Former Ravens wide receiver and Super Bowl champion Qadry Ismail, now an analyst for WJZ, joined Glenn Clark Radio March 17 to discuss the Ravens’ offseason, including the acquisitions of defensive linemen Calais Campbell and Michael Brockers and the lack of activity on the other side of the ball. Here’s what he had to say.
PressBox: The Ravens have clearly prioritized stopping the run, interior pressure and defensive line in general. Was this, to you, what the priority should’ve been in the open of the NFL league year?
Qadry Ismail: Well, I think if you look at what stopped them from continuing on in the playoffs and shocked the heck out of everybody was the fact that they got Derrick Henry’d. So if you see that, yeah, the back end of your defense looked amazing but the front end suffered. The 49ers, I think that was a game where it was like, “Whoa, boy. If you have a team that can run the ball on you, you’re going to be in trouble.” And while the offense did its thing and Lamar [Jackson] did his thing and they won the 49ers game, I think for what the Tennessee Titans needed to do, they recognized that there’s an opportunity there to steal a victory on the road in the playoffs by running the football. I think that was the weakness that Eric DeCosta and Co. had to address.
