ExtremeRavens Posted August 6 Posted August 6 Twelve months ago, Justin Madubuike was just another promising defensive lineman. Through three seasons, he’d been tabbed a potential star and had popped on film enough to keep that buzz alive. He just hadn’t consolidated his many tools into a run of sustained excellence. Now? Madubuike is playing the first season of a four-year, $98 million extension that made him a core figure in the Ravens’ championship designs. That’s what 13 sacks — extraordinary production for an interior lineman — will get you. One season to change your entire identity. Is there a Ravens defender in line for a similar vault forward in 2024? Talk to coaches and players around the team’s training facility, and you won’t find a more popular candidate than Travis Jones. “I have a big vision for Travis,” coach John Harbaugh said recently. “He and I have talked about it — a really big vision. I really have high expectations for Travis Jones to have one of those years that is going to be memorable. I believe that’s going to happen this year; I’m looking forward to it.” You won’t hear any such proclamations from Jones, who’s about as hype-averse and inwardly motivated as anyone on the roster. But he cares quite a bit that one of the NFL’s longest-tenured coaches sees so much possibility in him. “It does mean a lot to me,” Jones said Friday. “Just seeing all the work that I’ve put in in the offseason paying off out there on the field. I’ve just got to keep doing it.” You can’t miss No. 98, all 338 pounds of him stretched over a 6-foot-4 frame, striding purposefully onto the practice field. Since the day he joined the Ravens as a third-round draft pick out of UConn in 2022, Jones has tossed blockers like so many sacks of flour and done so with minimal chit-chat. “They don’t make too many like him,” fellow lineman Michael Pierce said after a few weeks of observing the rookie Jones. Once the games began, he held his own but never busted out. He improved in his second season, playing a higher percentage of defensive snaps, making 50% more tackles and improving his Pro Football Focus pass-rushing grade from below average to above average. As with Madubuike before him, however, there’s a lingering sense that Jones has more to unleash. 2023 NFL: Seattle Seahawks at Baltimore RavensKarl Merton Ferron/Baltimore SunJustin Madubuike didn’t bust out until his fourth season with the Ravens. Could Travis Jones beat him by one? (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Madubuike didn’t bust out until his fourth season. Could Jones beat him by one? “I don’t think you would be asking me if you didn’t feel the same way,” Pierce said of a possible Jones breakout. “He’s made a tremendous amount of strides. I’m just trying to be what Brandon [Williams] was for me, a big brother to him. But Brandon gave me a lot of room to grow, figure things out and play next to him and with him. That’s something that I’ve seen a lot of growth in Trav. I believe he will have an amazing year this year, for sure.” When asked what he took from watching Madubuike “explode,” Jones said it wasn’t one key but more the general affirmation that relentless work will bear fruit. He has a list of notes, plans and goals for the year on his iPhone, but you won’t be hearing those. “No, personal,” he said in typically blunt fashion. It’s not that Jones, 24, is unfriendly. He smiles plenty and thanks you for your interest after a chat. He’s just never had a ton to say, especially with a recorder in his face. On the field, he’s neither a pure nose tackle like Pierce or Williams before him nor a textbook three-technique (lined up on the guard’s outside shoulder) rusher like Madubuike. So it’s interesting to contemplate how a breakout from him might look. It’s unlikely to feature double-digit sacks, but Ravens fans know from watching Haloti Ngata that an interior lineman need not drop the quarterback to be a playmaker. Jones said he’ll never be content with just filling space on the interior, even if he’s occupying two blockers. “Oh no, no, no. Tackles for losses, sacks, splitting double teams,” he said when asked how he envisions the best version of himself. “I’m trying to make plays.” There’s a lingering sense that Travis Jones has more to unleash. (Amy Davis/Staff) Defensive coordinator Zach Orr expects Jones’ progress to be more about brains than brawn, which he has had since he was a 360-pound mauler playing high school ball in New Haven, Connecticut. It wasn’t exactly a garden of future NFL players, and despite his colossal frame, Jones actually didn’t want to play the sport. He preferred baseball. His mother had to kick him off the couch in the fall. “She didn’t want to see me in the house,” he said, laughing. He starred at Wilbur Cross High School but didn’t truly see himself as a burgeoning pro until midway through his UConn career. He’s younger in football years than some of his peers. “Just having more football awareness, just becoming a better student of the game,” Orr said when asked why Jones will make a leap this season. “When you’re a first- [or] second-year player, a lot of stuff is still new to you, but now, [with] him going into his third year, he’s seen most of the run scheme, most of the pass protections, and he’s in here every single day working his butt off in the classroom and in the weight room. I think you’re going to see a big jump in his game.” Take a humble workaholic who’s built like a grizzly with the foot quickness of a man 100 pounds lighter and you have the recipe for an ideal modern defensive lineman. With Pierce coming up on his 32nd birthday, this is a natural time for Jones to take his place at the heart of a star-laden defense. No one seems more sure this is his moment than Harbaugh. “Whenever someone blocks him it’s like a superhuman feat almost,” he said. “He’s like a superhuman player. We’ll see if it pans out in the games. I know it’s a high tag to put on him, but let’s go for it.” View the full article Quote
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