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The Baltimore Ravens are the “best fit” for a favorite of former defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald in free agency.
Watching Mike Macdonald design the NFL’s toughest defense to win a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks was a major what if? moment for the Baltimore Ravens, but they can begin to make amends by snagging one of their former defensive coordinator’s “high-effort” players in 2026 free agency.
Fortunately, the free agent in question is exactly the type of versatile edge-rusher rookie head coach Jesse Minter needs to rebuild the Ravens’ defense into something like the force it was when Macdonald called plays in 2023.
Macdonald took his system to Seattle, where Boye Mafe became a key member of a deep and flexible fleet of pass-rushers. The 27-year-old is set to enter the veteran market this year, and The Ringer’s Austin Gayle believes the Ravens are Mafe’s “best fit.”
Gayle noted “Mafe technically wasn’t a starter in Mike Macdonald’s defense, as DeMarcus Lawrence and Uchenna Nwosu out-snapped him by a decent margin over the second half of the season and the playoffs. Still, Mafe is a high-effort, athletic player with over 600 snaps played in each of the past three seasons, including postseason games. His free agent market will be interesting.”
What’s “interesting” for the Ravens is how Mafe, whom Gayle estimates will earn in the region of $11- to $16-million annually, could help them restore some of the Macdonald-designed schemes that once worked so well in Baltimore. Mafe might also be the perfect candidate to up his game as a pass-rusher on Minter’s watch, the way another former Ravens edge defender did after bolting for pastures new in 2025.
Boye Mafe Has Intriguing Upside
He may have been overshadowed by other members of the Seahawks’ awesome ‘Dark Side’ defense, but Mafe had underrated value. His worth involved being the perfect fit for the type of versatile personnel Macdonald loves to deploy up front.
The Macdonald scheme is all about pressure and disguise, often times using moving parts to simulate heat on the pass-pocket. Mafe played his part by posting 41 pressures for a unit that “had 5 players with 40+ pressures during the 2025 regular season. No other team had more than 3,” per NFL Senior Researcher Tony Holzman-Escareno, citing Next Gen Stats.
The Seahawks defense had 5 players with 40+ pressures during the 2025 regular season.
No other team had more than 3, per @NextGenStats.
Seahawks leaders…
1. DeMarcus Lawrence – 51
2. Byron Murphy II – 46
3. Leonard Williams – 45
4. Uchenna Nwosu – 44
5. Boye Mafe – 41
Although Mafe’s sack totals fell from six to two, he set a franchise record by logging a sack in seven consecutive games during the 2023 campaign, per Seahawks PR. This level of aptitude for getting to quarterbacks is why Mafe still has plenty of admirers who could provide the Ravens with stiff competition in free agency.
Among them, AFC rivals the Kansas City Chiefs tried to engineer a trade for Mafe last November. So did the New England Patriots, the Seahawks’ victims in Super Bowl LX, according to NBCS Boston’s Albert Breer, reported at the time by his colleague Michael Hurley.
There are other potential fits for Mafe’s skills. Including a two-time Super Bowl champion from the NFC.
The Ravens should be interested in beating the competition, despite Mafe’s falling numbers.
Ravens Need Mike Macdonald Pass-Rush Plan
The decline in production can at least be partly explained by how often Macdonald had the flexible edge bail into coverage. Like when Mafe “dropped into coverage seven times — his second-most in 34 career games, per @TruMediaSports,” in Week 1 of the 2024 season, according to ESPN’s Brady Henderson.
Having Mafe bail out, while defensive backs blitzed, became a familiar and destructive ploy for the Seahawks at key moments in their Super Bowl-winning season. A great example was this elaborate blitz package against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 18. Highlights from JP Acosta of CBS Sports show the “Seahawks bringing Drake Thomas and Ty Okada on a blitz and dropping Boye Mafe for the sack.”
This is the kind of sophisticated pass-rush plan Macdonald used to make the ’23 Ravens the NFL’s No. 1 scoring defense and leader in sacks with 60 QB takedowns. It’s why the Ravens should still regret not letting Macdonald take the reins from Minter’s predecessor John Harbaugh in 2024.
Ex-Los Angeles Chargers DC Minter can still revive the Macdonald plan with the right edge-rushers. Minter may see in Mafe another player whose potential far exceeds his production, like he did with former Ravens first-round draft pick Odafe Oweh.
The latter took his game up a level by recording 7.5 sacks in 12 games after being traded to the Chargers last October. Minter is tipped by some to reunite with Oweh, but opting instead for Mafe would give the Ravens the best of both worlds, a gifted edge-rusher ready to be coached up to improve his output, but somebody well-versed in the Macdonald way of playing defense.
James Dudko covers the New York Giants, Washington Commanders, New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens for Heavy.com. He has covered the NFL and world soccer since 2011, with bylines at FanSided, Prime Time Sports Talk and Bleacher Report before joining Heavy in 2021. More about James Dudko
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