Unsung hero of Week 1: LB L.J. Fort

After a dominate win over the Browns in Week 1, many of the Ravens players have been getting a lot of love. Both Lamar Jackson and Mark Andrews had multiple big highlight plays and were invaluable to Baltimore's effort, and Patrick Queen has been the topic of many conversations in Ravens circles after an impressive debut.

However, football is a team game, and a complicated one at that. It’s not always easy to highlight every single player who performs well in a given game, and some of what each player does won’t show up on the highlight reel.

L.J. Fort was that guy this week. Fort was not named a starter for Week 1, as the Ravens opted to start rookie Malik Harrison over him. Additionally, he was only on the field for 32% of the defensive snaps, meaning he was playing a largely diminished role among the defense. Still, he managed to rack up six solo tackles, including the tackle and forced fumble on the Browns’ P Jamie Gillan. He also only allowed eight yards on throws that were targeted near him.

Despite not starting the game, Fort managed to impact the game consistently through being in the right spot at the right time and being able to make the solo tackles. He sparingly played on the defensive side of the ball, but even so he was able to make good stops throughout.

It will be interesting to see what HC John Harbaugh does against the Texans on Sunday. He may still feel confident enough in his other players at linebacker, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Fort get more snaps going forward.