Week 5 Rookie Report: The kids are alright

After the Ravens nearly shut out the Bengals yesterday, there loomed a major question on everyone's minds: is Patrick Queen the GOAT?

I’m only kidding, of course, but he did have quite a great game.

A lot of the Ravens 2020 draft class had something significate to show in this game. Even if everyone didn’t quite get the usage rate they were hoping for, highlight plays are still something, and we have an excess of them.

Patrick Queen

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Let’s start as we always do, with royalty (No, I will not stop). Patrick Queen had one of his best games of the year against the Bengals, posting a forced fumble he then recovered, as well as recovering Marlon Humphrey’s forced fumble and returning it 52 yards for a touchdown. All this plus he posted nine tackles, tied for the highest total in the game.

Queen has had an incredible rookie year, and has shown to be a top linebacker in the league when rushing the passer. His biggest hole still remains when he’s back in coverage, although if he’s making plays like this consistently, that may prove to be non-issue.

J.K Dobbins

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Dobbins had a pretty solid game, catching every ball that was targeted towards him (3) and gaining 21 receiving yards in the process. This is just further evidence that the coaching staff has certainly deemed him the “receiving back” of the team. He was also able to put up his very own highlight play on his only rushing attempt of the game in which he ran for 34 yards.

Dobbins had the least amount of snaps of the three running backs on the team, but still managed to have a greater impact than Gus Edwards, who had the most snaps. At this point, most of the angst around Dobbins comes from where he was selected in the draft, and some people may never be able to get over that, but he’s proving his worth one big play at a time.

Devin Duvernay

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Devin Duvernay, the man gifted the power of alliteration, had maybe the best offensive game of his young career in Week 5. Catching both of his targets for 17 yards is certainly good, but it’s the 42-yard run that really takes the cake here. Duvernay didn’t return a single kick in this game, clearly because the coaching staff is saving his greatness for the game against the Steelers in three weeks.

But seriously, Duvernay has been a rarely used commodity this season that seems to be doing most of whatever Baltimore asks of him. It won’t be surprise to me if he gets more snaps later in the season, especially since Baltimore desperately needs another target for Lamar Jackson to throw to.

Malik Harrison

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Harrison has been used sparingly so far in his rookie season, even today when he was only on the field for 21% of the Ravens defensive snaps. Even so, he managed to make an impact in this game, posting three tackles. Harrison may not be a starter, and may not become one anytime soon, but he’s shown so far in his rookie year that he can be useful even when he isn’t given much room to shine.