While the Week 2 home loss to the New Orleans Saints was a tough pill to swallow, the Baltimore Ravens still had plenty of encouraging plays.
Despite being down two receivers, Lamar Jackson still completed 67.7% of his passes for 235 yards and 1 touchdown, threw 1 interception, and added another 34 rushing yards. Kyle Hamilton was a beast, covering the field with 13 tackles.
One other performance that no one was talking about, but now has everyone’s attention because of Ravens head coach Jesse Minter. Now with Minter’s shout-out, there might be more questions to consider.
Jesse Minter Made His Feelings Known About Baltimore Ravens Defender
Minter spoke with the media Monday after the Saints’ loss. One player who got a glowing review from the head coach was linebacker Trenton Simpson.
“I told the defensive staff, I think Trent’s playing like one of our best players right now. He’s playing really fast and decisive. He’s playing with a ton of physicality. He’s seeing things and going and playing very downhill, which is great to see. So I don’t think he’s done anything to say we need to take this guy off the field. But also you’re getting a really good player back, hopefully, in Teddy. So. You know, we’ll have to figure out, make sure we have our best guys on the field for any given situation. But major kudos to Trent Simpson and how he’s playing right now. I thought both, both games so far he’s done some really nice things and been really impactful, been really impactful in the run game and in the pass game and just decisive and physical, had some really nice plays. And so happy with how he’s doing.”
Simpson has started the first two regular-season games for the injured Teddye Buchanan. During the Saints game, Simpson had 6 tackles and 1 tackle for loss. For the season, he has 10 tackles and 3 tackles for loss. Simpson has 162 career tackles in his four years with the Ravens.
Could Trenton Simpson Find a Spot in the Ravens’ Starting Lineup Full-Time?
Simpson is earning the coaching staff’s respect and showing he may be the right choice to start moving forward. Buchanan is also a great talent who emerged as a rookie last year, and that’s what’s going to make this decision harder.
There’s a good chance that Simpson and Buchanan rotate together, with Roquan Smith staying on the field at inside linebacker. This creates a big problem in Baltimore’s linebacker room: three solid linebackers to play.
The question is, when Buchanan does recover, how does Baltimore handle it? They can’t afford to not have either guy on the field.
This week in practice will be interesting to see what happens with Buchanan. No matter what, though, Simpson is looking like he earned his playing time.
Jesse Minter Praised 162-Tackle LB as ‘One of Our Best Players’ After Ravens Loss