Ravens crack Top 10 of Simms’ Week 1 power rankings

If you are a fan of the Baltimore Ravens you probably believe (correct or not) that the media has it out for your favorite team and will never show them the respect that they deserve. One personality you can’t accuse that of would be Bleacher Report’s lead NFL analyst Chris Simms, who has long shown love to Baltimore squads that the national talking heads otherwise largely ignored.

This offseason, Simms was again high on the Ravens, consistently listing them as a playoff type team even despite all of the injuries and turnover that they suffered throughout training camp. While he didn’t pick them to beat Cincinnati in Week 1, he concedes that he should’ve stuck to his guns on the Ravens when he wrote up his most recent power rankings. Putting them at number nine, he wrote about the fact that this team is finally coming together at just the right time, which makes them a dangerous proposition for the rest of the league:

Baltimore has had a solid front seven, but now the team has speed on the back end. This is a dangerous combination, as Cincinnati found out. When you rack up five sacks, four interceptions and a forced fumble, you didn't just dominate, you whooped ass.

This offense could prove to be dangerous as well, especially once Flacco gets back into the groove. The offensive line was beat up in the preseason, but with a healthy Ronnie Stanley and Marshal Yanda, it looked effective against the Bengals.

The Ravens can pound the ball in the middle with Terrance West and Javorius Allen. They can stretch the field with weapons like newcomer Jeremy Maclin.

While noting that the loss of Danny Woodhead for 4-6 weeks is big, it sounds like Simms is going to remain bullish on the Ravens. With more performances like the one they had against the Bengals, he’ll have absolutely no reason not to.