Offensive Coordinator Breakdown – Baltimore Ravens
Fantasy Football Winners:
This will be a downhill rushing attack lead by Mark Ingram and Lamar Jackson. I fully expect Lamar to carry the football 13+ times a game, as he will be a focal point in this offense. While 13 carries seems like a lot for a quarterback, Jackson averaged 19.5 carries through six games last season.
Another thing Greg Roman does so well with his mobile quarterbacks is getting them in advantageous passing down situations. With Defenses not able to predict what is coming, it gives a huge advantage to his play-action roll out style which allows for shots down field.
With an average of 61.7%, this will not be a team in which you’re looking to grab multiple pass catchers, instead just the one that Jackson really focuses on. I would expect for Lamar to continue to progress in the passing game and climb from 58.2% to around 60% this season.
They also will take several shots down the field as Roman’s offenses have averaged 7.4 yards per attempt. The rushing volume is what will always make Lamar Jackson a viable starting quarterback this fantasy season, and with his big play ability a must in DFS.
The starting running back in a Greg Roman offense has averaged 265 carries. This bodes well for Mark Ingram who is a downhill one cut runner. The Ravens signed Ingram to a three-year 15 million dollar deal this off-season as they were looking for quality starter to pair with Jackson.
The threat of Jackson on the edge will only free up those running lanes for Ingram. The downside to Ingram is more so correlated with Jackson as he simply does not target his running backs out of the backfield. In his seven starts Jackson only averaged three attempts per game to his tailbacks.
The majority of 17 targets went to Ty Montgomery, who was the teams third down back last season. The training camp battle between Kenneth Dixon and Justice Hill will determine who gets the starting third down role this season as Ingram will be off the field on passing down situations.
It is not often that a freshman running back unseats a current NFL starting senior in college football. Justice Hill did just that when he went into Stillwater and took the job from Chris Carson who rushed for over 1100 yards last season in Seattle.
Hill brings a lot of speed and pass-catching ability to this Ravens, team that is in desperate need of play-makers. I would expect Hill to be that change of pace type ball carrier that also gets involved in the passing game when those situations present themselves.
Another thing that Greg Roman loves to incorporate into his offense is the desire to attack the middle of the field with athletic pass catching tight ends. In all six seasons that Roman has called plays, his tight ends finished in the top-3 of targeted players.
Now you have a second year play-maker that had the 5th most receiving yards by a rookie in the last decade in Mark Andrews. I expect Andrews to double his involvement in the offense as he only played on 37.2% of snaps last season.
Next. Fantasy football running back tiers 2019. dark
Fantasy Football Losers:
The wide receivers for the Ravens are the clear losers here. Jackson still has a ton of developing to do as a passer in this league. There will be big plays in this offense by Hollywood Brown and Miles Boykin, but there will also be a lot of weeks when the Ravens only throw the ball 15-20 times.
I do not expect any of these receivers to be fantasy viable this season, as they will not be consistent enough for you to start them week-in-week-out. With that said, Brown and Boykin have big play upside and will have a couple of monster games this season.