Best-Case Scenario for the Baltimore Ravens' 2012-13 Season

There are few teams in the NFL with a realistic best-case scenario for this season that ends with a Super Bowl victory, but the Baltimore Ravens are one of them.

A Super Bowl appearance—let alone a victory—has eluded the Ravens the past four years, though they managed to make the playoffs each of those years and reach the AFC Championship game twice, including last season.

Though Baltimore went through some serious changes in the past few months, they're still one of the favorites to reach and to win the big game, and it makes sense why.

Baltimore has long been known for their powerful defense, led by players like Ed Reed, Ray Lewis, Haloti Ngata and Terrell Suggs. Though Suggs will be sidelined for at least part of the season while he recovers from a ruptured Achilles' tendon, that side of the ball is so rife with talent that they should be able to make up for his absence with relative ease.

With Suggs hurt and another linebacker, Jarret Johnson, now in San Diego, other Ravens will need to step up their games considerably. In line to take either of the two spots are Paul Kruger, rookie Courtney Upshaw, Sergio Kindle and Michael McAdoo.

Whoever wins out will have a great deal of responsibility, considering the shoes they are being asked to fill, but no task should be over any of their heads.

There's little for the Ravens to truly worry about this year on defense. The main area which requires the most improvement is on offense, but there's every reason to believe they can do so with a full offseason to work together.

Last year, the Ravens' passing game wasn't very impressive. The problems are three-fold—one issue was that the receiving corps became significantly younger, with three rookies vying for positions on the field, and little time afforded them to get on the same page with quarterback Joe Flacco.

Secondly, Flacco wasn't terribly consistent last season, posting 300-yard games followed by 160-yard games and back again. Those wild swings in production made for undesirable unpredictability that required the team to rely very heavily on the talents of running back Ray Rice.

Third, offensive coordinator Cam Cameron wasn't very creative in his play calling, leaving the offense vulnerable to opposing defenses reading them like a book.

This year, things have taken a much different shape, and that should help minimize the risk of having the same struggles as last season.

The young receiving corps not only had a full regular season to get comfortable with the team and with Flacco, they now have a full, normal offseason of OTAs and camps to help hone their craft. Torrey Smith is healed from a hernia he'd been dealing with for most of his rookie season, Tandon Doss is healthy enough to make an impact and LaQuan Williams has been impressive in OTAs thus far.

In addition to these second-year players, the Ravens still have veteran receiver Anquan Boldin, who led the team in targets and receiving yards last season and they added Jacoby Jones, who will be fighting it out for the No. 3 receiver spot.

With all receivers having more experience and more time to work with Flacco, that should hopefully mitigate the issues with Flacco's inconsistency last year. A mutual sense of trust can go a very long way when it comes to a quarterback and his receiving corps, and now they have the time to build it.

This can also help Cameron's play calling as well. The Ravens are in a good spot to become a more creative passing offense—they have enough weapons in their receiving corps, plus two dynamic tight ends and one of the best and most versatile running backs in the league.

There's little use to squandering the talent they've worked hard to amass over the past few seasons, and Cameron should know enough to embrace this better situation.

Indeed, it's basically been just the Ravens' offense that has stood between them and a Super Bowl victory these last four years. But this season, there's every reason to believe that side of the ball could match the production of their vaunted defense. 

If so, it doesn't seem all that far-fetched to see a Lombardi Trophy in the Ravens' immediate future. 

This is part four of a four-part series examining the most realistic best-case scenarios for each AFC North team. Part one (Cleveland Browns) can be found here; part two (Pittsburgh Steelers), here; and part three (Cincinnati Bengals), here.

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