The Baltimore Ravens have improved significantly over the past few seasons in pass coverage, and they’ll look to continue that trend in 2025 with a slightly retooled secondary.
The Ravens will be ushering in first-round rookie Malaki Starks at safety, a transition that should be relatively seamless thanks to the presence of superstar Kyle Hamilton. The team will also have some new faces at cornerback, with 2024 starter Brandon Stephens now with the New York Jets and journeyman veteran Chidobe Awuzie now with the team as a potential starter.
It’s possible that Baltimore’s not done adding at the position, as a number of decent options remain unsigned in free agency. Sterling Xie of Pro Football Network predicts the Ravens could take a late stab at former All-Pro Stephon Gilmore, who spent the 2024 season with the Minnesota Vikings as a starting boundary corner.
“A veteran like Stephon Gilmore would be a starting-level player who would allow the Ravens to avoid depending on an unknown, such as Jalyn Armour-Davis or T.J. Tampa,” Xie wrote for PFN. “Gilmore’s past experience in man-heavy schemes could translate well to a Ravens defense that played man at the ninth-highest rate in 2024. He’s still a quality starter, as evidenced by his 7.1 yards per target allowed with the Vikings last year.”
Gilmore’s definitely on the back-nine of his career, now entering his age-35 season. He does represent a potential cheap, one-year option after starting 16 games for Minnesota last season, and man coverage has long been his forte, dating back to his NFL Defensive Player of the Year season with the Patriots in 2019. Similar to last season, the veteran will likely weigh his options into the summer before signing on somewhere, with a return to the Vikings certainly possible, given the team's own needs at boundary corner.
Again, other well-known names are currently unsigned, such as Asante Samuel Jr., Rasul Douglas, Jack Jones and Shaq Griffin. But the experience and price tag on Gilmore could end up making sense for the Ravens to help solidify the back end for defensive coordinator Zach Orr.
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