The Ravens recorded the best regular season in franchise history, but where did their individual players stack up across the NFL in 2019?
Whether it’s discussing the Pro Bowl — Baltimore had a record-tying 13 selections — or determining postseason awards, media and fans spend much time debating where players rank at each position, but few watch every player on every team closely enough to form any real authoritative opinion.
Truthfully, how many times did you watch the Tampa Bay offensive line this season? What about the Atlanta Falcons linebackers or the Detroit Lions cornerbacks?
That’s why I respect the efforts of Pro Football Focus while acknowledging their grading is far from the gospel of evaluation. I don’t envy the exhaustive effort to evaluate players across the league when most of us watch one team or maybe one division on any kind of a regular basis.
We’ll look at each positional group on the roster in the coming days, but below is a look at where Ravens tight ends ranked across the NFL this past season followed by the positional outlook going into 2020:
Safeties
Running backs
Cornerbacks
Wide receivers
Defensive linemen
Mark Andrews
2019 offensive snap count (including postseason): 503
PFF ranking: second among tight ends
Skinny: The Pro Bowl selection became of the NFL’s best at his position in his second year, setting a single-season team record for touchdown catches by a tight end (10) and finishing just three receiving yards shy of Todd Heap’s franchise mark for a tight end (855). When you lead your team in catches, receiving yards, and touchdown grabs and are Lamar Jackson’s favorite target, you’re in a great spot.
Nick Boyle
2019 offensive snap count (including postseason): 795
PFF ranking: 11th among tight ends
Skinny: The Ravens paid a steep price to re-sign Boyle in contrast to how more conventional offenses might have valued him, but he responded with career highs in catches (31), receiving yards (321), and touchdowns (two) while remaining one of the league’s best blocking tight ends. The 27-year-old isn’t flashy, but he serves as a linchpin for an offense that set an NFL record with 3,296 rushing yards.
Hayden Hurst
2019 offensive snap count (including postseason): 503
PFF ranking: 14th among tight ends
Skinny: Coming off an injury-plagued rookie campaign and overshadowed by Andrews, the 2018 first-round pick calmed some of the talk about him being a bust by catching just under 77 percent of his targets — the best among Baltimore’s non-running backs — and finishing third on the team in receiving yards (349). Hurst caught the Ravens’ lone touchdown in the playoff loss to Tennessee.
2020 positional outlook
When considering quality, depth, age, cost efficiency, and contract status, tight end is probably the Ravens’ best position group as this unique trio remains under contract for the next two seasons and makes a significant impact in both the passing and running games. Much offseason discussion has been focused on beefing up the wide receiver position, but one could argue there’s more production to extract from the tight ends since Andrews dropped a team-high seven passes, the efficient Hurst was targeted only 39 times, and even the blocking-minded Boyle took a step forward as a receiver. Despite battling through a nagging ankle injury down the stretch, Andrews missed only one game while Boyle and Hurst played in all 16. Considering how important this position group is to their offensive success, the Ravens will want to see that kind of health duplicated next season.
