The Ravens’ second preseason game is in the books as they defeat the Dallas Cowboys, 31-13. With the conclusion, it’s time for another check-in on the rookies.
Once again, Starks had a quick and quiet night. Much like last week, Starks only played the first two series and it was without much fanfare. The only appearance for Starks was a deep ball from Joe Milton that hit off the hands of the receiver. Even if the receiver had held on, Starks was right there and delivered a shot that could have knocked the ball out anyway. It’s been a mistake-free preseason for the first-round rookie, and the Ravens are clearly confident in him, pulling him early each time so far. Now it’s just time for the real football to begin for Starks.
It was the same as last week for Green. Quiet night on the stat sheet, but popped multiple times. He was the key player on a fourth-down run stuff and once again won multiple pass rushes cleanly and quickly without a chance to finish. He was the key pressure during Reuben Lowery’s interception as well. We are still waiting for him to finish the play and give us that first sack highlight. But considering his college resume, I’m not worried about that being a consistent problem for the future.
After last week’s outing was quiet and maybe put a lid on the idea that a fourth-round rookie linebacker could take snaps early, this week was the opposite. Buchanan showed up early and often. In the first series, Buchanan shot a gap on an outside run for an explosive tackle for loss of five yards that set up the safety. On the second series, he had impressive coverage that led to an incompletition. Trenton Simpson had a quick night, so he is still the likely starter next to Roquan Smith. But Buchanan is going to push to get more snaps in the regular season and looks going
Last week’s grading wasn’t kind to Vinson, and I don’t know if this week will be much better. The developmental left tackle still has room to grow after he got barrelled over on one play. Head coach John Harbaugh had a quick word with him after that play. Overall, Vinson had a rough night in pass protection. But he did show off some of the special athleticism on run blocks in space and nailed some down blocks. He also held up well during a two-minute drill scenario.
Loop followed up his good start in week one with a near-perfect performance during his homecoming to Texas. Loop went 5/6 with makes from 29, 36, 42, 51, and 53 yards and nailed both his extra point tries. His miss came from 50 yards and was his fifth attempt of the night, late in the fourth quarter. He bounced back with the 53-yarder with less than two minutes remaining in the game. You’d love to see Loop be perfect every game, but for his second NFL experience, going near perfect on eight kick attempts is a great day for a young rookie, especially in his hometown in front of his family.
After the best performance out of all the rookies last week, Wester got a lot of early run on offense this week, and it didn’t go as well. Wester was targeted four times and couldn’t bring any of them, including a bad drop early in the game. It seemed as though Wester and quarterback Cooper Rush just couldn’t get on the same page tonight. Wester also fielded two punts cleanly, both fair catches. While that isn’t huge overall, after last year’s punt fielding, where the ball bounced often for the Ravens, resulting in worse field position, it’s nice to see a confident punt catcher back there.
Peebles had a quiet night as well, but flashed a couple of times with some pressures up the middle. Peebles also landed a hefty quarterback hit. Peebles’ role seems pretty clear as a rookie in 2025. He’ll get the occasional pass rush snap in the game, and they’ll avoid putting him in obvious run-first situations.
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