The Baltimore Ravens are coming off of a 2018 campaign in which they won 10 games and captured the AFC North division title before ultimately falling to the Los Angeles Chargers in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs.
The offseason has not been kind to the Ravens, as they have lost several key members of their defense and have also not done much to repair their incredibly thin receiving corps.
In a division that includes a vastly improved Cleveland Browns club and that still houses the perennially good Pittsburgh Steelers, it might be tough for the Ravens to get back to the playoffs this year.
Baltimore has a lot of decisions to make as far its roster goes, which means that John Harbaugh is going to have to closely monitor numerous areas of his team in training camp to determine the right decisions.
Here are three Ravens players who would greatly benefit from a good training camp.
3. Kenny Young
The linebacking corps is where the Ravens were hit hardest this offseason, as they lost both C.J. Mosley and Za'Darius Smith to free agency. As a result, Kenny Young will have a much larger role in 2019.
Young carries the benefit of having gotten some playing time this past season, as he did appear in all 16 games while totaling 51 tackles and 2.5 sacks, so it's not like he is coming into this thing without any experience.
Still, there is a difference between moonlighting in the lineup and actually starting, and Young is going to have to become accustomed to being “the man” in Baltimore's defense going into this season.
Young will probably win a starting job no matter what, but an impressive training camp would certainly help him in terms of building his confidence and establishing a good rapport with the rest of the defense.
2. Tyus Bowser
The second linebacker on the list, Tyus Bowser's circumstances are a bit different from Young's, as he barely played in 2018, logging just 11 tackles and a half of a sack.
Now, Bowser will be battling for a starting job in the linebacking corps, which is something he almost surely anticipated eventually happening when he was drafted by Baltimore in the second round back in 2017.
Bowser exhibited some solid pass-rushing skills while in college at Houston, capping off his collegiate career with 8.5 sacks during his senior campaign in 2016.
But just because Bowser showed some stuff in college does not mean he is guaranteed a starting role heading into 2019, so he will have to fight for that position this summer.
1. Marquise Brown
The Ravens currently own one of the league's most underwhelming receiving corps, as John Brown and Michael Crabtree, the team's top two wide outs from a year ago, are no longer with the club, and it's not like they were top-flight wide outs to begin with.
As a result, there is a heavy amount of pressure on rookie wide out Marquise Brown to come in and set the tone as a game-changer in Baltimore's aerial attack, and while he was a terrific receiver at Oklahoma, that is a tall order for a rookie.
All eyes will be on Brown in training camp, as he may very well have to be the Ravens' No. 1 receiver in 2019, or, at the very least, he'll have to be a high-end No. 2 behind Willie Snead.
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