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Ravens 2022 Year in Review: Key Injuries Derailed Offense

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Getty The Ravens 2022 offense was drastically and adversely impacted by injuries for the second year in a row.

Before completely turning the page to the 2023 offseason, it’s a good practice to look back on where the Baltimore Ravens excelled and fell short on both sides of the ball during the 2022 season, one in which they came into with championship aspirations.

On offense, the injury bug ravaged the unit for the second year in a row at key positions and most notably at quarterback. Former unanimous league-MVP, Lamar Jackson, missed five games including at least the final four games of the season for the second year in a row and the first playoff game of his career.

The unit struggled to consistently score in the red zone no matter who was under center. However, their scoring prowess dropped precipitously in Jackson’s absence and cost them a handful of games that they likely would’ve otherwise won had the two-time Pro Bowler been healthy.

Below is a breakdown of each position group for the 2022 season with all statistics provided by Pro Football Reference.

Quarterbacks

Through the first three weeks of the season, Jackson looked like he was on pace to win another MVP season with 749 passing yards and 10 touchdowns with just 2 interceptions to go along with 243 rushing yards and a pair of scores.

Prior to suffering his own injuries his top targets in the passing game suffered injury-related setbacks which caused his stats to fall off because they either weren’t in the lineup or weren’t quite themselves and couldn’t impact the game.

Jackson went 8-4 as a starter although he didn’t finish the last game he started and finished with 2,242 passing yards and 17 touchdowns to 7 interceptions. He also finished as the team’s leading rusher for the fourth season in a row with 764 yards and a trio of scores.

In Jackson’s absence, the Ravens turned to former 2020 undrafted free agent Tyler Huntley for the second year in a row but unlike in 2021, he was able to guide the team to the postseason and performed well in his first playoff start.

Huntley earned Pro Bowl honors as an alternate after finishing with 658 passing yards and 2 touchdowns to 3 interceptions while adding another 137 yards and one score on the ground. In the Wildcard round of the playoffs, he threw for 226 passing yards and 2 touchdowns to 1 interception and ran for 54 yards on 9 carries.

Undrafted rookie Anthony Brown didn’t see a lot of action, appearing in just two games but he did perform admirably when called upon. He finished the team’s Week 14 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road and made his first career start on the road as well in the regular season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals. Brown finished with 302 passing yards and no touchdowns to a pair of interceptions but he did lead five scoring drives.

Running backs

All three of the players at the position that the team lost to season-ending injuries in 2021 before the regular season even got underway returned this past year. Even though the trio of J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards, and Justice Hill still struggled to consistently stay healthy in 2022, each of them made meaningful contributions and was playing their best down the stretch.

Dobbins had to miss the first two games of the season while he still worked his way back from a significant knee injury and had to go back on the shelf after just four games because he underwent a knee scope to clean on some scar tissue. The procedure must’ve worked wonders because, after a six-game absence, he looked like a completely different player and was one of the best running backs in the league in four of the final five games of the season.

Despite playing in just eight games, the vast majority of which he was on a snap count for, Dobbins still finished second in the team in rushing with 520 yards and 2 two touchdowns. He added another 43 yards and a score as a receiver out of the backfield and in the Wildcard round of the playoffs, the 2020 second-round pick recorded 107 combined scrimmage yards and a touchdown on 17 total touches.

Edwards missed the first six games of the season during his extended recovery and sat out two more games due to a soft tissue hamstring injury. He still wound up playing in one more game than Dobbins and finishing fourth on the team in rushing with 433 yards and 3 touchdowns.

While he was a non-factor in the passing game with just two targets and no receptions, the former undrafted gem proved that he could still be the highly efficient battering ram he was pre-injury as he maintained his career average of 5 or more yards per carry.

Hill was the change of pace back that was the Ravens’ most effective and explosive through the first month of the season while Dobbins and Edwards worked to get back. He suffered a hamstring injury as well and missed two games because of it but he still managed to record career highs in rushing yards (262), yards per carry (5.3), and receptions (12).

The unsung hero of the Ravens’ entire backfield in 2022 was veteran Kenyan Drake who didn’t join the team until after the preseason had concluded but performed well once he got acclimated and learned the offense. He stepped up whenever called upon due to a lingering or new injury to one of the returners and even had a pair of games in which recorded over 100 yards from scrimmage.

While Drake wasn’t the most effective runner with a pedestrian 4.4 yards per carry, he stayed healthy and finished third on the team in rushing with 482 yards, leading the team in rushing touchdowns with 4 and catching 17 passes for 89 receiving yards and a score.

Wide Receivers

This was the position on the offensive side of the ball that was hit the hardest by injuries after getting off to such an encouraging start following an offseason of doubt and skepticism.

Prior to suffering a Lisfranc foot injury that eventually cut his second year in the league short, Ravens 2021 first-overall pick, Rashod Bateman, was well on his way to a breakout season. He was averaging a league-leading 19 yards per catch and recorded a pair of touchdowns of over 50 yards. Bateman finished with 15 receptions on 28 targets for 285 receiving yards in six games although he didn’t finish half of them.

In his third season, 2020 third-round pick, Devin Duvernay, was well on his way to becoming one of the most dangerous all-purpose weapons in the league and earned his second straight career Pro Bowl as a return specialist before a broken foot caused him to land on injured reserve after 14 games. He still managed to set career highs in receiving yards (407) and touchdowns (3) as well in rushing yards (84) and scored his first career rushing touchdown.

The only consistent contributor at the position that appeared in every game and didn’t miss any time due to injury was veteran Demarcus Robinson. He signed with the team just ahead of the preseason finale and wound up leading all Ravens wide receivers and being second on the team with 75 targets, 48 receptions, and 458 receiving yards. Robinson was a reliable possession reciever with a knack for moving the chains and getting cornerbacks to bite on double moves to get himself wide open down the field.

The injuries to Bateman and Duvernay forced the Ravens to turn to a 36-year-old DeSean Jackson and bring back former No. 4 overall pick, Sammy Watkins, after he got waived by the Green Bay Packers towards the end of the season. Neither James Proche nor Tylan Wallace made much of an impact outside of special teams. The four of them combined for just 24 receptions, 364 receiving yards, and no touchdowns although Watkins and Jackson did record a few chunk plays.

Tight Ends

The Ravens had the deepest and most talented stable of players at this position in the entire league last year. Headlined by three-time Pro Bowler Mark Andrews who battled through a knee injury for most of the season, their tight ends picked up the slack and blatantly outperformed their much-maligned receiving corps.

Andrews didn’t follow up his first-team All-Pro 2021 campaign with another 1,000-plus yard receiving season but he did finish as the team’s leader in targets (113), receptions (73), receiving yards (847), and receiving touchdowns (6) for the fourth time in his six-year career and second year in a row. Even though he didn’t reach the end zone again after Week 6, Andrews was still very effective and both a reliable and dangerous target in the passing game.

The third most dangerous pass catcher on the team behind Bateman and Andrews was fourth-round rookie Isaiah Likely who flashed his impressive playmaking potential when he got extended opportunities to showcase them. He was the star of the Ravens’ preseason and while his final stat line of 36 receptions on 60 targets for 373 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns didn’t quite live up to the hype, his tape shows a player with a bright future, especially with this team and in a league where exploiting mismatches in space are the key to offensive success.

While he didn’t put up gaudy receiving numbers, fourth-year pro Josh Oliver had the best year of his career in 2022. His 14 receptions on 25 targets for 149 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns were all career highs but where he made his most significant impact and improvement was as a blocker.

He truly blossomed into a complete player at the position that he went from being on the roster bubble and a long shot to make to the team to a key cog in the offense that made veteran blocking specialist, Nick Boyle, expendable because he provided more upside as a pass catcher.

Even though he appeared in just two games and recorded 4 receptions on 6 targets for 49 yards, Charlie Kolar, the Ravens’ other fourth-round rookie, showed some intriguing promise after recovering from a sports hernia surgery that sidelined him for the first nine weeks of the season.

Although he is one of the last of a dying breed in today’s NFL, veteran fullback Patrick Ricard proved once again that he is not only a key cog in the Ravens success in the ground game but made his fourth straight Pro Bowl in the process. Even though they weren’t gaudy, he still managed to set career-highs both as pass catcher and ball carrier by recording 11 receptions on 13 targets for 74 receiving yards and 7 rushes for 16 yards but his best work was as devastating blocker, especially

Offensive Line

This position group was one of the ones hit hardest by the injury bug last season, most notably at offensive tackle where All-Pro blinside protector Ronnie Stanley only appeared in the season opener and their other players at the position were either hurt for part of the year or struggled mightily in pass protection.

After remodeling and reinforcing the unit with more talent in depth, it proved to be one of the better units in the league. Stanley appeared in 11 games and looked like his old self by midseason  and after emerging training camp as the starting left guard, fourth-year pro Ben Powers had a breakout season and is expected to cash-in during free agency.

First round rookie Tyler Linderbaum established himself as one of the better centers in the league, veteran right guard Kevin Zeitler had another strong, and veteran Morgan Moses brought stability and was a dominant force for stretches during his first year with the team.

The Ravens’ primary backups performed well called upon with veteran utility lineman Patrick Mekari making 4 starts in 16 games, fourth-round rookie tackle Daniel Faalele made 1 start in 16 games, and second-year pro Ben Cleveland made 1 start in 9 games.

Josh Reed covered the Baltimore Ravens for Heavy.com from 2022 to 2023. His NFL coverage has been featured on SB Nation's Baltimore Beatdown and Maryland Sports Blog. Based in Alaska, he also covers local sports for the Anchorage Daily News. More about Josh Reed

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