knee injury for his entire rookie year, but Vorhees, 26, turned in his best performance filling in for a sick Mekari in Week 18, which was a positive way to head into his offseason. Though you’d expect general manager Eric DeCosta to be on the lookout for a more athletic option or two to compete with Vorhees and right guard Daniel Faalele this summer, the Ravens have too many holes on both sides of the ball to assume guard is going to be a top priority in free agency or the draft. In other words, Vorhees needs to maximize this offseason and take the next step as a pro.
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OLB Adisa Isaac
Multiple hamstring injuries cost the third-round pick out of Penn State nearly the entire spring and summer, which wiped out critical development time and limited him to four games and just 32 defensive snaps as a rookie. That left a very incomplete picture of what Isaac might be as an NFL edge rusher, an unsettling development as Kyle Van Noy turns 34, Odafe Oweh enters a contract year, and 2022 second-round pick David Ojabo doesn’t look like an impact contributor going into the final season of his rookie contract. Tavius Robinson emerging as a solid rotation piece in his second season helped, but the Ravens don’t want to find themselves leaning too hard on Van Noy or being too desperate to work out a contract extension with Oweh. The 6-foot-4, 253-pound Isaac needs to show he can be a real contributor to not put too much stress on the long-term outlook of the outside linebacker position.
WR Devontez Walker
No matter how much you might like the starting wide receiver duo of Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman, the Week 18 knee injury to Flowers emphasized the need for more quality depth, especially with veterans Nelson Agholor and Tylan Wallace set to become free agents. Walker is the only other wide receiver currently under contract who wasn’t on last year’s practice squad, so the Ravens will be counting on the 6-foot-1, 198-pound North Carolina product to improve his route-running ability to become a viable No. 3 or No. 4 option. The organization doesn’t have much of a track record developing fourth-round wide receivers into anything more than special-teams contributors, but Walker has the speed and athleticism to make an impact despite very limited playing time as a rookie.
CB T.J. Tampa
Much like Isaac, Tampa missed a ton of development time after undergoing offseason sports hernia surgery and spending part of the season on injured reserve with an ankle injury, which led to the fourth-round rookie out of Iowa State appearing in just seven games and playing just 18 defensive snaps. With Brandon Stephens hitting free agency and the oft-injured Jalyn Armour-Davis entering a contract year, Baltimore is in real need of outside corner depth behind Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins, especially if Humphrey continues to play extensively at the nickel. The 6-foot-1, 199-pound Tampa fits the physical profile of someone who can compete on the outside despite lacking high-end speed, but the Ravens haven’t really hit on a fourth-round cornerback since Tavon Young almost a decade ago.
