Ravens defense could turn perceived liability into potential advantage

The coaching staff might make opposing teams pay for attacking Brandon Stephens in coverage.

The most divisive and much-maligned player on the Baltimore Ravens roster among the fan base and both local and national media pundits by far and away this season has been fourth-year defensive back Brandon Stephens.

After breaking out last year in his first full season playing cornerback predominantly, he hasn’t been nearly as consistent and impactful in preventing opposing wide receivers from making plays downfield and picking up key conversions when in coverage.

According to Next Gen Stats, he was the fifth most-targeted cornerback in the NFL during the regular season and had the second worst Coverage EPA in the entire NFL this season (+42.0)—451st out of 452 qualified players. In the Ravens’ Wildcard Round win over their archrivals, he allowed six catches on nine targets for 74 yards and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first points of the game on a 30-yard touchdown where let wide receiver Van Jefferson blow past him to make it a two-score game and spoil what was a shaping up to to a potential shutout up to that point.

While the fans and media have lost complete faith in Stephens and believe he is an active detriment and liability in coverage most of the time he is on the field, the Ravens coaching staff haven’t waivered in their confidence in the 2021 third-rounder and have liked aspects of his game.

“When you get a lot of targets, you’re going to have more completions, for sure – that’s just the way it goes – but you also make more plays,” head coach John Harbaugh said Monday. “He’s made a real, good number of plays.”

Opposing quarterbacks have made a concerted to go after Stephens at times when their respective offenses have needed a spark or clutch play to be made. Despite seemingly always being in a good position and tight coverage, he often has given up back-breaking receptions at times. Whether he is lined up at right cornerback in base defense or kicked inside in subpackages to cover a tight end or big-bodied receiver, Stephens is usually under siege when the other team needs to play catchup through the air after falling behind.

Instead of just benching Stephens as many have suggested and implored, the Ravens and first-year defensive coordinator Zach Orr could use the opposing quarterback’s tendency to target Stephens heavily on certain drives or particular situations such as obvious passing downs to their advantage moving forward.

“If we get the sense that an offense is targeting a particular part of the field or a particular player, in this sense, he plays right corner, so that’s where they go in nickel. Now, he’s playing dime backer – it’s a little different when we put dime [package] out there on third down – but OK, now we have an idea where you’re going to kind of target,” Harbaugh said. “We can roll our coverage that way. We can put the strength of our coverage over there, too, so it’s kind of a two-way street that way.”

The Ravens will be going against a dangerous quarterback this upcoming Sunday when they travel up to Orchard Park to take on the Buffalo Bills in the Divisional Round of the playoff in Josh Allen. While he is a gunslinger by nature, he’s been able to cut down on his propensity to turn the ball over through the air and instead has become even more deadly accurate on standard dropbacks and extended plays.

Stephens and the rest of the members of the Ravens’ secondary will need to plaster in coverage longer than they’re typically used to going up against such a dynamic dual-threat signal caller. If Allen decides to start going after Stephens heavily at any point in the game, the Ravens could make him pay by baiting him into a potential turnover which could prove to be the difference in what is projected to be a much more competitive game than the Baltimore beatdown the Ravens gave the Bills in Week 4 of the regular season.

“We’re used to it,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve been talking about plastering extended plays in Baltimore for a long time… With ‘Big Ben’ [Roethlisberger].”