While Terrell Suggs, 33, and Elvis Dumervil, 32, are getting up there in age, Steve Bisciotti has big expectations for the duo.
The Ravens owner wants the two gritty veterans to combine for 20 sacks this season, as long as both are healthy. Suggs is coming off a season-ending Achilles injury, but Bisciotti envisions his defensive leader rebounding just fine.
"He came back from the last one," Bisciotti said, referring to an Achilles tear Suggs sustained in April 2012.
"We got Suggs with the 10th pick because he ran a bad 40, and I remember Brian Billick's famous line: 'I've never seen a pass rusher have to run 40 yards.' So we're not concerned. Short-area bursts. He came back from it and he produced at a Pro Bowl-level again."
Getting twenty combined sacks is no small feat, but Suggs and Dumervil have done it together before … and then some.
In 2014, Dumervil broke the Ravens' single-season sack record with 17 and Suggs added another 12 for a combined 29 sacks. That was enough to lead the NFL and break the Ravens' previous franchise duo sack record set by Trevor Pryce and Adalius Thomas (24 sacks) in 2006.
Suggs has hit the combined 20-sack three times in his career: his rookie year in 2003 with Peter Boulware (20.5 sacks), in 2006 with both Thomas and Pryce (20.5 and 22.5, respectively) and in 2011 with Pernell McPhee (20).
In 2012, Dumervil and Von Miller were the league's top pass-rushing duo in Denver when they combined for a whopping 29.5 sacks.
While Bisciotti expects big things from his two veterans, he still wants to add more pass-rush help through the draft and/or free agency. He watched Denver make a 2015 Super Bowl run with a relentless pass rush that took down Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and the Panthers quarterback Cam Newton.
In Bisciotti's mind, the more pass rushers, the better. Plus, you never know when Suggs and Dumervil are going to call it quits.
"We've got two very dynamic, productive players that are at the age where you don't know if you're going to get one year or three years left in them," Bisciotti said. "We've got to fill those spots with constant pressure. You need five pass rushers in the rotation."
In the meantime, Suggs is working hard at rehabbing his Achilles tendon. And regardless of who else is added to the mix, Suggs is still a major piece of the puzzle.
"[I've been] just texting with Terrell back and forth and talking to [Head Athletic Trainer] Mark Smith, he seems to be on schedule," Head Coach John Harbaugh said Tuesday. "But I have not seen him. I've not done my own eyeball test yet. Terrell is going to work hard. He's going to be ready."
