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The Baltimore Sun
Ravens coach John Harbaugh still isn’t worried about Mark Andrews | NOTES
By Brian Wacker, Baltimore Sun,
9 hours ago
Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews emerges during NFL football in Baltimore. Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS
For all of Ravens tight end Mark Andrews’ accomplishments, he did something Sunday night that he has never done before.
Baltimore’s blowout of the Buffalo Bills at M&T Bank Stadium marked the first time in his six-plus year career that he has gone two straight games without a catch. It’s also the first time he’s failed to catch a pass in two games in any season.
Not that coach John Harbaugh is worried about the three-time Pro Bowl selection and 2021 All-Pro who was targeted just once for the second straight game — a pass he dropped.
“Mark Andrews is definitely going to have big games here catching the ball,” he said Monday in Owings Mills. “Isaiah [Likely] is going to have big games catching the ball. All those guys are.”
When — or if — remains the question.
Through four games, Andrews is fifth on the team in receptions (six) and targets (nine); sixth in yards (65); and has yet to score a touchdown. He has also been targeted just once each of the past two weeks, including early in the second quarter Sunday when, with the Ravens leading 14-3, quarterback Lamar Jackson found him wide-open on a short out only to watch as the ball bricked off his security blanket’s hands.
The dearth of targets and catches is curious if not concerning, or at least unusual.
Only once since his rookie season has Andrews not had at least a share of the lead in catches on the team and that was last season when he missed six games because of an ankle injury. He still finished second on the team with 45 receptions.
This year, different reasons explain the drought.
In the season opener, Andrews was often double-teamed by the Kansas City Chiefs. A week later at home against the Las Vegas Raiders, he had four catches for 51 yards but Jackson also overthrew him when he was wide-open deep down the field. In Week 3 against the Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore leaned on its running game and Jackson attempted only 15 passes. Sunday was much of the same with Baltimore throwing it 18 times.
Andrews has also been on the field less than in the past. So far, he’s played just 56% of the Ravens’ offensive snaps. That’s down 14% from last season and his lowest mark since 2019 when he played just 44% of snaps.
His absence hasn’t seemed to slow Baltimore, though. The Ravens lead the NFL in yards per game (429.5) and are sixth in red zone scoring (71.43%).
For his part, Andrews doesn’t appear to be bothered and he has delivered some significant blocks to help spring the Ravens’ ground attack. “My time will come,” he said last week .
Harbaugh believes it will, too.
“I could probably try to talk to Mark to make sure everything’s OK,” he said. “But he would just look at me like, ‘What are you talking to me about? Everything’s fine, everything’s good.’
“Mark is a star. The fact that we’re doing well on offense and as a team and that part hasn’t been expressing itself in the last two weeks gets me kind of excited because that’s another weapon that we have that’s gonna happen.”
Offensive line changes
Before Sunday, versatile Ravens offensive lineman Patrick Mekari had started at every position up front except left guard. After stepping in for injured Andrew Vorhees (ankle), he can check that off, too.
Why did Harbaugh opt for Mekari over Ben Cleveland or someone else?
“That move made a lot of sense,” he said. “Not that the other guys couldn’t have played in there.
“Ben, for instance, has been practicing very well. When Ben gets his chance he’s going to play very well. Patrick is such an experienced guy. He’s played all the positions. … That’s his, kind of, superpower. That’s his trait, that he can do so many different things so well.”
Harbaugh also said that Rosengarten, Baltimore’s second-round draft pick out of Washington earlier this year, has been coming on lately, even though he didn’t play a snap in Week 3 against the Cowboys.
So he felt comfortable giving him his first start at right tackle with Mekari having moved inside.
“He’s a guy who we have a lot of expectations for,” Harbaugh said of Rosengarten. “He didn’t do anything in that game to dampen that down at all.
“I think you take it as it comes every single week and try to put the best group out there you can.”
The Ravens’ secondary got some good news with Harbaugh saying Monday that he expects cornerback Arthur Maulet to be back at practice Wednesday.
Maulet, 31, underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in early August and had been on injured reserve/designated to return since late that month. Once he practices, Baltimore will have a three-week window to put him back on the active roster.
Last season, Maulet had 37 tackles, two sacks, an interception and two forced fumbles in 14 games. The Ravens re-signed him in the offseason.
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