Ravens Week 7 Rookie Report: Wiggins has best game to date; Rosengarten bounces back from early lapse

The first-round cornerback had continued to shine while the second-round tackle rebounded from a rough beginning to in his fourth career start.

The Baltimore Ravens were back on the road in Week 7 of the regular season to take on the red-hot Tampa Bay Buccaneers in primetime on Monday Night Football and received contributions from several members of their 2024 rookie class.

On a day when five of the team’s nine draft selections dressed, the top two had profound impacts on the team securing a 41-31 win as they overcame an early deficit to take control of the game.

The only three drafted rookies on the 53-man roster who did not participate were third-round outside linebacker Adisa Isaac, fifth-round running back Rasheen Ali and sixth-round center Nick Samac. Meanwhile, fourth-round wide receiver Devontez Walker made his regular-season debut. Undrafted rookie safety Beau Brade was back to being a healthy scratch while fellow first-year free agent, running back Chris Collier was active for the fourth time this season and first since being signed to the active 53-man roster over the weekend.

Here is how the first-year players fared in their latest taste of regular season NFL action.

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CB Nate Wiggins

Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images

While three-time Pro Bowl veteran Marlon Humphrey made the biggest plays of any member of the Ravens secondary on Monday night, he wasn’t the only one making impressive plays. The first-round rookie played a career-high 67 defensive snaps and had his best game to date from a coverage standpoint, not allowing a single reception on five targets in 50 coverage snaps. He was flagged once for illegal contact but outside of that, he was sticky and tight in coverage without getting too handsy as has been the case at times this season. Wiggins has still yet to allow a touchdown on 129 coverage snaps through his first six career games and is only getting better with each game of experience he gains.

One area of his game where he continues to impress and make plays but still has room to grow when the ball is in the air near his vicinity. Humphrey beat him to the punch on his first interception opportunity, resulting in the two colliding and the veteran getting injured on the big play. On his second, he made a great read by coming off the receiver he was covering to come underneath an underthrown pass from Baker Mayfield but wasn’t able to finish the play while falling to the ground and it bounced off his chest instead.

Even though he missed out on notching his first career interception on two separate occasions in this game, Wiggins still was able to show off his ability to make plays on the ball by breaking up a pair of passes. One came on a slant where he beat the receiver inside to prevent a completion and force a third and long in which a drive-ending sack occurred on the next play. The second came on the Buccaneers’ final drive of the game in one-on-one coverage with fellow rookie Jalen McMillan who nearly beat him earlier in the game for a touchdown. He finished as the Ravens second-highest graded defender according to Pro Football Focus behind only Humphrey with an overall of 78.7.

OT Roger Rosengarten

Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images

In his fourth straight start at right tackle, the second-round lineman continued to stand out more as a run blocker than he did as a pass protector. Rosengarten was credited with giving up the most pressures of all Ravens offensive linemen by PFF for the second week in a row with three and gave up a sack for the second week in a row. His lapse in pass protection came after he got beat inside on a stunt for the first of back-to-back sacks of quarterback Lamar Jackson on the Ravens’ opening drive of the game that resulted in a punt after picking up 25 net yards on their first four plays of the game.

Rosengarten made up for some of his struggles in pass-blocking by showing how much of a road grader he can be in the running game. He made several key blocks to spring Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry for chunk gains as the offense racked up its second-highest yardage total of the season with 508 and outrushed a seventh straight opponent to open the season.

One of his best blocks of the game came on a 10-yard touchdown run by Jackson that was nullified by a phantom holding penalty call on right guard Daniel Faalele. Nevertheless, the fact that Rosengarten put on tape how well he can execute a perfect pin block speaks volumes about his development and improvement in an aspect of his game that was a glaring weakness to some when he was coming out of college.

WR Devontez Walker

Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

With veteran wide receiver and All Pro return specialist Deonte Harty being placed on short-term injured reserve last Friday, the fourth-round wideout was active for the first time this season after being a healthy scratch for the first six games. Walker played exclusively on special teams, recording 11 snaps and making his first career tackle on a solo push out of bounds of Buccaneers’ returner Trey Palmer on the last punt of the game to limit the return to just seven yards.

CB T.J. Tampa

Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

In his fourth straight regular-season appearance, the fourth-round corner played predominantly on special teams but got to get his second taste of defensive action albeit just three snaps in the fourth quarter with victory well in hand. Tampa’s 19 snaps on special team tied for the third-most snaps on the team in that phase of the game.

DB Sanoussi Kane

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The seventh-round safety played exclusively on special teams for the sixth time this season and his 21 snaps in that phase of the game tied veteran inside linebacker Chris Board for the second-most on the team.

RB Chris Collier

Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images

After being signed to the active roster because he was out of practice squad elevations, the undrafted rookie played exclusively special teams. Even though he only saw the field for six snaps, he managed to make a solid contribution as a kick returner with Harty out of commission and Ali inactive due to injury. Collier gave the Ravens offense good field position for the unit’s first possession of the game by fielding the ball at the goal line and ripping off a 35-yard kickoff return.