2024 Baltimore Beatdown awards: Breakout Player of the Year
The 2024-2025 NFL season is complete, but before the chapter is closed, we want a final look at the joys that came from the Baltimore Ravens’ season.
So, let’s celebrate the successes by handing out our second-annual Baltimore Beatdown Awards. Today, we begin with Breakout Player of the Year.
Beatdown contributors will offer up our nominees, but the winner is ultimately decided by you, the reader, with a poll at each article’s end.
Baltimore Beatdown’s Breakout Player of the Year
Kyle Phoenix: WR Rashod Bateman
There’s a better argument to be made for a couple others, but as someone who argued for Bateman and saw the potential there for years, he’s my pick.
After three struggling seasons with health and not being able to lock in with Lamar Jackson, he flourished with 756 receiving yards and nine touchdown catches on 45 receptions. He went from just over 1,100 career receiving yards to 1,900. He went from four career TD catches to 13.
Count in the fact he stepped up in the playoffs with a touchdown in each playoff game and he was an impact player and a significant breakout player for the Ravens in 2024.
After three stop-and-start seasons hindered by injuries to himself and Lamar Jackson, Rashod Bateman finally put it all together in 2024. His career-highs in receiving yards and touchdowns are clear indicators of a breakout season, but how he went about it was even more impressive.
The former Minnesota Golden Gopher finally had a fully-healthy offseason to hone his chemistry with his quarterback, and their mutual trust consistently showed up on the field. His smooth separation and excellent ball skills allowed him to consistently make plays downfield, resulting in a top-10 finish in yards per reception (16.6) and average depth of target (15.2), per Pro Football Focus. His nose for the end zone resulted in the fifth-most receiving touchdowns (11) and the fifth-highest passer rating when targeted (129.8) across the regular season and the playoffs. For good measure, Bateman also recorded first downs on more than 75% of his targets, partially due to his underrated ability after the catch (10 missed tackles forced).
Sure, the Ravens’ offense schemed up more touches for Jackson, Derrick Henry, and Zay Flowers, but that makes Bateman’s contributions even more impressive. In a pass-first offense, he could easily top 1,000 yards as a top receiving weapon. However, he appeared to fully buy into Todd Monken’s offense, never complaining about his role and always putting in the effort to block downfield. With two years and just under $13 million left on his extension, Bateman has one of the most valuable contracts in the NFL.
Joshua Reed: OLB Odafe Oweh
After hitting the ground running as a rookie with splash plays in clutch moments and finishing the season with five sacks, the 2021 first-rounder lost some of his luster following his second year in which he only recorded three sacks but was still a stout run defender. Oweh was criticized coming out of college for not recording any sacks in his final year at Penn State during a COVID-19 global pandemic-shortened season and just having seven in his entire career despite being an incredibly gifted and twitched-up athlete.In 2024, he not only eclipsed his combined college sack production but nearly did the same of the total from his first three years in the NFL with a career-high 10 which was the second-most on the team and he led the Ravens with a career-high 23 quarterback hits, nearly doubling his totals in both stats from 2023. Oweh made the Ravens look even more brilliant for picking up his fifth-year option last offseason because he would’ve surely been among the top pending free agents this year had they not. There’s a strong possibility that the two sides will try to work out a contract extension in the coming months to both lock him up for the long haul while also lowering his 2025 cap hit of $13.25 million, according to Spotrac, which could help them retain some key pieces on the offensive line such as left tackle Ronnie Stanley or versatile veteran Patrick Mekari.
Zach Canter: S Ar’Darius Washington
Washington has been around in Baltimore for three years before the 2024 season. Despite strong preseason and training camps every year, he unfortunately never got an opportunity to really show out in the regular season, playing in just eight games the previous three seasons. In 2023, Washington won the starting role as the nickel corner only to have an season-ending injury in the second game.
In 2024, Washington once again wasn’t given much of an opportunity to perform in the beginning. But during the massive defensive shift during the week 11 Pittsburgh, Washington became a full time starter and played 100% of the snaps the rest of the season. He helped clean up massive issues on the backend that helped flip the Ravens defense into a top unit in the NFL. He made big hits, multiple fourth down stops, created turnovers, and was a massive presence for the defense.
Washington received national media attention, praise from teammates and coaches, and truly put his name on the map. Expect conversations this offseason about him and Kyle Hamilton being a top safety duo.
Stephen Bopst: OT Roger Rosengarten
There are many candidates who could fit the bill for the breakout player of the year, and while OT Roger Rosengarten was just a rookie, he had his own breakout midway through the 2024 season. Taken towards the end of the second round, there weren’t high hopes for Roger Rosengarten. Rookie offensive linemen very rarely thrive out of the gate, and while Rosengarten had a shaky first few weeks, his play by the end of the year gave us all hope that the Ravens found another cornerstone offensive tackle in the draft. In the Wild Card round against the Steelers, the rookie completely took All-Pro EDGE T.J. Watt out of the game, signifying to the rest of the league that he wasn’t a “nobody” and will be here to stay. If left tackle Ronnie Stanley chooses to go elsewhere in free agency, the Ravens should feel confident sliding Rosengarten over to the left side to be Lamar Jackson’s blindside protector.
