{"id":63508,"date":"2025-05-19T23:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T23:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/63508\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T23:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T23:31:09","slug":"3-ravens-legends-headline-pffs-team-of-the-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/63508\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Ravens Legends Headline PFF’s Team of the Century"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Baltimore Ravens<\/a> have grown used to winning, at least during the regular season. This era of Ravens football is defined by quarterback Lamar Jackson and the impact of an elite quarterback talent.<\/p>\n

Baltimore\u2019s consistency precedes him, though. Before Jackson took the reins, it was Joe Flacco who commandeered these offenses, winning a Super Bowl in the process. The veteran quarterback will always have a place in the hearts of the fanbase, but those teams were headlined by elite defenses.<\/p>\n

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Subsequently, three Ravens legends were featured in Pro Football Focus\u2019 best players of the 21st century<\/a>. Two of them \u2013 linebacker Ray Lewis and safety Ed Reed \u2013 were protagonists on the conference\u2019s most feared defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cLewis\u2019 career dates back further than PFF grading, beginning in 1996, though he is deserving of making the quarter-century team when projecting the start of his career \u2014 five first-team All-Pro appearances and two Defensive Player of the Year awards \u2014 to the PFF era,\u201d Jonathon Marci wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce PFF’s grading began, Lewis produced one of the best career grades for the position, ranking among the top five linebackers since 2006. His 2009 season was his best captured by PFF, as he delivered a 91.4 PFF overall grade \u2014 the top mark that year and tied for the third-best season all time for the position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis, to some, is the greatest linebacker of all time. He was an easy Hall of Famer, holds the all-time record for career tackles (2,059), and has seven first-team All-Pro selections to his name. Lewis was the face of the Ravens, the embodiment of the fear that Baltimore put into its opponents.<\/p>\n

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The free safety behind him was one of the few players on the planet capable of matching him during that stretch.<\/p>\n

Reed\u2019s ball-hawking abilities and his playmaking after the catch are second to none. His legendary battles with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning shaped the power dynamics of the 2000s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe missed out on his 2004 Defensive Player of the Year season and two All-Pro and Pro-Bowl performances,\u201d Macri wrote. \u201cIn the years that followed, Reed delivered the second-highest career forced incompletion rate (19.3%) of the PFF era among 116 qualifying safeties. His 93.4 PFF coverage grade in 2009 was the third-best mark ever captured for the safety position by PFF, while his 91.8 PFF overall grade that year is tied for the fourth-best single-season mark.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two defensive dynamos weren\u2019t alone on PFF\u2019s list. Right guard Marshal Yanda and running back Derrick Henry<\/a> both made the cut at their respective positions, holding down the offensive praise to match the franchise\u2019s tradition of high-level defensive talent.<\/p>\n

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The latter will hope to join his predecessors in hoisting a Lombardi Trophy in a Ravens<\/a> uniform.<\/p>\n

Related: Derrick Henry Sends 6-Word Message to Ravens Fans After Contract Extension<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Ravens Kyle Hamilton Rep Skyrockets With New Ranking<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Baltimore Ravens have grown used to winning, at least during the regular season. This era of Ravens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[184,117,2282,292,20124,7,562,895,20125,6,169,12816],"class_list":{"0":"post-63508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-baltimoreravens","11":"tag-derrick-henry","12":"tag-ed-reed","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-joe-flacco","15":"tag-lamar-jackson","16":"tag-marshal-yanda","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-ravens","19":"tag-ray-lewis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}