ExtremeRavens Posted November 13 Posted November 13 This summer, while watching cornerback Marlon Humphrey press Ravens receivers with rejuvenated aggression and repeatedly intercepting passes from the NFL Most Valuable Player front-runner Lamar Jackson, players and coaches started to chatter. “Man, Marlo is back. He’s back to that All-Pro, Pro Bowl level,” defensive coordinator Zach Orr recalled thinking. “I think he’s probably playing [the] highest-level football he’s probably ever played in his career.” In the sum of its parts, Baltimore’s secondary continues to be the team’s biggest hitch and most forward-facing storyline. But Humphrey’s convalescent play has been a glimmer of hope for the beleaguered unit. He has, particularly over the past few weeks, been Baltimore’s much-needed defensive spark plug. That was once the norm for Humphrey, a three-time Pro Bowl selection and 2019 All-Pro. He’s 28 and still one of the highest-paid cornerbacks in the NFL. There were signs of regression last season, but the way he’s playing now, hindsight says it was an outlier rather than a troubling trend. Injuries plagued Humphrey in 2023. Foot surgery kept him out the first four weeks of the season. Then, last November, a calf strain sidelined him two more games, only to be aggravated in late December before he powered through a pair of playoff games. “That’s a tough guy,” cornerback Arthur Maulet said. “He was playing injured when he honestly, probably couldn’t play. A lot of people don’t know what he was going through last year to even get out there to play with us.” Humphrey called it a “unique” year. He admitted on an episode of his podcast over the summer that he wasn’t locking up receivers. Safety Kyle Hamilton quipped Humphrey came back this offseason having shed his “chunkiness” and got his “abs back.” “In camp,” safety Ar’Darius Washington said, “him picking the ball off I was like, ‘OK, Marlo’s back to it. Back to himself.’” Humphrey was healthy again (and 10 pounds lighter) and in a better head space, teammates said. He picked off Lamar Jackson four times in their first three practices. Yet, the impression Humphrey left in the buildup to the regular season didn’t immediately translate. Through the first six weeks of the season, he allowed a passer rating of 92.5, which is slightly above league average. It’s now 64.9 over 346 coverage snaps — that’s the best mark since his rookie season when he played 402 snaps. Compared with his All-Pro season, he already has more interceptions and is on pace for more solo tackles. The turning point for the Ravens’ win on Thursday came when Marlon Humphrey, left, forced Bengals running back Chase Brown, second from left, to fumble in the third quarter. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff) Humphrey played the best game of his career in Week 7 until a knee injury forced him to exit before halftime. He picked off Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield twice, his first career multi-interception game, and leads the AFC with a career-high four. “They used to say he had hands like a snake, but now, the guy got on the JUGS [machine],” linebacker Roquan Smith said. “The way he’s been throughout camp, OTAs and throughout the season, man, the guy is just honed in, focused on the details and just trying to take the team to that next level.” Like when he forced his first fumble of the season on Thursday, ripping the ball from Bengals running back Chase Brown — the turning point in a crucial AFC North battle decided by the smallest of margins. With an overall Pro Football Focus grade higher than any of his past seven seasons and twice coming up as the Ravens’ secondary’s saving grace, Humphrey is playing, in Maulet’s words, like “All-Pro Marlo.” “He’s somebody who’s a leader of our room. We go as he goes,” Hamilton said. “He sets the example for us to kind of follow on it and build on it.” After Thursday’s win, the defense having been exposed again by the Bengals, Humphrey was asked about Ja’Marr Chase’s otherworldly stat line: 11 catches, 264 yards and three touchdowns. “I’m tired of that dude,” Humphrey said, the frustration of trying to contain one of the best receivers in football clear in his wandering eyes and hapless tone. That answer lasted two minutes. It turned into an indictment on the entire pass defense that ranks last in the league. At one point he called them the “little brother” of the team. They haven’t met the standard, Humphrey continued, that was set by his predecessors, “and I feel like that falls on me.” Baltimore’s secondary hasn’t shown much collective progress 10 weeks into the season, giving up 25.3 points per game and a league-most 294.9 passing yards. Uncertainty around Hamilton’s ankle injury is another thorn in their side. Shuffling between three safeties beside him hasn’t proved to be a quick fix. The list goes on. Humphrey living up to what Orr and his teammates saw this summer is at least keeping them afloat. “I think the way he’s been playing has been huge for our defense,” Smith said. “And we definitely are going to need him along the stretch.” Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn. View the full article Quote
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