Worst-Case Scenario for the Baltimore Ravens: Ray Rice is Lost for the Season

The Baltimore Ravens are fortunate enough to have one of the biggest playmakers in the league on their roster—running back Ray Rice. Rice had the most yards from scrimmage of any player last season, leading the Ravens in receiving targets as well as carries.

If the Ravens were to lose Rice's services this season—let's say because of an early injury—the team would find themselves in the unfamiliar territory of struggling to score points or rack up yards. Easily, being without Rice would be the worst thing that could happen to the Ravens this season.

Rice's 2,068 total yards last season made up for more than a third of the Ravens' offensive production—combined they had 5,625 rushing and receiving yards.

One cannot just assume that any combination of other Ravens players could make up for that much yardage should they be without Rice, even if the remainder of their offense were firing on all cylinders. Rice's contributions are the bedrock upon which the Ravens offense is built.

The first issue for the Ravens would be figuring out just what their ground strategy should look like without Rice.

The team picked up Bernard Pierce in third round of the draft this year, and while he's a more than capable backup for Rice and should get a not-insignificant number of carries this season as the No. 2, he's not the ideal every-down replacement.

Pierce has durability issues and was overused in college; while this is fine when he's backing up and spelling Rice, it becomes an issue when he's the de facto No. 1 running back.

Clearly, with Pierce as the starter, the Ravens would have to dial down their run game a noticeable degree and rely more heavily on quarterback Joe Flacco's ability to pass. But that presents a number of issues as well.

Flacco is more than competent—he's talented. But he's also inconsistent from one week to the next. With Rice being the primary focus of the offense, this hasn't been a liability, but should the spotlight necessarily shine solely upon him, it could spell trouble.

Combined with Flacco's inconsistency is a receiving corps that's surrounded with more questions than answers. Torrey Smith is a reliable No. 1 receiver—and should be more so this year with experience to his name and a full recovery from a 2011 sports hernia—but No. 2 Anquan Boldin is getting older.

The Ravens brought in Jacoby Jones to compete for the No. 3 receiver spot and, barring impressive camp performances from Tandon Doss and Tommy Streeter, should win it. Jones is well-suited for this role and should increase the passing game's production—last year the Ravens didn't even have a true No. 3 receiver.

But we still don't know which Jones we'll see, nor is it clear if Doss can progress in his second year. Furthermore, though it seems tautological to say that if Flacco passes more, there will be more Ravens' passing yards and more completions, his inconsistency could cause his numbers to vary even more wildly than they did with a fully healthy Rice on the field.

A dip in offensive production—caused by both the loss of Rice and the far heavier reliance on Flacco (who, for the sake of argument—this is a "worst case" piece after all—proves not to be up to the task) will mean that the Ravens will have to lean on their defense to get the job done.

This is nothing new for Baltimore, even prior to the Flacco era. However, this is a year of transition for that vaunted unit, considering the losses they suffered in free agency and the fact that linebacker Terrell Suggs could be out for the entire season with a torn Achilles' tendon.

This could precipitate a wholesale breakdown of the Ravens. No, they wouldn't lose every game—the situation is nowhere near that dire—but it could be enough to knock them down the AFC North pecking order and certainly out of the playoffs.

That's the risk of having a player as talented and as indispensable as Rice—with him, everything is fine (or more than fine, really), but without him, the sting is far sharper. No single player is more important to the Ravens right now than Rice, and should something happen that causes him to miss the season, it's easily the worst-case scenario Baltimore could face.

This is part two of a four-part examination of worst-case scenarios in the AFC North. Read part one about the Cincinnati Bengals here.

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