The Baltimore Ravens are one of the more deficient football teams in the NFL right now.

They have allowed four more touchdowns than they have scored this season and been outscored by nearly 70 points in the last four games alone. They have almost no ascending players and coaches on either roster. Their first half was a failure and playing the rest of the season without two-time MVP Lamar Jackson, almost certainly the case, is a recipe for disaster (7-15 without him).

This was a rebuilding year all along with a coaching staff that appears to be mightily out of its depth thus far and that’s unlikely to change under the pressure of trying to salvage a season with a QB who was just demoted to third string in Arizona, where they are absolutely rebuilding. As much as everyone in The Castle seems utterly delusional about the state of this franchise and how far removed it is for competing or anything real (even with a healthy Jackson), as evidenced by their abysmal trade deadline, we keep it real in these parts.

So, the standings and postseason are not going to be our guide anymore. We are setting hopes and expectations far below that standard (let alone the Super Bowl talk going around Owings Mills as the AFC’s preseason favorite). Nope, we are more concerned with five far lesser objective for the rest of the season.

Let’s see if this flailing organization can manager to check a few of these boxes:

Develop One Young Pass Catcher

This can’t be the “Zay And Pray” passing game forever. They sunk the middle of this draft into receivers and tight ends – can one of them have a half-meaningful rookie season? That too much to ask? Can Ja’Kobi Lane or Matthew Hibner or Josh Cuevas show enough in a string of regular-season NFL football games that make you feel good about their ability to make an impact in 2027?

Rookie offensive coordinator Declan Doyle is underwater in many respects, but player development is supposed to be where these young coaches would succeed where John Harbaugh, owner Steve Bisciotti put it, failed (real problem is the GM is pretty awful at his job, but the owner claims he “bats .800”). Somebody from this group has to show something with Jacoby Brissett slinging it downfield in games that won’t end up meaning much in the standings.

“I can do a better job of putting them in better positions and making sure that they're able to go out and execute,” Doyle said of his players last week. This offense will be cooked next season unless one of these youngsters is legit.

Get More Out Of Kyle Hamilton

Hamilton is not a playmaker on passing downs in any way shape or form. They don’t need another run stuffer – that’s all they have on this defense. Let’s see him affect he QB before he delivers the ball or after it, being around the football in flight. This was supposed to be the embodiment of Jesse Minter’s next-level defense, and it’s been anything but.

Slamming him into offensive linemen and running backs and hanging out in the blue tent every Sunday feels like a dangerous game to be playing in a lost season. Fashion a role for him that makes more impact, that hopefully can carry into next season.

“If I'm out there, I need to be putting good stuff out there on tape,” Hamilton said after the ugly loss to the Bills in Week 8. “Me, myself personally, I don't think I did that. Doesn't matter the situation I'm in. If I'm out there, I need to be doing my best to get the job done."

Find A Defensive Identity

Minter talked on Monday about “re-establishing” key tenants on his defense. Sorry, outside of consistently proving to be the worst second-half defense in the NFL and displaying an unrivaled ability to blow any second-half lead at any time, Minter hasn’t established anything here as a coach or coordinator.

He better establish an identity, fast, or get ready to keep fielding more questions about horrendous second-half play calling and lack of adjustments. His secondary stinks and his pass rush is limp and his dime coverages are picked apart by bad QBs and he doesn’t get home when he blitzes … They can stop the run some, but who cares when the middle of the field is always wide open in the passing game.

“A couple days gives you a chance to really look and really dig deep,” Minter said after a weekend off. “I think first and foremost, making sure that the identity that we talk about that we want is not just talk. Sometimes that can get lost as you're racing each week to try to get a game plan in and do things. I'm excited for us to sort of re-establish our identity.”

Good luck with that with this roster.

Extend Trenton Simpson – Find Someone Else To Pay

Could anyone besides linebacker Trenton Simpson make the case for a new contract? Too much to ask? Can’t have a team with only three blue-chip players signed beyond 2027 (Nnamdi Madubuike, Hamilton, Flowers) and no one else you need to pay at the same time. Won’t work.

That would be a sign of a bogus front office.

Simpson should be groomed to replace Roquan Smith, now, and every effort made to pay him, now. Will anyone else – Nate Wiggins, Devontez Walker – be performing at a level that would make you want to do the same by January? I wouldn’t bet on it.

Find A Hidden Gem, For A Change

The Ravens have championed their roster for years, and the media carries their water, but it’s not very good with massive room for improvement. Now under .500 by some margin since last Thanksgiving, they get better active on waiver claims.

How about finding a player that way? How about plundering someone who can play a little on another practice squad? How about constantly churning the bottom of the roster the way bad football teams do – this has been a bad football team for quite a while. Living off a false reputation and constantly firing coaches who are scapegoated for poor rosters is one thing; doing almost nothing to help them in-season (outside of ridiculously desperate trades that will only set the entire franchise back just makes it even worse.

“When’s the last time they found a football player on a Tuesday?” offered one longtime NFL personnel exec, noting the workouts to fill roster spots that usually take place that day. “Do they think that’s beneath them too? Like (selling at) the trade deadline?

“There’s never anybody on waivers who is better than their 53? When’s the last time they stole somebody who could play off a practice squad? What do the pro personnel guys do over there?”

They might be fooling the access jockeys in the media, and the people who grade offseasons and drafts. But not their peers around the league and any veteran evaluators really paying attention, who see right through this failing front office.