Childs Walker: 5 things we learned from the Ravens-Vikings game

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The Ravens are 2-0 in coach Jesse Minter’s first preseason after a smothering 13-3 win over the Minnesota Vikings. Here are five things we learned from a game that featured few starters and even fewer offensive fireworks.

Jesse Minter’s defensive renaissance is looking more real by the week

For all the talk of Lamar Jackson’s injury-marred performance, it was the Ravens’ defense that wasn’t up to snuff against top opponents in 2025. Their pass rush frightened no one, and they could not protect a lead.

Whatever esprit de corps Minter might bring to the team overall, his defensive imagination was the primary reason the Ravens hired him to succeed John Harbaugh. Already, he has given fans genuine hope that the Ravens can get back to their 2023 form under Mike Macdonald, when they kept opponents unsettled with endless rush and coverage tricks.

It won’t hurt that Minter is working with better ammunition — Trey Hendrickson torching tackles off the edge, the monster squad of Travis Jones, Calais Campbell and (everyone hopes) Nnamdi Madubuike crushing pockets from the inside.

We’ve seen glimpses, against the Ravens’ own offense in camp and against the Vikings’ starters in a pair of joint practices, of how potent that blend of talent and design could be.

We did not see the real thing in Saturday’s game, with nary a starting defender on the field. But we did see the Ravens repeatedly invade the Minnesota backfield. Minter set an aggressive tone, rushing safety K’Von Wallace on the first play from scrimmage. From there, he watched his defensive front win again and again. He didn’t like the contested catches his secondary allowed downfield, and the Ravens got lucky when Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy failed to punish a blown coverage in the end zone.

But, if we want to believe this is a Baltimore defense reborn, the first two preseason games support that narrative.

Jovaughn Gwyn and Ethan Pocic did enough to keep us in the dark about who will start at center

Who will snap the ball to Jackson when the Ravens line up to face the Indianapolis Colts on Sept. 13?

Just when we were getting comfortable with the idea that it would be Danny Pinter, he tore his patellar tendon last week.

Gwyn started against the Vikings, with a chance to build on his standout performance against the Philadelphia Eagles. He stayed in for all 19 snaps Tyler Huntley played at quarterback and was … just OK?

When Joe Fagnano subbed in for Huntley, Pocic came with him, playing his most extended run since he signed with the Ravens shortly before the start of training camp. Did Pocic look physically sound enough for us to say this battle has been joined? He did.

Which means we have absolutely no clarity regarding the position Tyler Linderbaum vacated after last season.

It’s strange for the loss of a center with 10 career starts to feel like a gut shot. But, in lieu of signing or drafting a clear replacement for Linderbaum, the Ravens planned to throw multiple bodies at the problem. Based on training camp and the preseason opener, Pinter seemed likely to get first shot at starting. Without him, they face a choice between uncertain prospects: Pocic, the longtime NFL starter who might not be fully healthy, and Gwyn, the tantalizing physical package who has never started a professional game.

Gwyn is the wild card, largely untested since the Atlanta Falcons drafted him in the seventh round in 2023. He was the Ravens’ best lineman in their preseason opener, and his agility might make him the best theoretical fit for Declan Doyle’s offense. Can he hold up against elite interior defenders in games that matter? We just don’t know.

Pocic, if he’s sufficiently recovered from the torn Achilles that ended his 2025 season, has the track record Gwyn does not. But that’s a big if. He has yet to practice regularly with the starting offense.

Minter said last week the time had come to see what Pocic could do with a bigger workload. So he had to like seeing the veteran play 30 snaps against the Vikings and hold up well as a pass blocker, albeit against third-stringers.

It’s easy to forget that we all assumed Pocic would be the starter, over Pinter, when the Ravens added him in mid-July. The guess here is that’s where we end up, despite Gwyn’s greater athletic upside. For all the ebbs and flows of camp, the guy who has done the job before is usually the one who wins out.

The kicking corps put a bad week behind it

Tyler Loop lined up from 49 yards, the exact distance from which he’d missed against the Eagles. If he faltered again, his doubters, still fixated on the field goal he did not make at the end of last season, would rev into overdrive.

This time, however, his kick was perfectly straight, sailing over the crossbar with many yards to spare.

“That’s what you want to see,” Minter said.

Loop has maintained he has no trouble putting failures behind him, that faith in his god and his routines will keep him on course despite the slings and arrows aimed his way. The 42-yard field goal he made in the second half against the Eagles and the 49-yarder he hit Saturday lent credence to his resilient talk.

That won’t stop fans from howling the next time he misses, but we can’t say Loop is crumbling in the face of scrutiny.

Given our focus on the placekicker, rookie punter Ryan Eckley’s shaky debut against the Eagles largely escaped note. But Eckley’s performance, as he tries to fill All-Pro Jordan Stout’s shoes, will also be an important story this season.

Eckley does not lack outward confidence, and he bounced back in a big way in Minnesota, averaging 55.3 yards on six punts and keeping the Ravens on the right side of the field-position battle.

As we saw with Stout and Sam Koch before him, even the best punters take a few years to master the spins and distance control required to excel in the NFL. But Eckley has the talent to become a worthy successor.

Joe Fagnano will make a fine third quarterback

Nobody paid him much mind during organized team activities and minicamp, given that he was fighting with a far more famous rookie, Diego Pavia, for fourth-team reps.

But, with Pavia long gone and would-be third-stringer Skylar Thompson hurt, Fagnano has seized his chance to play behind Jackson and Huntley. After his second straight effective preseason outing, he rates as one of the Ravens’ most pleasant summer surprises.

You want a third-string quarterback to keep the offense in rhythm, throw accurately and avoid foolishness. Aside from one ill-advised throw across his body against the Eagles, Fagnano has checked those boxes, completing 37 of 48 passes over two games and leading multiple touchdown drives.

“I thought Joe came in again — second week in a row — and just kind of managed the offense really well,” Minter said. “[He] got us down there a few times, made some really key plays throwing the ball [and] guys made some nice catches for him.”

The Ravens have a two-time NFL Most Valuable Player as their starter and an established No. 2 who has led them to crucial wins. There’s not a lot of work to be found in their quarterback room.

Every year, they bring a young quarterback or two to camp, hoping one might stick as a practice squad body with the upside of a future backup. Fagnano, who went undrafted because he was perceived to have pedestrian arm talent after seven years in college, has done more than enough to stick around.

The Ravens could have a heck of a practice squad defensive line

We haven’t seen the real defensive front in action, but the reserves made loud cases for their relevance against the Vikings.

Undersize defensive tackle Aeneas Peebles, perhaps on the roster bubble in his second season, piled up at least five pressures on Minnesota quarterbacks. Peebles is never going to be a premium space eater, so he has to explode into the backfield to maintain his place in the league. It was a bad sign that he could not force his way into playing time despite the team’s depleted pass rush last season. But playmaking interior linemen are rare enough that he’ll earn more chances.

Mammoth defensive tackle C.J. Okoye isn’t as springy as Peebles but outplayed him last year. He assisted on a pair of tackles and produced a pressure against the Vikings, reminding us that, even though he doesn’t have an obvious path to playing time, he’s an intriguing enough developmental prospect (as a product of the NFL’s scouting efforts in Africa) for the Ravens to keep him around.

Seventh-round pick Rayshaun Benny got in on a sack. So did surprise training camp standout David Olajiga. Every Baltimore defensive lineman who entered the game seemed to make his mark.

Again, all of this production came against reserves and it doesn’t mean any of these guys will make a significant impact on the 2026 season, but the Ravens’ front-seven depth was the deciding factor in this preseason win.