Mike Preston: The Ravens are still in need of a fantastic leader like to Ray Lewis.

Mike Preston: The Ravens are still in need of a fantastic leader like to Ray Lewis.

BALTIMORE—Ray Lewis, a middle linebacker with the Ravens, retired soon after the club’s victory in Super Bowl 47 to cap off the 2012 campaign, and the team still misses him. Not only was Lewis physically present, but he also had a psychological impact that helped his side win. What an exciting matchup Lewis would have faced up against Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes in the AFC championship game, which the Ravens lost 17-10 in Baltimore, if he had been a part of the 2023 Ravens. Those two athletes had “it,” that charm and swagger that spreads to everyone around them and improves them. Lewis won two NFL Defensive Player of the Year Awards and two Super Bowl victories, and we got to witness that for 17 years in Baltimore.

Now that Mahomes, 28, has participated in four Super Bowls and won three—two consecutive—we can clearly see that. He exudes the same air of invincibility and is the epitome of professionalism. That kind of player isn’t on the Ravens’ roster yet, anyhow. Roquan Smith, a middle linebacker, has promise, but he has only been in Baltimore for one and a half years, so he is still getting to know the team’s identity, culture, and work ethic. A quarterback typically possesses this kind of machismo, but Lamar Jackson lacks that confidence. The best ones, like Joe Montana, John Elway, and Johnny Unitas, among others, never needed to explain how they were “locked in” or focused. That was an

A team may be carried by those players, but Jackson needs better players surrounding him. Only on the offensive end, he showed some signs of leadership during his run for a second NFL Most Valuable Player Award this past season. Smith is in the same boat. He is aware that this franchise’s signature serves as defense. Both on and off the field, his teammates take note of what he says, and he has become into the player who always gives the pregame speech, or “boomalacher.” Someone who can play both defense and offense is what the Ravens need. Before Lewis emerged as the team’s undisputed leader, he had been a member for six years. He observed and took notes from the larger players that performed in front of him, like tackle Tony Siragusa.

Lewis understood his position, even if he was the best defensive player in the league.

And when Lewis grew too large too soon, colleagues like offensive tackle Orlando Brown Sr. put him in it.

There have only been two players who have represented this franchise as a whole since the team relocated from

Cleveland to Baltimore in 1996. Lewis was one,

and Shannon Sharpe, a tight end who was a member of the 2000 Super Bowl winning squad, was the other.

Sharpe was the player who talked the most trash of any player, maybe the exception being

Minnesota Vikings defensive end John Randle,

but he was supported by what may have been the best defense in NFL history.

Sharpe used to buzz and unsettle his colleagues, as well as the other team (keep in mind him calling Plaxico Burress,

a wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers, “Plexiglass”? ), but he didn’t seem to mind.

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