Thursday Night Football has been known to be one of the more lackluster games of the season. Usually occupied by teams that either suck or are just not that fun to watch, not many NFL fans tend to tune in whenever Thursday night comes rolling along. While this year promises to do better, I figured I could add a little more intrigue into every matchup. In this series, I’ll be breaking down players to watch on both sides of the ball for both teams. They’ll either be a player that people are not taking seriously enough or a player no one really knows about. Stand for the little guy, right? This is going to be a weekly kind of thing, so like it or hate it, it’s here to ‘til Week 17 (please like it). So here it is;
Baltimore Ravens
Offensive player to watch: Tight End rotation of Nick Boyle, Maxx Williams, and Mark Andrews
Tight end Hayden Hurst, the first of the Ravens two first-round picks from the 2018 draft, is out over the next few weeks to start the season due to a foot injury. Hayden was projected to be an immediate contributor for Baltimore, bringing wide receiver-type speed and hands combined with a tight ends’ size and strength, like a slimmer version of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Hurst’s replacements, rookie tight end Mark Andrews & fourth-year pros Nick Boyle and Maxx Williams, helped pick up the slack, racking up nine catches for 103 total receiving yards. The Ravens love to run multiple tight ends sets to establish better protection for Joe Flacco in the pocket and open wider holes for their running backs to break through. Fortunately for Baltimore, all three tight ends are pretty good at blocking, with Boyle and Andrews doing a solid job establishing the running game, while Williams is better in pass protection.
Williams is also the better pass catcher of the trio but has a hard time getting open. Boyle’s route running is good enough to draw more targets from Flacco, but he struggles at times to reel the ball in. Andrews is a quality pass catcher, but it seems he’s more suited as a blocking tight end for the Ravens than in the open field.
The trio has a mixed bag ahead in terms of difficulty when they travel up to face the Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium. Last week against Colts, while the front seven was able to keep Indy’s rushing attack to just 75 total rushing yards and zero touchdowns, they gave up a good chunk of yardage to the Colts’ dynamic tight end duo in Jack Doyle (seven catches for 60 yards) and Eric Ebron (four catches for 51 yards and a touchdown).
Can the Baltimore trio pull off the same feat?
Defensive player to watch: Marlon Humphrey, cornerback
Prior to the start of the regular season, Ravens’ premier cornerback Jimmy Smith was suspended by the NFL for violating the NFL’s Personal Conduct Policy. According to NFL.com’s Herbie Teope, “…The NFL found evidence of threatening and emotionally abusive behaviors by Jimmy toward his former girlfriend that showed a pattern of improper conduct.” The eight-year veteran was accused by a former girlfriend of having issues with substance abuse and domestic violence, resulting in a lengthy custody battle between her and Smith for their young child.
The Ravens lost in Smith a shutdown corner that is at his best in single man coverage against an opponent’s top receiver, as well as a top playmaker, hauling in three picks, including one for a touchdown, in 2017.
The Ravens signed Brandon Carr from the Cowboys in free agency this offseason to serve as a complementary piece for Smith, but Carr was bumped to primary corner duties after Smith’s suspension. So, who’s left to take Carr’s place.
Enter last year’s first-round pick, Marlon Humphrey.
Having started five games last year, Humphrey has proven to be a solid corner for the Ravens, at least, solid enough to start in place of Smith.
Against the Bills, Humphrey was solid, deflecting three passes against Buffalo’s top receivers. The first one was a floater to Kelvin Benjamin, with Humphrey in man coverage. Humphrey knocked Benjamin’s hands down to make him drop the ball before he could come down with it. The next one came against the speedy Zay Jones on a comeback route. Humphrey zipped into Jones’ back and deflected the ball off Jones’ chest. The last one came against LeSean “Shady” McCoy, who was running a typical flat route to the left side. Humphrey got to Shady before he could set his feet, knocked the ball out of his hands, and dropped McCoy like a bag of rice.
A good game for the second-year pro out of Alabama, but the Bills were child’s play. Going into Cincinnati, expect Humphrey to line up opposite of either the fastest player in NFL history in John Ross or the acrobatic seven-time Pro Bowler in A.J. Green.
And now…
Cincinnati Bengals
Offensive player to watch: Billy Price, center
Bengals first-round pick, center Billy Price, had somewhat of an up-and-down debut against the Indianapolis Colts in Week One. Price’s selection by the Bengals in this year’s draft was just one in a myriad of moves Cincinnati made in order to improve what was a horrid offensive line in 2017.
They traded for Bills Tackle Cordy Glenn early in the offseason, drafted guard Rod Taylor out of Ole’ Miss in the seventh round, and retained right tackle Jake Fisher, who went on the reserve/non-football illness list last November to correct an irregular heartbeat. While the line’s overall performance against the Colts was average, at best, Price did not fair too well. On the first drive of the game, Price tripped over left guard Clint Boling, allowing Colts defensive tackle Al Woods to bull rush Price into Andy Dalton’s face, forcing Dalton to panic and throw an interception.
Price also struggled whenever the Bengals ran an outside zone. Typically, inside linemen are supposed to hook their arms underneath the bicep of a defensive lineman in order to shut out any chance of penetration and create a brick wall for the back to run by. Price had issues getting his hands on a defensive lineman, making him unbalanced and leaving his gap wide open for an easy tackle.
It wasn’t all negative for Price, though. The young center does a good job sealing inside containment for his backs to run through on inside zones and can come off double teams fast enough to seal blocks on the second level. His hand placement in pass protection is impressive, as it’s not typical for an inside lineman to have quick hands.
With week one in the books, Price has a chance to learn from his mistakes, shake them off, and move on to Baltimore. He’ll need to move on quickly, though, as he faces a Ravens rushing defense that allowed less than 85 total rushing yards to a Bills team that was designed to rely heavily on the ground-and-pound.
Defensive player to watch: Preston Brown, linebacker
Let’s be real here, no one here has heard of Preston Brown until this happened;
Brown, a former 2014 third-round pick, had spent his first four years with the Buffalo Bills as a tackling machine, racking up over 512 tackles over that time, along with three interceptions and four forced fumbles. He signed with one-year, four-million-dollar contract with the Bengals to fill in the void left by linebacker Vontaze Burfict, who’s currently serving a four-game suspension due to a PED violation he was cited for in March of 2018.
As weird as this is to say, the Bengals were lucky that Burfict’s suspension came from PED’s, as the seven-year linebacker has been suspended in the past for far worse actions;
Still though, Brown has been a suitable substitute for the Bengals front seven. Brown is at his best as a zone defender, showing enough agility and mobility to change direction quickly enough to make a play on the ball. Where he struggles is as a run stopper, as Brown tends to overrun the ball carrier, even, at times, running down the wrong side of the play.
Currently, Brown is questionable to play in Thursday night’s game, hampered with an ankle injury. He’ll be a game-time decision for Coach Hue Jackson, but should he play, he will be on a limited snap count, according to CincyJungle.com.
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