OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The signs of another season that ended far too early were scattered across the Baltimore Ravens’ locker room Monday afternoon.
A spool of dark industrial-sized garbage bags was located in the middle, easily accessible for anyone who needed them. Other players chose to pack up their lockers into moving boxes.
In one area, players lined up to sign helmets for veteran nose tackle Michael Pierce. In another, cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey and Brandon Stephens, one of Baltimore’s 17 pending unrestricted free agents, were seated side by side and locked in a quiet conversation. There were hugs and handshakes and vows to keep in touch.
The feeling of regret and disappointment was palpable.
“You’re still trying to cope with it,” said defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike. “We’re returning our iPads today, and it just feels like we should have kept going. We fell a little bit short.”
That’s been the refrain at this time of year for six of the past seven seasons, with the Ravens believing they were building momentum for a Super Bowl run, only to see their season come to an abrupt halt at the hands of a team they believed they should have beaten.
Their latest postseason chapter, which may have been the most painful one yet, came Sunday night in cold and snowy Buffalo, where the Ravens turned the ball over three times and tight end Mark Andrews dropped the potential score-tying two-point conversion in the final 93 seconds as the Bills advanced to the AFC Championship with a 27-25 victory.
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“We just made too many mistakes,” said Ravens fullback Patrick Ricard. “You can’t turn the ball over three times. I feel like if we didn’t make those mistakes, we were in that game to win it, especially against a great team like Buffalo. It’s just those mistakes, they can’t happen.
“I want Baltimore to have another Super Bowl, but I don’t look at this as a failure. We’ve done a lot of great things. There are a lot of things we can learn from and improve on as a team, so it obviously hurts, but time will heal all things.”
For the Ravens, the shock of Sunday night was replaced by the reality that the next time this team gets together, it will likely look significantly different. And then the next Ravens team will have to try and climb the mountain all over again and rewrite a different ending. Over the past seven years, the Ravens have been eliminated in the wild-card round twice, the divisional round three times and the AFC Championship once.
Per The 33rd Team, the 2018-2024 Ravens and the 1999-2005 Indianapolis Colts are the only teams in NFL history to win 80-plus games over seven seasons and not make it to the Super Bowl. Providing some hope for the Ravens on an otherwise black Monday, the Colts did win the Super Bowl following the 2006 regular season.
Still, this season felt like one of Baltimore’s best chances to play for a third Lombardi Trophy. Quarterback Lamar Jackson was having the best season of his career, forming arguably the game’s most lethal one-two punch with running back Derrick Henry. The defense was much improved in the second half of the season. The Ravens had won five straight and were playing sound, complementary football. They had one of their best seasons on the health front, although wide receiver Zay Flowers’ Week 18 knee injury was a factor in Sunday’s loss.
And they still came up short.
“As long as Lamar is here, you’ll have a shot every year at getting a Super Bowl,” Ricard said, calling Jackson winning the Super Bowl “inevitable.” “That’s the main thing. As long as Lamar is here, he has a good group of guys around him that play hard for him, that’s all he needs.”
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The Ravens’ group of unrestricted free agents includes Ricard, starting left tackle Ronnie Stanley, starting left guard Patrick Mekari and Stephens, a starting cornerback. Several top backups and core special-teamers will hit the open market in March, as well. Safety Ar’Darius Washington, whose insertion into the starting lineup in place of Marcus Williams helped key the team’s second-half defensive turnaround, is a pending restricted free agent.
There will also likely be some salary-cap cuts as the Ravens, per usual, are snug against the cap and will need to create some space to fill other holes.
“This team is done,” Humphrey said after Sunday’s game. “When I look at it, some guys will be here, some guys won’t — who knows what? I know I have no more years guaranteed on this existing contract, so it’s whatever message you have. You could be on this team. You could be on another team. Some guys will stay, some guys will leave, and I fall into that same bucket. So, the message is, ‘We lost. Get over it,’ and we’ll kind of see where the offseason goes.”
One guy they’ll potentially have to decide on is Andrews, who had a nightmarish game in Buffalo with the dropped two-point conversion, a second-quarter drop that preceded a turnover and a fourth-quarter fumble. Andrews’ salary-cap number rises to $16 million next season and the Ravens would create $11 million of much-needed room by moving on. However, it would also mean Jackson losing his close friend, favorite target and one of the league’s most productive tight ends. Andrews, by the way, was not available to the media after Sunday’s game or during Monday’s locker room cleanout.
“I wish the whole group could come back,” said Flowers, who also said he would have had a decent chance at returning following a two-game hiatus if Baltimore had won its divisional-round game. “These are my guys, so why not? Why not take another crack?”
WR Zay Flowers on the team’s mentality heading into the offseason: pic.twitter.com/7ZRw4sHLIP
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) January 20, 2025
The big offseason question for the Ravens’ decision-makers is how much change they believe is necessary. The team has been good enough to go 35-16 over the past three regular seasons and win two AFC North crowns. Just a year ago, Baltimore had a home game against the Kansas City Chiefs for the right to go to the Super Bowl.
It’s not like things are broken. General manager Eric DeCosta has built one of the deepest rosters in the league and will have as many as 11 draft picks come April to add talent, youth and depth. However, the Ravens do need to figure out this pattern of disappointing playoff exits.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh was correct Sunday when he talked about how difficult it is to win a Super Bowl. He also dismissed any patterns in the playoff losses as they pertain to his team.
However, the turnover stats are hard to ignore. In their last six playoff defeats, the Ravens have lost the turnover battle 15-2. If you’re looking for reasons as to why Baltimore keeps coming up short, it would be hard to deviate too far from the turnover differential. The Ravens, all too often, have made mistakes and haven’t forced their opponents to do the same.
In Harbaugh’s final message to his 2024 team Monday, he told them how proud he was to coach them and urged them to cherish and build on the relationships in that locker room. This Ravens team dealt with a lot this season. Offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris’ death in August stunned the organization. Many Ravens were involved in significant car accidents.
On the field, the Ravens started 0-2 and trailed the Pittsburgh Steelers by two games in the AFC North heading into their bye. They promptly won three games in 11 days, clinched the AFC North with a Week 18 win and then dominated the Steelers in the wild-card round.
The stretch of dominance seemingly foreshadowed a legitimate Super Bowl run. Yet, there were the Ravens Monday, packing up their belongings in a quiet locker room and saying their goodbyes far earlier than anticipated.
“There is only one team that’s going to be happy at the end of the season, so unfortunately, that’s not us,” said running back Justice Hill. “You kind of get used to it at this point. But we’re just going to regroup, go about it the same way, the same mentality, put in the work from now until we kick off next season, go through the season and, hopefully, we get another chance to win the thing.”
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