Getty Marcus Gilchrist celebrates a big play for the Raiders.
The Baltimore Ravens have added a little bit of depth and a lot of playmaking to their secondary ahead of Week 4 by signing safety Marcus Gilchrist to their team.
Wednesday, the team revealed they had signed Gilchrist to their practice squad. The 31 year old has been in the league since 2011, when he was a 2nd round pick of the Las Vegas Raiders. From there, he went to the New York Jets, Houston Texans, back to the Raiders, the Detroit Lions and Jacksonville Jaguars.
We have signed DB Marcus Gilchrist to the practice squad.
While he won’t be on the team’s roster, Gilchrist will give the Ravens some decent depth to rely on if they need a veteran defensive back to play a role for the team.
Marcus Gilchrist Stats
Adding Gilchrist to the practice squad comes with little risk for the Ravens considering they got a productive player for cheap. Gilchrist has decent stats through the years, putting up 493 tackles, 14 interceptions, 5 forced fumbles, 4 sacks and 39 pass deflections. He’s played in a variety of schemes, and a word that comes to mind is stability. He didn’t play much in his last stops, but Gilchrist could come to Baltimore and help provide some key depth in the secondary in the future if he is needed.
New Additions Power Ravens Defense
Baltimore’s defense has enjoyed a pretty productive start to the season. A big reason why has been the new additions to the mix, something Brian Baldinger was quick to point out. In a video, Baldinger showed why the new look Ravens defense is so good and as he hinted, the biggest reason are their big time new additions from both free agency and the draft.
Baldinger said:
“Calais Campbell is a problem. He’s a problem with his size, he batted a bunch of balls down. 2 new linebackers, Malik Harrison and Patrick Queen. Queen was everywhere on Sunday. His speed just shows up. If you have a fast middle linebacker, your defense looks faster. Then there’s Derek Wolfe. He’s just a proven player. He knows how to play.”
The Ravens only seem to have gotten better this offseason and it’s a huge credit to Eric DeCosta, their general manager as well as coaching staff. So far, with these additions, the team looks to be setting up for a potential season of dominance on that side of the ball.
With an offense as good as they have, an elite defense would help the Ravens become even better. It could be thanks to all the players they brought into the mix.
Analyst Thinks Ravens Defense Puts Them Over the Top
According to Peter Schrager of the NFL Network, the defense is going to be what determines how good the Ravens are this coming season. Speaking after the blowout win, Schrager said that in his mind, Baltimore’s defense is looking much improved and could be pushing the team toward greatness this season as evidence of their attacking mindset all over the field.
“With Lamar at QB, the @Ravens defense is always going to get overlooked. But the performance Wink Martindale’s D put on yesterday can’t be minimized. Both @CalaisCampbell and @Patrickqueen_ were magnificent in their debuts.” – @PSchrags
Schrager said:
“I’d like to talk about Wink Martindale’s defense because they keep on getting better and better every season. The Browns were 3-12 on third down and 0-3 on fourth down. Baker (Mayfield) was running like a chicken with his head cut off because the Ravens defense was all over the field. Lamar (Jackson’s) great, we know that. It’s going to be the defense that gets them to that next level. Calais (Campbell) was fantastic in his debut. Patrick Queen was fantastic as a rookie. I’m so excited to see the Ravens progress because this could have gone one of two ways. It went the right way.”
All told, Schrager is right. If the Ravens defense can put up some lopsided numbers and stay on the right track, the team might be in good shape this season.
Gilchrist is simply more insurance at this point.