What happened to the Ravens? Dissecting Baltimore’s disastrous start, plus remaining reasons for hope in 2025

We’re five weeks into the 2025 NFL season, and this troubled AFC North team is as hapless as it gets, tied for last place in the division with a new emergency starter at quarterback amid growing calls for a significant coaching change.

No, it’s not the Cleveland Browns. It’s the Baltimore Ravens, who were favored to win Super Bowl LX not long ago.

What on Earth happened? How did the Ravens go from vaunted AFC heavyweight — a marquee contender featured on this year’s first edition of “Sunday Night Football” — to overlooked punching bag in a span of a few weeks? How did the same team that sniffed the AFC championship last winter just lose 44-10 to a Houston Texans club that looked even more lifeless this September?

Whenever it’s this bad — and 1-4 is very bad by Ravens’ standards, considering this is just the second time in franchise history the team has won just one of its first five — it’s never just one issue. It’s a pileup of them. So here’s a proper dissection of what went wrong in Baltimore, plus a forecast of whether there’s still reason for hope in 2025:

The lineup is aging, fragile and top-heavy

The Ravens were a powerhouse in 2024, when they went 12-5 and advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs, their 12th postseason appearance under the direction of coach John Harbaugh. Except, if anyone refers to that group as magical, they really just mean that Baltimore’s two best players — Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry — were magical.

Yes, the 2024 run was a group effort, with defenders like Kyle Van Noy (12.5 sacks) and Marlon Humphrey (six interceptions) contributing splash plays. But the Ravens’ bread and butter was their efficient offense, punctuated by the nearly unstoppable 1-2 punch of Jackson and Henry on the ground. Those two combined for 2,836 rushing yards in their first season together.

In other words, if either of those two went down, the Ravens were always going to be in trouble. It’s often only apparent just how much Baltimore depends on Jackson’s dual-threat dynamism when the quarterback is absent; Baltimore is 4-11 without No. 8 at the controls, and his heavy workload previously took a toll in 2021-2022, when he missed five games in consecutive seasons.

So when Jackson left this year’s Week 4 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs with a hamstring issue, then sat out Sunday’s drubbing at the hands of the Texans, well, the Ravens’ inability to score points was no surprise. Henry, meanwhile, looked immune to Father Time in the Ravens’ 2025 opener, running wild against the Buffalo Bills, but has averaged just 3.2 yards per carry since. He might finally be feeling the effects of his bell-cow Baltimore debut, in which he racked up 344 touches at the age of 30.

It’d be challenging enough if it were as simple as 1.) Jackson is hurt, and 2.) Henry is sputtering. But that’s not all: The infrastructure around the two pillars is also aging and/or and injury-prone:

• Jackson’s Pro Bowl left tackle, Ronnie Stanley, just sat out Week 4 due to injury, and if he misses at least one more game, he’ll have missed multiple starts in seven of his 10 NFL seasons; availability has always been a concern.
• The Ravens’ most notable offensive addition, wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, scored twice in the first two weeks but has totaled just three catches in three games since. It’s not a shock for a 33-year-old recent journeyman.
• The splashiest defensive addition, cornerback Jaire Alexander, was a worthwhile lottery-ticket gamble, but he also arrived having missed a combined 33 games in his previous four seasons. In the two games he’s played, Baltimore’s surrendered 85 points.
• Many of Alexander’s best defensive teammates — Humphrey (29), Van Noy (34), linebacker Roquan Smith (28) — are no longer spring chickens, which has put tremendous strain on the entire unit without injured interior standout Nnamdi Madubuike.

The offense is too predictable

This might sound redundant to the first point, but it probably needs to be discussed more: It’s entirely reasonable to lean into, say, Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry’s otherworldly talents when they’re healthy and on the field together. But did the Ravens have a semblance of a backup plan? Harbaugh has drawn praise over the years for his adaptability, notably transitioning from the pocket-passing era of Joe Flacco to the run-heavy Jackson reign. But the 2020-2021 campaigns, when Jackson was even sidelined for a Baltimore wild-card berth, illustrated just how much the Ravens’ production hinges on their superhero, well, playing Superman.

In some ways, Jackson pairing with Henry to form a true lightning-and-thunder combo in 2024 further masked the Ravens’ lack of depth and/or fallback plans on offense. Look, there’s a limit on time and resources, so we can’t fault this team too much for saying, Hey, these guys are freak athletes, let’s let them run the show. But prior to Henry’s arrival and ageless dominance, it was very reasonable to critique the Ravens for failing to outfit Jackson with the kind of bona fide pass weapons deployed by, say, the Philadelphia Eagles — another team with a dual-threat quarterback that actually invested top resources out wide and up front.

Now that Jackson is out and Henry is more hit or miss (perhaps in part due to Jackson’s own exit), the Ravens’ plan is … hope backup quarterback Cooper Rush survives? Pray one of Rush’s downfield heaves finds its way into the arms of Zay Flowers?

Again, to be fair, any team that loses its MVP quarterback isn’t likely to transition seamlessly. Problems are inevitable. But even when Jackson was on the field, the warts were showing this fall: Jackson was unusually slow to uncork the ball in a Week 3 loss to the Lions, absorbing sack after sack while waiting for someone — anyone — to find separation and offset a sluggish run game. Then, in Week 4, his own hiccups emerged, as he struggled to control the ball while matched up with his nemesis Chiefs.

Until the injury wave hit Baltimore, talent wasn’t necessarily the issue at the top spots. Jackson, Henry, Flowers, even tight ends Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely are all still highly regarded at their respective positions. Lose one or two of them, however, and all of a sudden you start asking questions: Where is the reliable No. 2 out wide? Where is the creativity or consistency on the ground, with or without Henry? Can the line afford even one more injury? And all of this is exacerbated when the defense is also a mess.

The defense is battered (and lacks a defining punch)

CBS Sports senior columnist Pete Prisco minced no words when responding to the Ravens’ latest loss, a rout at the hands of Houston: “Who in the hell are you? That’s what I want to know. The Baltimore Ravens, over the course of the last two decades, have hit you in the mouth and sent you home bleeding. Now teams go in there and they send them home bleeding.”

Yes, it hurts to be missing so many core contributors: The Texans waltzed all over the Ravens while Baltimore was without Madubuike, Smith, Humphrey and star safety Kyle Hamilton. It was always going to be an uphill battle. The problem is, it was never even a battle. The Texans scored six touchdowns in their first four games this year; they scored five on Sunday in Baltimore.

The bigger problem: This didn’t just start against Houston. Go back to Week 1, and the Ravens were obliterated by Josh Allen and the Bills en route to a squandered lead and 0-1 start to the season. Their run defense, in particular, was a sieve and remains so, surrendering an average of 260+ rushing yards per game — good for 31st in the NFL. Madubuike’s absence at the heart of the defensive line for the remainder of the 2025 campaign only spells additional trouble there.

Is it a durability problem? An execution problem? A coaching problem? Yes. You don’t fold to this degree, and this often, without a collective failure. We can’t expect coordinator Zach Orr to wave a magic wand when half his best starters are banged up, but it also doesn’t feel like a stretch to suggest the Ravens lost a bit of their tenacity when predecessor Mike Macdonald walked out the door to become the Seattle Seahawks‘ head coach prior to 2024; Seattle, by the way, ranks No. 4 defending the run at this juncture.

Is it really as bad as it looks?

Pretty much. Here’s the bright side: A 1-4 record isn’t pretty, but those losses were to the Bills, Lions, Chiefs and Texans; at least three of those teams may still be Super Bowl challengers. Now here’s the cold reality: 1-4 is 1-4, which already puts Baltimore on the wrong side of history when it comes to the odds of making the playoffs. And remember, even before Jackson’s exit, the Ravens were struggling to 1.) close games, 2.) play defense, and 3.) control the ball against legitimate contenders.

The Ravens currently rank in the bottom 10 of NFL teams in point differential (-36), which is worse than collapse-prone franchises like the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers. All signs are Jackson isn’t ready to go full speed even if he does return sooner than later. And the star quarterback is still working with a lineup that’s got major depth and durability concerns.

So is there any hope for a 2025 turnaround?

Of course there’s always hope! It’s just minimal at this moment. Why? Because even if Jackson returns and immediately elevates the offense by extending and creating plays, staying on the field to offset Baltimore’s defensive woes, the hole has already been dug at 1-4. Anything can happen, but barring a total collapse from the first-place Pittsburgh Steelers (3-1) in the AFC North, the Ravens probably need to finish in the realm of 9-8 or 10-7 to have a chance of swiping the division for themselves. That means going 8-4 or 9-3 from here on out. Impossible? No. Improbable, considering Jackson’s health? It sure seems like it.

Still, if you’re a Ravens fan and you’re up for dreaming, there are a few things working in Baltimore’s favor: No. 1 being the remaining schedule, No. 2 being that AFC North lineup:

• After the early-season gauntlet of title favorites, the Ravens are set to finish the 2025 season with the eighth-easiest schedule, per ESPN, featuring matchups with similarly struggling squads like the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets.
• Five of their remaining 12 games are AFC North matchups, and three of them are against the Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, who are a combined 3-7. In other words, the division is still very much up for grabs … if the Ravens can show up.
• The Steelers may lead the North at 3-1, but they’ve been more scrappy than spectacular; their three wins are by a combined 12 points, and they’ve actually been outscored on the year. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers is also still 41, so it’s fair to retain a bit of concern regarding the durability of the Steelers’ own setup.

Ravens’ remaining 2025 schedule

The best-case scenario for the Ravens? It may well be to rest Lamar Jackson against the Rams and their feisty defensive front, giving the quarterback three full weeks to heal his hamstring (including the bye). If he’s able to go by Week 8, then turn around on a short week and stay on the field in Week 9, the schedule is very favorable, at least on paper. Those two games against the Steelers will be especially critical, and good thing for the Ravens, there’s time for Baltimore’s top talent to get healthy before then. The only question is whether there will still be something worth playing for when the time comes.