If you hadn’t known any better and were closely watching the Baltimore Ravens’ preseason, you would have thought that inside linebacker Trenton Simpson was an undrafted rookie trying to make the team.
There was Simpson still on the field in the fourth quarter of the Ravens’ final preseason game against the Green Bay Packers, a matchup Baltimore lost 30-7. It’s true that the Ravens were running out of inside linebackers at that point of the game and needed a healthy body, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that Baltimore’s defensive staff was committed to getting Simpson as many repetitions as possible this summer.
The second-year player will start Thursday night’s season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs at weak-side linebacker, the position that had been occupied by 2023 Pro Bowl selection Patrick Queen, one of the key performers on last year’s defense. There was little doubt that Simpson would succeed Queen, who signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a free agent. The Ravens didn’t bring in anybody to compete for the starting job with the 2023 third-round pick out of Clemson.
However, they wanted to make sure Simpson was as ready as possible for the opener. He played 143 defensive snaps and 23 special teams snaps during the preseason. And in truth, he wanted it that way.
The latest episode of the Ravens’ produced behind-the-scenes show, “WIRED,” included footage of Simpson’s production meeting with the team’s preseason broadcast crew. In it, Simpson said, “I need the reps. The more you see and the more you practice, you grow every single day. … Every rep I get, especially as a young NFL linebacker, the more comfortable you get and things start to slow down.”
