By now, Nick Samac is used to being judged. A life in football is one of unending evaluation. Before the center arrived in Baltimore last year, he was a four-star prospect in high school, then an All-Big Ten Conference honorable mention at Michigan State, then a Day 3 NFL draft prospect.

Now, every time he walks into the Ravens’ offensive line room, Samac knows where he stands. There, on a TV screen, is a positional leaderboard. Almost everything the Ravens do in practice and in games is assessed and, for the first time, graded for all to see. The more Samac does well, the more points he earns, the higher he climbs.

After the team’s practice at M&T Bank Stadium last week, Samac was asked about coach John Harbaugh’s new system. Three letters were invoked: PFF. At the mention of Pro Football Focus, the analytics company that brought numerical grading to the sport’s fans and headaches to NFL locker rooms, Samac perked up. So did a nearby teammate, guard Andrew Vorhees. Hearing the comparison, he flashed a this-oughta-be-good grin.

“I wouldn’t compare it to PFF,” Samac said. “I think PFF is not completely accurate. I’m not sure if I should say that. I think it’s a lot more detailed. We have position coaches in each category. We have guys that work in the upstairs that play a huge part in this franchise, and the things they can do are amazing. The intelligence that we have upstairs is insane, so they’re looking at everything in detail, so a lot more detailed than PFF. So I’ll take their score over PFF any time.”

Harbaugh expects “perfection,” punter Jordan Stout said, and their daily grades reflect the search for those standards: playmaking, hustle, fundamentals. The stuff that separates a contender from a Super Bowl champion. The stuff that has separated the Ravens from a Super Bowl title.

Before this year, Harbaugh graded every player on every play in games. His offseason expansion has institutionalized the grading system, entrusting position coaches with evaluations and explanations, stoking competition inside units, and highlighting the players and plays that best exemplify the Ravens’ ideals. Around the team’s Owings Mills facility, wide-screen TVs replay “winning” plays from the previous practice. Just like the positional practice grades in every meeting room, they’re unavoidable.

“We’ve always been very intentional about all those types of things that are important,” Harbaugh said Sunday. “You grade a lot of different areas. You grade everything to some degree. You certainly evaluate everything. We’ve always believed that if it’s important, and it matters, especially if it’s the type of thing that’s kind of the dirty work, sort of the blue-collar work, that takes kind of an everyday intentionality, then you should not just talk about it, but you should reward it, emphasize it, grade it, evaluate it and all those kind of things. So guys are thinking about it, and that’s really what we tried to do.”

The Ravens have been one of the NFL’s most talented, most successful teams since quarterback Lamar Jackson arrived in 2018. But they have not always been the most consistent. In winning back-to-back AFC North titles over the past two years, the Ravens went a combined 25-9 — with just five of those losses coming to eventual playoff teams.

According to FTN, which measures the week-to-week statistical variance of teams, the 2023 Ravens entered the playoffs as the NFL’s best team and also its least consistent. The 2024 Ravens were again the NFL’s best regular-season team and also, according to FTN, its 10th least consistent. They got only as far as the AFC championship game and AFC divisional round, respectively, their big goals spoiled by the small things: turnovers, penalties, fundamentals.

“It’s the details that matter,” said tight end Mark Andrews, whose drop in last season’s divisional-round game against the Buffalo Bills all but doomed the Ravens to another playoff exit. “It’s the details that win games.”

“When you go through the things that we’ve gone through, in terms of different games and things like that, they can see when we do those things well, most of the time, the game’s not even close,” Harbaugh said. “When we don’t do those things well — we haven’t been blown out, but we’ve given teams a chance to beat us. So that’s where we want to be intentional and just be at our best in all the little things that matter, as much as we possibly can. I’d like to be the best in the league at turnover margin. I’d like to be the best in the league at [committing the] fewest penalties. I’d like to be the best in the league at running to the ball or tackling or blocking or whatever it might be. Those are the things that are impactful to the game."

And so he incentivized those pursuits. On offense, for instance, linemen are rewarded for clean pre-snap operations, sturdy pass protection, sparking explosive plays and hustling to the ball, among other duties. On defense, linebackers can hit the points jackpot with a turnover that turns into a touchdown.

Takeaways have become a particular emphasis since last season’s crushing end. The Ravens tied for 20th in the NFL in turnovers forced last year (17). In their two playoff games, they came away with none. Over Jackson’s past four postseasons, they have just one takeaway.

“We have to get the football,” cornerback Marlon Humphrey said in June. “I was unaware of how elite that 2000 Ravens defense was, and when I was watching some of those playoff games, you didn’t really need an offense, honestly. They were just making so many plays, turnovers. … I think it’ll ultimately help us be the defense that I feel like Baltimore deserves, so that’s the biggest thing. We have to get that back.”

Players said Harbaugh’s system hasn’t necessarily changed how hard they practice — “You’re expected to be a pro anywhere you go,” new Ravens cornerback Jaire Alexander said — but, rather, where they look for improvement. Tylan Wallace joked that wide receivers coach Greg Lewis, who evaluates not only the unit’s catching and route running but blocking as well, can be a “pretty tough” grader.

But, Wallace added, “That’s what you want it to be.” There is value in the transparency the grades bring to every positional meeting. And there is no avoiding them.

“There’s no gray, there’s no in-between,” Wallace said. “I feel like there’s none of the guessing, like, ‘Oh, what am I doing?’ It’s right there for you, right on the board. You go look at it. And the coaches are transparent, so you can go up there, talk to them. ‘What can I do better on this certain play?’ So I think that’s really the best thing that we can do instead of guessing.”

Now, everyone knows the score. And everyone knows their score. Fullback Patrick Ricard half-bragged early in camp that he was leading the tight end room in points.

Even as the leaderboards change, the driving forces remain the same. The Ravens want their teammates to play well, and they want to play even better themselves. Wallace was eager last week to see fellow wide receiver Keith Kirkwood, a practice squad player for much of last season, rewarded for a stretch of strong practices.

Samac, who’s on the roster bubble after not playing as a rookie, said he was happy to see linemen “thriving.” But he was more interested in measuring himself against what he had done: “It’s me versus me every day.”

The Ravens have gotten in their own way before. The hope in Baltimore is that if their habits can change, the final grades will, too.

“We’re not afraid to look in the mirror, whether it’s good or bad,” cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis said. “And it makes it a competition, because you want to be at the top, and I like to win. I hate to lose. So it’s just a race to the top, always.”