OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Head coach John Harbaugh expressed confidence Monday that safety Marcus Williams will play “great football” for the Ravens “very soon” despite being benched in Week 8.
Why Williams was active and didn’t play a single snap in the 29-24 loss to the Cleveland Browns remains unclear after Harbaugh described his sitting out as both “a personnel decision” and “an internal type of situation” immediately following Sunday’s game. The 17th-year head coach provided no further clarity when asked Monday.
“I don’t really think I have anything else to say about that. It’s what we do,” said Harbaugh, who wouldn’t disclose whether Williams will play against Denver on Sunday. “There’s a lot of things going on all the time. A lot of it is kind of our business. It belongs in house. It’s between us, and it’s not something that we need to tell everybody everything about. I don’t think you’re telling everybody about your family business. I don’t think everybody’s asking about everybody’s kind of things.
“There are some things that we can just choose to kind of keep to ourselves, and that’s going to be one of them.”
It’s not a secret that Williams hasn’t played well in the third season of a five-year, $70 million contract with Baltimore as Pro Football Focus has graded him 76th out of 85 qualified safeties, but Eddie Jackson — who played every defensive snap against the Browns — hasn’t fared much better, grading 75th out of 85. Jackson failed to corral two potential interceptions and also gave up two touchdowns in pass coverage against the Browns.
The benching came a little over a week after defensive coordinator Zach Orr expressed confidence in Williams as “one of the top free safeties in the league” and praised him for having “his best week of practice during the season so far” before the Week 7 win at Tampa Bay. Williams finished with three tackles and played all 82 defensive snaps against the Buccaneers with his performance not standing out compared to noticeable struggles in multiple games earlier this season.
With Williams on the sideline, the Ravens leaned on the two-high safety duo of Jackson and Ar’Darius Washington when Kyle Hamilton moved closer to the line of scrimmage in three-safety packages.
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“I thought they played solid football. They were in the right spot doing the right things the vast majority of time,” Harbaugh said. “I thought they played hard, made some good tackles, and were in solid position [most] times. For all of us, we all want to just make a few more plays, get a few more pressures, get a few more sacks, get a few more batted balls, get a few more [pass breakups]. That’d be good. Catch the ball on the interceptions. That’s the big one from this game.
“Everybody wants to make plays. I just think we have to keep chasing that.”
Defensive line banged up
With defensive tackle Travis Jones already limited by a Week 7 ankle injury, the Ravens could hardly afford to lose nose tackle Michael Pierce (calf) and defensive end Brent Urban (concussion) to first-half injuries on Sunday.
Jones didn’t look like himself over just 15 snaps, which left Nnamdi Madubuike and Broderick Washington as the only healthy defensive linemen in the second half of Sunday’s game. It’s unclear who will be available against the Broncos with Harbaugh saying it was too soon to know how long Pierce might be sidelined with a calf injury.
“Tough situation. I would like to have those guys out there,” Harbaugh said. “But we also have guys that can step up and play. We have guys on our practice squad, and we’re going to have guys that are going to be ready to go. Stopping the run this game is going to be really important. It’s going to be huge. This is a running team, and they run it really well. They run it a lot, so it’s going to be a big part of the game plan.”
The Ravens signed veteran defensive tackle Josh Tupou to the practice squad on Monday. The 30-year-old was with Baltimore in the preseason and has appeared in 65 games in his career.
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Wiggins “doing OK” after illness
Harbaugh confirmed it was an illness that prevented rookie cornerback Nate Wiggins from traveling with the team to Cleveland and playing in Week 8.
“There was an illness issue,” Harbaugh said. “I don’t think I’m allowed to really disclose it, but he’s doing OK. I hope to see him at practice this week.”
Wiggins was nursing a shoulder injury early in the week. Top cornerback Marlon Humphrey was also inactive due to the right knee injury suffered against Tampa Bay.
