With each season passing, it's becoming more obvious this iteration of the Baltimore Ravens is built on offense. After decades of being carried by its defense, Baltimore's offense has blossomed into one of the most dangerous units in all of football.
With Lamar Jackson coming off his best season yet as a passer and the team rewriting NFL history books in 2024, this version of the Ravens is built to move the ball on anyone... at any time.
So it wasn’t shocking to see Lamar get protected in Bleacher Report’s latest five-year re-draft exercise. In a hypothetical world where teams re-drafted rosters using players from the 2021-2025 classes, the Ravens used their franchise tag on Jackson and turned their attention to maximizing what he could do. That’s where things got fun.
B/R’s Kevin Knox had Baltimore selecting Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride with the 30th overall pick. It’s a pick that turned heads for good reason: "In 2024 alone, McBride caught 111 passes for 1,146 yards and two touchdowns. Jackson's chemistry with Andrews has been undeniable, but it's hard not to imagine an even more productive tandem in Jackson and McBride."
Trey McBride would make Baltimore’s elite offense even scarier
As far as alternate realities go, this one isn’t hard to imagine. The Ravens have long built their offensive identity around tight ends, and McBride’s emergence in the desert has been hard to ignore. He’s a big-bodied route technician with strong hands, excellent awareness in zone coverage, and enough burst to punish linebackers in space. He’s already become one of the most targeted tight ends in football.
What makes McBride especially intriguing in Baltimore is how well he’d fit into their personnel groupings. His ability to win on intermediate routes, work the seams, and deliver yards after the catch would give the Ravens a smoother version of what Mark Andrews has provided for years. While Andrews is known for his toughness and contested catch ability, McBride brings a more consistent route-running profile with elite volume production. He’s the kind of option that could let Jackson control the tempo of a game underneath, especially with Derrick Henry softening fronts.
In this scenario, McBride could thrive in offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s system, feeding off the play-action looks and creating mismatches against nickel defenses. But that’s a dream scenario. The Ravens already have Isaiah Likely, who proved last season that he’s more than just a depth piece. His breakout in Andrews’ absence showed legitimate upside, and Baltimore’s internal belief in his future could keep the tight end room intact.
It’s also worth noting that the Ravens have more pressing long-term needs, especially at edge rusher, where they’ve invested early picks in Odafe Oweh, David Ojabo, Mike Green, and Adisa Isaac but still lack a proven game-wrecker. So while McBride would be a luxury pick, the Ravens might be better off using a re-draft to land a player who can relentlessly pressure quarterbacks.
Still, the idea of Lamar throwing to McBride is hard to shake. If nothing else, this re-draft served as a fun reminder of how dangerous Baltimore’s offense already is—and how much more explosive it could become with a few tweaks.
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