Breaking Down the Ravens 2025 Schedule: Can They Have the Same Success That They Had Last Year?
The 2025 NFL Schedule was released in its entirety to the public on Wednesday, May 14th, with every franchise procuring a creative and clever video filled with easter eggs and digs at other organizations to get fans excited for the upcoming season. The Raiders did a string of small skits showing each opponent in order; the Falcons used a Mario Kart parody, and the Chargers used Minecraft to poke fun at their opponents. The Ravens, on the other hand, released a seven-minute parody video based on the Apple TV+ show “Severance” starring Adam Scott. The Ravens’ video showed a handful of players, coaches, and office members portraying scenes that loosely resemble the TV show, with Baltimore’s Marching Ravens recreating a portion of the marching band scene from the season two finale. As someone who was featured in the video, I believe it is worth a watch, but that is not why you clicked on this article. You came here to read my prediction for the 2025 Ravens and compare it to your prediction that you may or may not have already made.
Some things to note before I dive into a breakdown of the divisional games, home games, and away games are that, based on the 2024 standings, the Ravens have the ninth hardest schedule in the entire NFL, where their opponents’ combined winning percentage was .533. Compared to 2024’s strength of schedule, the Ravens had the second hardest schedule based on 2023 standings, but still finished as the number three seed with a respectable 12-5 record. Looking at the strength of the schedule is misleading at times due to the changes each roster sees with free agency, the draft, and injuries throughout the season. Additionally, the Ravens have four primetime games this year, including the season opener in Buffalo and a home Thanksgiving matchup versus the Bengals. The lack of primetime games is a little surprising in my eyes, as there are eight teams with five primetime games this year, including the Falcons, Chargers, and Dolphins. All three teams had fewer wins than the Ravens and either missed the playoffs entirely or, in the instance of the Chargers, were eliminated in the first round by more than two scores.
Divisional Games
Divisional games are always a coin flip when it comes to the Ravens. The 2024 Ravens split the season series with the Browns and Steelers, losing both away games and winning at home, while sweeping the Bengals in two offensive shootouts. I believe the Ravens can sweep the Browns and Steelers with the uncertainty of who is going to be under center. However, if the Ravens find themselves locked into a playoff spot with no change in seeding possible, the Ravens may rest starters in the Week 18 road match versus the Steelers. The Bengals, on the other hand, will be a problem. The Ravens could sweep again, split the series, or get swept themselves. It will all come down to stopping Joe Burrow’s offense and relying on their offense to put up more points. Predicting a loss in Cincinnati, the ceiling for Baltimore’s divisional matchups this year will be 5-1, since sweeping the entire division has never been done in team history. Their floor will be a modest 3-3, potentially losing both games to the Bengals and the away game in Pittsburgh.
Home Games
The Ravens have nine home games this season, three of them being divisional games. Their last undefeated season at M&T Bank Stadium came in 2011, and the team may need to wait another year before repeating that accomplishment. Outside of the divisional games, the Ravens will host the Lions, Texans, Rams, Bears, Jets, and Patriots. The Ravens dismantled the Lions last time they were in Baltimore, but that Detroit team has grown since then. Under the Monday Night Football lights of Week Three, the Ravens should be able to take them down again, but it won’t be the 38-6 score fans witnessed in 2023.
The Texans and Rams come to town in Weeks Five and Six, respectively. I predict that both of these will be wins for the Ravens, based on their recent history. C.J. Stroud has never thrown a touchdown in the three career games versus the Ravens, including the 2023 playoff blowout and 2024 Christmas Day matchup, where the Texans mustered two points in the entire game. I believe the Rams have some questions to answer about their offense with the departure of Cooper Kupp to Seattle, who torched the Ravens in 2023, but they still have Puka Nacua, Kyren Williams, and Matt Stafford to lead the charge. The Bears, Jets, and Patriots all have semi-competent rosters with playmakers, but the bottom line is Caleb Williams, Justin Fields, and Drake Maye versus the Ravens defense. The ceiling at home is 9-0, assuming they win the divisional games, but I will call their floor at 6-3, losing to the Lions, Rams, and Bengals.
Away Games
The Ravens’ non-divisional away opponents are the Bills, Chiefs, Dolphins, Vikings, and Packers. All five games could be recorded as a loss if business is not properly taken care of. Opening the season on Sunday Night Football in Buffalo, fans may jump to conclusions about the outcome of the rest of the season. The Ravens destroyed the Bills on SNF last year with the help of Derrick Henry’s three-touchdown game, one of which was an 87-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage for the offense. Then, in the divisional round of the playoffs, the Ravens fell short in Buffalo after Mark Andrews dropped a game-tying two-point conversion. Going back to Buffalo against the reigning MVP, the Ravens will have to fight tooth and nail, but I will still count it as a loss.
As for the Chiefs, they always find a way to sneak the win from under the Ravens’ claws. Most recently, the Ravens failed to tie the game after a last-second touchdown was called back because Isaiah Likely’s toe was on the backside of the endzone. The Ravens’ last win against KC came in a 2021 home nailbiter, and the one before that was in 2012. Despite the history of heartbreak versus the Chiefs, Kansas City in 2024 did not look as dominant compared to recent years, leading me to believe the Ravens can come back home with a win, giving them the confidence to beat the Texans, Rams, and Bears at home, separated by a Week Seven bye.
The Dolphins, led by Tua Tagovailoa on Thursday Night Football, will be either a Ravens blowout win or a Ravens loss by 10. Fans will either see Tua throw four touchdowns or four interceptions. In 2022, Tua threw for 469 yards and six touchdowns in a win, but in the 2023 loss, he had a modest 237 yards with two touchdowns and two picks, being outshone by Lamar Jackson’s stellar five-touchdown game, cementing his second MVP. I will give the Ravens the win here, but I would not be surprised if this is one of the two trap games the Ravens find themselves in. The Vikings will be rolling out with J.J. McCarthy under center in 2025 after missing the 2024 season with a knee injury, but essentially coming in as a rookie, the Ravens should be able to eat McCarthy up for lunch.
In Week 17, the Ravens will travel to Green Bay to take on Jordan Love and the Packers. Granted, this is one of the last games of the season, and health issues are inevitable in this sport, so the game-day rosters may be significantly different compared to Week One. Entering Love’s second year with RB Josh Jacobs and selecting a new pass catcher in Matthew Golden in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Packers are building themselves a solid team. The key to winning this game in late December/early January is to pressure Love and prevent Jacobs from breaking any tackles. The Ravens rarely play the Packers, the last matchup being in 2021 with Aaron Rodgers and Tyler Huntley battling for the win. This will be the first time fans get to see Lamar Jackson versus Jordan Love and the second time seeing Derrick Henry versus Josh Jacobs in the regular season. Due to the fact that Love is not Rodgers and Jackson is not Huntley, I am giving the win to the Ravens, although it could be one of those toss-ups where fans just want to watch two good teams who don’t play frequently duke it out. Adding in the divisional games from earlier, I will mark the ceiling for the Ravens away games at 7-2, losing to the Bengals and either the Chiefs or Bills. I will call their floor at 4-4, losing to the Bills, Chiefs, Bengals, Packers, or the Dolphins.
Conclusion
To sum the entire season up, I predict the Ravens have a ceiling of 15-2, claiming the number one seed for the third time in six years, but have a floor of 10-7, still making the playoffs, most likely as a Wild Card team assuming the Bengals have more than 10 wins. At the end of the day, “Any Given Sunday” will always remain true, where easy wins turn into questionable losses and huge underdogs take down a Goliath. The Ravens should not have lost to the Browns or the Raiders last year, but those teams happened to have played better on that specific Sunday afternoon. All my predictions could easily be completely wrong. The Ravens could defeat the Bills, Chiefs, Lions, and Packers, but lose to the Jets, Patriots, and Bears, but that is what makes the NFL so electrifying. I do not doubt the success of the Ravens this year but expect a few curveballs to be thrown to help build the resilience that teams need to make a deep playoff run when it comes to January.
