The visual was impossible to ignore. As No. 2 quarterback Jameis Winston had the once-dormant Cleveland Browns offense moving up and down the field Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens’ $70 million safety Marcus Williams stood on the sideline, his clean white jersey shining in the afternoon sun.
Williams and backup quarterback Josh Johnson were the only two Ravens who were eligible to play in Sunday’s 29-24 loss to the Browns and never saw the field. Johnson typically doesn’t. But Williams?
Just nine days earlier, Ravens defensive coordinator Zach Orr said Williams was having his best week of practice. Six days earlier, Williams played all 82 defensive snaps in the Ravens’ victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on “Monday Night Football.” On Sunday, he was a DNP in a game where one of his replacements, veteran Eddie Jackson, dropped three potential interceptions, missed a tackle on one touchdown and was beaten through the air for two other scores.
After the loss, which ended Baltimore’s five-game winning streak and left them 5-3 heading into Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos, coach John Harbaugh called sitting Williams a “personnel decision,” while also labeling it an “internal type of situation.”
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He was asked to clarify his comments Monday and said, “I don’t really think I have anything else to say about that. 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. … There are some things that we can just choose to kind of keep to ourselves, and that’s going to be one of them. I never get up here and talk about why we put guys up or put guys down — I never have, so I’m probably not going to start doing that now.”
Harbaugh did suggest that Williams, an eight-year pro, remains in Baltimore’s plans — although he didn’t say whether he’ll be active Sunday against the Broncos.
“I’m not going to try to get into too much about who’s going to play and who’s not going to play in the game, but I’ll just reiterate what I said before: Marcus is a heck of a player,” Harbaugh said. “I have the utmost confidence in him as a player, as a person, as a pro. He’s a great person; he’s a hard worker. Plays hard, practices hard, does everything at the highest level, and I anticipate him playing great football for us all season and very soon.”
Looking to shake up a pass defense that ranks dead last in the NFL, the Ravens decided after the Buccaneers game to make a change at safety and move Williams to a reserve role, per team sources. That was evident in how the Ravens practiced last Wednesday with Williams no longer working with the first team. Jackson acknowledged that he and Ar’Darius Washington found out they’d be starting at safety during the practice week.
Williams, 28, was having a challenging season, so the decision didn’t completely come out of nowhere. In fact, Ravens fans had been calling for Williams to be benched for several weeks. Opposing quarterbacks have a 143.9 rating when targeting Williams this season, and they’ve averaged just over 16 yards per reception. Pro Football Focus ranks him 76th out of 85 qualifying safeties.
Compounding matters is that Williams, who departed New Orleans to sign a five-year, $70 million deal with the Ravens before the 2023 season, carries the third-highest salary-cap number on the team at $18.7 million, behind only quarterback Lamar Jackson ($32.4 million) and cornerback Marlon Humphrey ($22.9 million).
It’s hard to imagine there would be a trade market for Williams, given his struggles and contract. Moving on from him this offseason would also leave the Ravens with a significant amount of dead money on their salary cap. The best thing for Baltimore would be for Williams, who had 19 interceptions in his first six NFL seasons, to regain his big-play form. But getting a DNP in a divisional game behind a struggling veteran and a fourth-year player who has primarily played the nickel corner role in his young career suggests Williams is far away from that.
Harbaugh maintained Monday that the organization’s confidence remains high in Williams, although there are significant questions. If the Ravens had no plans to play Williams Sunday, even as a No. 3 safety, then why was he active in the first place? The Ravens certainly could have used another healthy body up front, such as outside linebacker David Ojabo, after they lost defensive linemen Michael Pierce (calf) and Brent Urban (concussion) to injuries in the first half.
And if there was consideration to playing Williams Sunday, why did Harbaugh and Orr not think it was the right time to go back to him, particularly with how much Eddie Jackson seemed to be struggling? Jackson, who is also one of the lowest-ranked safeties, per PFF, has allowed a 144.9 passer rating against and 15.6 yards per reception.
“I thought they played solid football,” Harbaugh said of Jackson and Washington. “They were in the right spot, doing the right things the vast majority of time. 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 PBUs (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.”
Harbaugh was noncommittal about who will start at safety Sunday against rookie Bo Nix and the Broncos. Yet, Williams’ status suddenly is a prominent storyline heading into the game at a time when Baltimore is having issues in just about every facet of its defense.
The Ravens are still stopping the run reasonably well, but that will be put to the test going forward if Pierce and Urban have to miss time from an already thin defensive interior. Consistently getting to the quarterback is a major problem. The Ravens are not often getting pressure from a four-man rush, and many of their blitzes aren’t getting home either. There still appears to be confusion at times, where players aren’t lined up properly during the snap or defensive backs aren’t clear on who they should be covering.
The pass defense is now getting exploited just about every week, as no defense is allowing bigger plays and touchdown passes than Baltimore. The Ravens aren’t getting off the field either, whether that’s on third down, where they have the fourth-worst percentage in football, or in cashing in on turnover opportunities. Per PFF, the Ravens have eight dropped interceptions, three more than any other team. Winston threw them at least three balls Sunday that should have been routine turnovers.
“I’m going to choose to look at it like those plays are going to get made, and that’s upside for us,” Harbaugh said. “That’s low-hanging fruit, the way I see it, going forward. That’s where you can make a huge difference in your play. How many fewer plays you have to play, how many fewer scoring opportunities they have, the difference in points — it’s massive making those plays.”
Then, there’s also the matter of the Ravens getting more bang for their buck when it comes to their best and most expensive defensive players. Humphrey, who missed the Browns game with a knee injury but the team is hopeful will return this week, is having a nice bounce-back season with four interceptions. Despite dropping what could have been a game-ending interception Sunday, safety Kyle Hamilton has been a weekly force.
Otherwise, the Ravens’ top guys aren’t having their typical impact. That’s true of middle linebacker Roquan Smith, who has been unable to shore up the middle of the field or make plays behind the line of scrimmage; and defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike, who has only two sacks in eight games after securing 13 last year. Williams, of course, belongs in that discussion as well. He has just two pass breakups in seven games for a team that’s seen more pass attempts than anyone in football. Overall, the Ravens’ safety play, aside from Hamilton, who is often used in the nickel role, has been one of the weakest parts of the defense.
The Ravens already brought in veteran defensive coordinator Dean Pees as a consultant to help Orr, who is under more scrutiny every week. They’ve now benched their veteran safety. The trade deadline is less than a week away, and it suddenly feels like a must that general manager Eric DeCosta brings in some defensive help, whether that’s an edge rusher, interior defensive lineman or defensive back.
For now, the Ravens have plenty of things to figure out internally — and the clock is ticking. They have a proud defensive tradition, and the current group isn’t coming anywhere close to meeting that standard.
“It depends on what kind of changes are available to us,” Harbaugh said when asked about potential defensive changes. “We’re going to continue to turn over every stone with our defense and with every other part of our team, too, to get as good as we can get it over the course of a long season. Ups and downs, challenges, good plays and not good plays, so there’s a lot of things we can improve on. We’ll do whatever we can do.”
(Top photo: Terrance Williams / Associated Press)
