Baltimore Ravens GM Eric DeCosta joined The Inner Circle Podcast with Aaron Donald, and at 18:53, Donald asked him how he feels about the roster coming back in 2026. DeCosta didn’t hold back, giving a thorough breakdown of the team, the players he’s excited about, and what he thinks needs to improve.
“Well, I think this was a disappointing season for us this past year. Probably below our standard, below the line for us. I think we have a lot of good players coming back, and I believe in these guys, and I think we’ve got to get a better job at getting after the quarterback for sure. I think we have some young guys who can do that. I think losing Nnamdi Madubuike was a big blow for us this year. Terrible that we lost him early in the season as we did, but I think we’ve got some other guys on defense we’re excited about. Travis Jones, we’ve got some young outside linebackers that we feel strongly about. Of course, we’ve got Roquan (Smith). Then our secondary has a lot of good players with Kyle Hamilton, Nate Wiggins, of course, Marlon Humphrey is a great player for us, too. I think there’s a strong nucleus coming back. I’m really excited to see Jesse Minter’s influence on our defense. That’s his specialty as a defensive coach. I think that’ll make a big, big impact. Then offensively, I think all the pieces are there. We’ve got some skilled guys. We’ve got a tight end in Mark Andrew, running backs, Derrick Henry, Zay Flowers. Really, really good about Zay, Rashod Bateman. A lot of good players.
I think on the offensive line, we’ve got two good tackles in Roger Rosengarten and Ronnie Stanley. We’ve got some work to do with Tyler Linderbaum’s contract. He’s a free agent. We strongly hope to have him back. He’s a great player for us and a great leader, and then we just need to augment the guard position, which is something we can do. We’ve got some good young guys that we really believe in this year. They’re going to make a big, big jump this year for us. Emory Jones is a guy we drafted last year in the third round, and we feel really strongly about as being a guy that’s going win a spot for us at the guard spot. But I love our team. I think our special teams is strong. We’ve got two good kickers, a good kicker, and a good punter. I think our coaching staff, what I’ve seen from our coaches, our new coaches, is very, very exciting. I think something change can be good. With change comes innovation and new ways of doing things or practicing, a new scheme, and all these different things. That’s going to give us an advantage, I think, this year. When you do the same thing every year, and you’re playing the Bengals twice, the Steelers twice a year, the Browns, these guys know us like the back of their hands. I think sometimes a change is a positive thing.”
DeCosta’s take makes it clear: the Ravens see a lot of pieces in place to bounce back, but there’s also work to do. Between young talent ready to step up, key free-agent decisions, and a new defensive mindset under Jesse Minter, Baltimore is aiming to turn last year’s disappointments into a stronger 2026.