With returning stars, big-name additions, Ravens overhauled secondary hopes to produce bounce-back 2025

OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- For most NFL players, the end of the day during training camp offers a well-deserved respite, a break from the meetings, practices, walkthroughs, treatments and everything else that leads up to the regular season.

That's especially true for the Ravens, whose practices are as long as anyone's. Sessions regularly go two-and-a-half hours; a recent joint practice with the Colts ran nearly three. John Harbaugh, a former special teams coordinator, drills specifics of all three phases with meticulous detail, even as temperatures have soared along the East Coast.

But when Malaki Starks finally leaves the Under Armour Performance Center, his work is just getting started. He gets home, and he hits the playbook again, staging walkthroughs with his fiancee, Savanna Jackson.

"When we're talking through it, I see Marlo when I'm talking to her," Starks told CBS Sports, referring to Ravens Pro Bowl cornerback Marlon Humphrey. "I see Nate [Wiggins]. Like, I see Kyle [Hamilton]. We're walking through and talking through it together, and she's been such a big help with my development too as well.

"We'll get home, and she'll keep me on my toes, too. Sometimes I'm tired when I come home. I just want to chill, and she'll like, 'Okay, like, let's watch like 15 minutes. Let's watch it together you can talk through it to me, teach it to me.'"

It's a tradition they've had for years -- they've known one another since the fourth grade -- and one that's been an immense help for a player who is once again expected to contribute right away to a team with high hopes.

Starks committed to Georgia in March 2021. At the time, Kirby Smart's Bulldogs were steadily building but were yet to get over the hump. Then they broke through for a title 10 months later, and Starks, who had played mainly offense in high school before switching to the defensive side, was suddenly thrust into a starting safety role for the defending champs.

He thrived: a spectacular interception off of Bo Nix in his collegiate debut, another interception two weeks later and, by season's end, Freshman All-America honors and a national championship ring, Georgia's second in a row.

"My job title was 'safety,' like, I'm supposed to keep stuff safe," Starks said. "So like literally everything was going against me. [There's] no perfect world where I will ever not give up something. Like something bad is going to happen, something that I don't want is going to happen. But it comes with the job, you know, and I think just being able to turn around, like, you know, even when you make a good play. I'll make a good play. 'Okay, cool. I'll turn the next one. What can I do to get better on the next play? What can I do on the next?

"You gotta love it. You gotta be a different type of person to line up and go play DB because it's it's a different mentality."

The situation he stepped into in Athens, Georgia isn't unlike the one he's stepping into in Baltimore. The Ravens have been close. Desperately close. One-play-away close. Now, they're counting on Starks to keep things safe after an uncharacteristically up-and-down year in the secondary.

Hamilton described Starks as "miles ahead" of where he was as a rookie at the start of training camp. Harbaugh noted that though Starks is a safety, he has worked at cornerback and at nickel, calling him a "very, very smart player." And, importantly, he joins a highly accomplished positional group on a highly accomplished team with one of the best cultures in the NFL.

"It's very similar to when I came in [to Georgia]," Starks said. "The biggest thing to winning teams people overlook is the connection party of the team. ... We won games deep in the season, deep in the fourth quarter because we were together. And I think I'm seeing that here, just the chemistry that's being built with the guys that's in the building, the coaches, the staff.

"I mean, it's like a different level. I get it, like, this is the league now.  So it's your job. So, it's a little different than it is in college, but guys are really buying into what we want to do here. I think it's it's going to be a beautiful story."

For the most part, Baltimore looks the same as it did last year. The offense -- which finished first in yardage and third in points -- returns 10 of 11 starters, led by Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. The defensive front seven still has Nnamdi Madubuike leading the defensive line and Roquan Smith quarterbacking the defense from his middle linebacker position.

But the secondary? The secondary looks different. The former All Pros -- the rangy, do-it-all Hamilton and the ballhawking slot cornerback Humphrey -- return, as does Wiggins, the lanky, speedy cornerback off a promising rookie season.

But look around them, and you see big names. There's Starks, a former All-America standout at Georgia whom Baltimore selected 27th overall, and there's Jaire Alexander, the two-time All Pro who has struggled with injuries the past several seasons, playing outside cornerback.

Alexander is certainly the player you hear the most, bringing tremendous energy and skill. A teammate of Jackson's at Louisville, Alexander spent his first seven seasons with the Packers, quickly becoming one of the league's most feisty and most talented cornerbacks. He earned second-team All Pro honors in 2020 and again in 2022, when he picked off five passes.

But he has played in more than seven games just once in the past four seasons, and Harbaugh said the knee issue that's kept him out of practice recently is "something he's been dealing with for a few years now," though not something that has him overly concerned. Alexander returned to a side field Thursday.

When he's been available, he's been impressive. In an Aug. 2 practice, he picked off Jackson twice -- and celebrated accordingly, bringing Jackson back to college.

"You can see the obvious skill set," said Harbaugh, a former defensive backs coach. "He can move. He's got a knack for playing the ball. We say a lot of times, 'You cover with your feet, and you play the ball with your hands.' You don't cover with your hands. He understands that. ... [He's] super talented, super confident, worked super hard, all A+."

With all the talent comes all the "juice" and "swag," as Chuck Pagano calls it. Remember, this is a cornerback who hit Justin Jefferson with a taste of his own medicine with the "Griddy" dance after breaking up a pass intended for the Vikings star. He's crashed press conferences as a "media member," talked plenty of trash and acclimated to Baltimore in short order.

"It was not much of an adjustment," Alexander told CBS Sports. "I was thrown right in the fire. You gotta adapt in this league.

"[Jackson and I] talked the night before I came here, so he already knew I was coming. He was like, 'Hey man, it's time to do it.' He said 'It's time to win us one,' so I said 'OK.'"

It's rubbing off on his teammates.

"Jaire, he brings a different type of energy," Starks said. "He really does. Since he got here, the room has changed. It's changed for the better. We're all kind of feeding off that energy and all kind of going with it as well."

The less-known but just as important name is Chidobe Awuzie, a longtime solid cornerback with the Cowboys and Bengals, who, like Alexander, has struggled with injuries recently. Awuzie has gotten the lion's share of starter reps at the outside cornerback spot opposite Wiggins, and Harbaugh has been impressed by the mental side of things, too.

"I think he's really starting to feel healthy, and, boy, he knows how to play," Harbaugh said. "He's smart. Still learning the ins and outs of the defense, but he's a real quick learner. When you talk to him about it, he picks it up really fast, so very excited about him."

Awuzie calls his mental acuity his "cheat code," the thing that supplemented his natural athleticism going back to Colorado State.

In Baltimore, he's finding a wealth of knowledge alongside so many fellow veterans, players who not only know how to execute, but know how to move forward after a mistake or a big play allowed.

"Sometimes that stuff is built through experience and built through reps on the field, but I feel like there's a mutual respect of what each player has done and [the] blood sweat, and tears that they've put into this game," Awuzie said. "There's like this common understanding of who we are and not really letting the moment before affect us currently."

That was a major issue for Baltimore in the early part of last season. The big plays came in bunches. The Ravens allowed 47 completions of 20+ yards over the first 10 weeks, five more than any other team in the NFL in that span.

After outlasting the Cincinnati Bengals 35-34 in Week 10, Baltimore made a major adjustment. Up until then, first-time defensive coordinator Zach Orr had deployed Hamilton everywhere: as a de-facto linebacker, as a slot corner and as a safety. But starting in Week 11, Hamilton started playing safety more exclusively, and the change in results was drastic.

Hamilton's immense abilities are on display whenever he touches the field. During an early-August practice at M&T Bank Stadium, Jackson appeared to have Charlie Kolar open on what would have been a big gain. Instead, Hamilton reversed direction, twisting, turning, jumping and stretching his hulking frame for an impressive pass breakup.

Hamilton's versatility proved to be a saving grace for Baltimore last year. This year, with improved personnel around Hamilton, Orr has said he believes he can start using Hamilton as a weapon again.

"He's like my big brother," Starks said. "He's just such an awesome guy to learn from, just get to know ball from. He's on a whole different level, he really is. So just to see the way that he moves, the way he goes about his business, it's amazing. And I get to learn from a guy like at such an elite level, and my goal is for me to be playing at his level by the time the season gets here."

And when Hamilton creeps into the box to defend the run or smothers a tight end or glides effortlessly with a wide receiver?

"He's like 6-7, I call him -- his nickname is 6-7," Alexander said. "I call him that all the time, like he's huge, man. And I love that. I love playing with a bigger safety that's going to be able to fill the run fits. Hey man, you fill all the run fits you want, I'm gonna cover. That's what I like."

Orr unleashed a deep Rolodex of defensive alignments last year, shifting formations and player. This year, given health, he has the personnel to match his creativity.

"When you have DBs, when all of them can cover like that, and they cover well, it opens up a lot for us up front," Orr said. "Whether it's bringing pressure, whether they're getting into four-man games, it allows us to do a lot of different things. It's not just man coverage, [it's] zone coverage. Those guys are really versatile players and really smart players. They have ball skills, so you want to switch it up."

The results have been there in practice, and Jackson, while frustrated when he's the victim of an interception, also smiled when discussing the level of competition he's facing. He knows it will make Baltimore better and more dangerous in the long run: Since 2020, Baltimore has forced just one playoff interception; Alexander has three by himself.

"They made practice extremely competitive, man. There's a lot of first-rounders in our secondary. A lot of guys who've been around, besides Malaki, obviously, but those guys are ball hawks, and I see it each and every day."

Baltimore hopes opponents will see it soon enough, too.