The most damning indictment of the sack the Ravens could not afford to take Sunday might’ve come from the way the quarterback who took it reacted to it.
“I got there so fast, Lamar [Jackson] — you could tell he was not expecting it at all,” Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby said on his podcast Tuesday, describing his crucial second sack of Jackson late in the fourth quarter of Las Vegas’ stunning comeback win in Baltimore. “I was on him fast.”
The pass protection on Crosby’s stunt didn’t help, he acknowledged: “The guard, he shot his hand a little too late, and I kind of just jumped through the gap and came scot-free.” The guard, of course, was Daniel Faalele, a converted tackle and first-time starter whose struggles have been emblematic of the Ravens’ early-season flop.
Even with coach John Harbaugh pledging Monday to “look at every possibility” of personnel changes ahead of Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys, Faalele’s starting job, for now, appears safe. But, with an 0-2 start clouding the Ravens’ playoff hopes, Faalele’s 145 snaps have presented a kind of Rorschach test for fans and analysts: Just how bad is he, really? And how much better are the alternatives for a line ranked among the league’s better units by ESPN?
Here are five takeaways from Faalele’s bumpy start — and where the next few weeks could take him.
1. Faalele’s worst plays have all had bad timing
Faalele has not been the NFL’s worst right guard this year, his first as a full-time starter inside, but his missteps have been especially ill timed.
In Week 1, Faalele was not initially responsible for walling off Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones on a first-and-10 play-action drop-back. That duty fell to rookie right tackle Roger Rosengarten, on his first career snap early in the second quarter. But, after the second-round pick missed with his punch and couldn’t recover, Faalele was too slow in his own recovery to stop Jones from getting to Jackson for a strip-sack. The Ravens’ win expectancy fell from 42.6% to 29.8% after losing the ball deep in their own territory, according to ESPN, one of the biggest swings all game.
Another high-leverage mistake later in that game nearly cost the Ravens, too. Midway through the fourth quarter, with the Ravens trailing by 10 and facing fourth-and-1 at Kansas City’s 22-yard line, Rosengarten and Faalele left defensive lineman Derrick Nnadi unblocked on an inside run by running back Derrick Henry. But, after Henry eluded Nnadi, the Ravens kept their drive alive.
On Sunday, Faalele allowed his first sack of the season on what was ultimately the Ravens’ most consequential drop-back all game. After Crosby looped around Faalele, too preoccupied with defensive tackle Christian Wilkins to handle the stunt, and nailed Jackson for a 9-yard loss on first-and-10, the Raiders’ win probability — below 40% just a few plays earlier — crossed above 50% for the first time all game, according to ESPN. Las Vegas took its first lead all game after the Ravens’ ensuing three-and-out.
With other missed blocks (they’re easy to find online) filling out Faalele’s lowlight reel, the public relations battle this week has looked almost unwinnable.
2. Run blocking is actually Faalele’s biggest weakness
Jones and Crosby’s sacks belie Faalele’s competence in pass protection, where he anchors well in one-on-one battles and rarely cedes ground when he can win with his hands. Faalele’s size makes him tough to get around.
But, as a run blocker, his size can be an impediment, too. With his poor knee bend, the 6-foot-8 Faalele struggles to uproot defenders with lower centers of gravity. And, with his heavier frame, he struggles to connect on second-level blocks. On Pro Football Focus, among 64 qualifying guards, Faalele’s run blocking grade ranks No. 55. Overall, he’s graded out as the No. 46 guard — 26 spots below his predecessor, Kevin Zeitler, now with the Detroit Lions.
According to Sports Info Solutions, Faalele’s four “blown blocks” — defined as any play in which a blocker “does not successfully block the defender they attempted to engage with and, as a result, gives the defender an opportunity to negatively affect the play” — are tied for the third most among all right guards. His blown-block rate on run plays (4.1%) ranks third worst among 33 qualifying right guards, while his blown-block rate on drop-backs (2.3%) ranks 19th.
“When you put a young group of guys out there, young players at any position, especially in the offensive line, there are going to be growing pains,” Harbaugh said Monday. “There’s no doubt about it. I think we have to continue to work as hard as we can to make as many good plays as we can. We have a lot of good plays happening out there, but we’re just too inconsistent. And you talk about the offensive line, I think that’s a fair evaluation; it’s inconsistent.”
Early in training camp, former Ravens offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris, who died last month, said “everything happens faster” inside, where Faalele was learning a new position after years at right tackle. “The movement happens faster, decisions faster, communication happens faster,” D’Alessandris said in late July. “He’s growing in that area, and we have to just continue to [teach him to] use his hands better.”
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3. Faalele is a mismatch with the Ravens’ other run blockers
Faalele’s weaknesses as a run blocker are minimized in the “gap” and “power” schemes the Ravens have leaned on at times this season — situations where he has a clear assignment. He’s athletic enough to pull from right to left and lead a ball carrier through a gap. He’s big enough to wall off defenders as a weak-side blocker. He’s strong enough to take out linebackers when he encounters them in confined second-level spaces as a play-side blocker.
But, along the Ravens’ line, Faalele’s skill set is an outlier. He is so much of a square peg that the Ravens sometimes seem to give up on trying to find a round hole, no matter how many round pegs might be in their toolbox.
Left tackle Ronnie Stanley is more SUV than Hummer as a run blocker, with his speed and size perhaps better suited for a zone running scheme, where blockers are responsible for areas rather than specific defenders. Left guard Andrew Vorhees graded out as an elite blocker in zone schemes at USC, according to PFF, and only above average in gap schemes. Center Tyler Linderbaum entered the 2022 draft as the best zone-blocking center PFF had graded in eight years of college football charting. Right tackles Patrick Mekari and Rosengarten have not been elite run blockers in the NFL or in college, but their fleet footwork and lighter frames make them better fits for zone schemes, too.
Not even the arrival of Henry, who thrived in the Tennessee Titans’ outside-zone rushing attack, however, has been enough to focus the Ravens’ approach. According to SIS, the Ravens have run just four inside-zone plays (for 16 yards) and seven outside-zone and stretch plays (for 45 yards) this season, concepts that work best with linemen quick enough to “scoop” defenders who might be aligned one gap over and then carve out a path for the ball carrier. On Faalele’s best repetition as a zone blocker, which led to a 6-yard run in Week 1, he won up front against Kansas City in part because the game’s officials didn’t notice he’d jumped early.
Offensive coordinator Todd Monken has found other ways to weaponize the Ravens’ skills in space, running five pitch plays for 33 yards, according to SIS. But the bulk of that production (24 yards) came on pitches to the left side, away from Faalele. And, on an end around against the Chiefs that wide receiver Zay Flowers took for 8 yards, Faalele was the only lineman used to sell a play-action fake in the direction opposite of Flowers’ designed run.
4. Yes, Ben Cleveland would (probably) be a safe replacement
Cleveland entered the offseason as Zeitler’s heir apparent because, well, he’d already done a pretty good Zeitler impression late last season. With the Pro Bowl right guard sidelined by a knee injury in Week 17 and Week 18, Cleveland started and graded out well, according to PFF, allowing just two pressures and no sacks in 64 pass blocking snaps. The hulking Cleveland also rated well as a run blocker, though the Ravens rarely used zone schemes.
But in offseason workouts it was Faalele who emerged as the Ravens’ top option at right guard. Cleveland rarely earned first-team reps at the spot, and Linderbaum’s neck injury midway through training camp forced Cleveland to move to center. In three preseason games, according to PFF, Faalele played 86 snaps at right guard; Cleveland played none. His only snaps at guard came on the left side, and he played another 58 at center.
Asked Monday what Cleveland needed to do to earn more snaps, Harbaugh was blunt: “If Ben had earned the job at right guard, he’d be the starting right guard. So, you look at the tape, he didn’t beat out Daniel or anybody. I think Ben is a good player. I like Ben. I want Ben to take the next step. … He’s in his fourth year. Ben knows what he needs to do. If he wants playing time, he knows how he needs to play, and he knows how he needs to practice, when he gets that chance. So our evaluation right now is that Daniel outplayed Ben — just a fact, straight up, matter of fact. If we had thought Ben had outplayed Daniel, he’d be the starting right guard.
“So when I see — if I see — that Ben is playing better than Daniel, then Ben will be the starting right guard, and he practices every day. It’s just like I tell all the guys: Show me. We’re talking about Ben, because that’s the question. I love Ben, and I think Ben can be a great player; I want to see it, just like I want to see it with Daniel, just like I want to see it with all the players.”
Over 89 snaps at right guard in 2022 and 154 snaps in 2023, Cleveland posted an overall blown-block rate of 2.2% and 1.9%, respectively, according to SIS. Zeitler’s rate at the position last year was 1.6%. This year, Faalele’s is 2.9%.
5. The next two weeks could be decisive
Faalele has a unique opportunity to prove himself Sunday. He will face a Cowboys defense that has one of the NFL’s softest fronts. He will also have to help stop outside linebacker Micah Parsons, whose freakish athleticism could magnify Faalele’s own deficiencies.
Faalele’s easier battles will come as a run blocker. The Cowboys allowed 190 rushing yards (4.9 per carry) in their 44-19 loss Sunday to the New Orleans Saints, who entered the season with an offensive line regarded as one of the league’s weakest. Of the NFL’s 121 interior linemen who’ve played at least 30 run defense snaps this season, three Cowboys — Linval Joseph, Jordan Phillips and Mazi Smith — rank among the bottom four overall in PFF’s run defense grades. Their top performer, Osa Odighizuwa, ranks No. 96.
The hard part for Faalele will come on drop-backs. With his quick-twitch burst, Parsons can line up across from slow-footed guards and all but juke them out of their cleats. He’s also a menace on pass rush games; if Crosby’s stunt was too fast for Faalele to pick up late in the fourth quarter Sunday, Parsons’ might well be untouchable.
Another test awaits in Week 4, too. The Buffalo Bills have one of the NFL’s best fronts, with a defense that ranks eighth in ESPN’s pass rush win rate and third in run stop win rate. Buffalo’s strong inside tandem, Ed Oliver and DaQuan Jones, syncs up well with the Bills’ edge rushers, led by Von Miller, Greg Rousseau and A.J. Epenesa. In their Week 2 blowout of the Miami Dolphins, a pair of end-tackle stunts forced quarterback Tua Tagovailoa into throwing a pick six.
If Faalele’s play doesn’t stabilize, the Ravens’ season might not, either. That’s what makes the whole proposition so unstable. There are short- and long-term risks to benching Faalele too soon, just as there are risks to benching him too late.
“If we become a consistent football team, and when we become a consistent football team, then we’ll be a winning football team,” Harbaugh said Monday. “Until then, it’s going to be hard to do that. We need to work to make that show up on Sunday.”
