It's often said that the NFL is a week-to-week league, but one thing the Ravens can count on week in and week out is do-it-all safety Kyle Hamilton showing why he is a three-time All-Pro.
NFL analyst Chris Cooper believes Hamilton should be in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year.
"Kyle Hamilton is the best defensive player in football right now," Cooper said in a social media video. "It's crazy to me that he's never received a single first-place vote for Defensive Player of the Year. And on top of being the best player on the field, he's also the smartest."
Cooper pointed to a play from Sunday's game against the Cleveland Browns as an example of Hamilton's ability to diagnose plays and blow them up.
On second-and-1, Hamilton sniffed out and then snuffed out a perimeter screen pass from Deshaun Watson to KC Concepcion for a 3-yard loss.
"The Browns love to run perimeter screens out of this formation, and they've already run this play four times this season targeting Concepcion," Cooper said. "Knowing the kind of player Kyle Hamilton is, I can almost guarantee you he saw this tendency on film.
"That's some high IQ stuff, and when people start talking about Defensive Player of the Year, Kyle Hamilton needs to be in that conversation."
Hamilton also delivered arguably the biggest hit of the weekend when he popped running back Jaleel McLaughlin on a short pass from Watson. A week prior, Hamilton made the game-sealing interception in the Ravens' overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons.
The Defensive Player of the Year award typically goes to edge rushers, linebackers, and tackles. Only five safeties have won the award since its inception in 1971, with former Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu being the most recent in 2010. Former Ravens great Ed Reed won it in 2004.
Hamilton finished in a tie for ninth in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2024.
On a side note, Hamilton was named to Pro Football Focus’ Week 6 Team of the Week.
Revisiting Ravens' Decision to Punt Late in Browns Game
Head Coach Jesse Minter's decision to punt on fourth-and-2 at the Ravens' 40-yard line just before two-minute warning with the score tied at 10 against the Browns has raised some questions.
According to ESPN Analytics’ fourth-down model, opting to punt instead of going for it cost the Ravens 8.6 percentage points in win probability, making it the costliest decision of the season.
The Ravens bluffed going for it before taking a delay-of-game penalty. Ryan Eckley's punt bounced into the end zone, and the Browns drove 62 yards to set up Andre Szmyt's 37-yard game-winning field goal as time expired.
On Monday, Minter explained why he never considered going for it on fourth down.
"In a 10-10 game with the struggles our offense had had – to give them the ball on their side of the field in a tie game, I didn't think that would be very smart," Minter said. "I thought kicking them back and making them go – and obviously they did anyway. But just the overall way that we had not really gotten a lot going there other than the missed field goal drive, I felt like I trusted our guys to go make a play.
"We need to pin them inside the 10-[yard line] and make them maybe play conservatively a little bit more, [and we] kick it into the end zone."
Analytics aside, Minter's decision was logical. The Ravens offense has struggled in short-yardage situations, and if they didn't get the first down, the Browns would've started the drive on the edge of field-goal range.
To that point, the Browns' offense hadn't done much, scoring their lone touchdown after Derrick Henry's fumble gave them a short field.
Ravens Named Potential Fit for Stefon Diggs If He's Traded
The Ravens and Stefon Diggs are being linked again.
Baltimore was often named as a potential destination for the veteran wide receiver in free agency this offseason, but he ended up signing with the Washington Commanders, and The Athletic's Jeff Zrebiec reported that the Ravens were never in the market for Diggs or any big-name receivers because they believe in their young wide receiver corps behind Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman.
With the Commanders (1-4-1) sitting in last place in the NFC East, Sports Illustrated’s Matt Verderame believes Diggs could end up on the trade block ahead of the Nov. 10 deadline, and he named the Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs as potential fits.
"Diggs will turn 33 next month and is on a one-year deal. In other words, there's no reason to waste time on the Commanders, who appear destined for a below-.500 season," Verderame wrote. "[Diggs is} a worthwhile target for a contender looking to add a veteran pass catcher with postseason experience."
Diggs has 24 catches for 244 yards and four touchdowns this season. He had 85 catches for 1,013 yards and four touchdowns last season with the New England Patriots.
It may be a stretch to say the Commanders are in selling mode, however. While they are at the bottom of the NFC East, they are still only two games behind the first-place New York Giants, who sit at 3-2-1. No team in the NFC East has won over the past two weeks.
