Sometime between September and now, Marlon Humphrey dramatically changed his tune.

Back in Week 2, Humphrey found himself agreeing with John Harbaugh’s assessment, after a letdown in Buffalo, that the team was not “mature” enough to finish with a victory.

“We have to go up there and win the game,” Humphrey said. “Right now, our maturity level, sadly, when we get in those situations, it’s just not enough.”

For some reason, when asked about the team’s maturity this Monday — as the Ravens prepared to return from the bye nursing an abysmal 1-5 record — Humphrey backed away from his previous assertions, claiming he was merely parroting Harbaugh’s words, not offering his own: “I don’t know which one of you just put that out there, but that was not my quote — that was [just] a quote I was putting out there, so I can’t really speak on that.”

You can never really predict what is about to come out of Humphrey’s mouth. If he’s on social media, it might be a flippant take about how Doritos and yogurt go together. If he’s on his podcast, it might be a stream-of-consciousness recap of the college football weekend.

Given the pure volume of his chatter, it makes sense that he might want to distance himself from something he actually said.

But it feels so rare that Humphrey finds a way to say the right thing about his role with the Ravens — even though he is a nine-year veteran who is a returning All-Pro.

When asked what the team needs to do to play more consistent winning football — a pretty standard-fare question — instead of looking around the room, Humphrey turned inward.

“I’ve kind of given up on [trying to figure out] what we need to do,” he said. “I’m putting all that in the coaches’ hands. The coaches give us what we need to do, and we try to go from there. The biggest thing I’m trying to do is just to do my job, do my assignment and kind of do my own independent studies. I’ll take what I have, take what the coaches have, try to go there Sunday, be the best version of myself [and] help the guys in whatever way I can.”

On the one hand, you can understand that the most anyone can do on the field is their job — their “one-eleventh,” as the cliche goes.

On the other, does Humphrey really have nothing to offer any of his teammates, almost all of whom have less experience with the Ravens than he does? Is that something Ray Lewis or Ed Reed, in their heyday, would have said?

In an effort to change the vibe of a bitterly disappointing season, the Ravens are looking for something dramatic this weekend at home against the surging Chicago Bears. Leadership can be subjective and can happen behind closed doors, but there are enough questions about Baltimore’s best players that make you wonder how they are handling this high-stakes moment in the season.

It was reassuring to see some of the players who have made themselves scarce after losses face the music.

Most notably, Zay Flowers — who was nowhere to be found when the locker room opened to media after two fumbles in a 17-3 loss to the Rams — opened his Monday comments with an apology and talking openly about how his desire to “make something happen” in the game led to the fumbling issues: “There isn’t really too much to think about. I’ve just got to hold the ball.”

Roquan Smith, who in many ways was the front-and-center player on defense each of the past two seasons, spoke after recovering from his hamstring injury, but also leaving the locker room quickly after defeat.

“I’ve reiterated to the guys throughout the week and at the back end of last week,” Smith said. “It’s about locking your jaw and having that mindset of, ‘Hey, it’s going to go down by any means, and you have to be there and be willing to put your face in the fan every given play. All that takes is you doing your job to the best of your ability, a hundred miles an hour. When you do that, great things are happening.’”

But given where this team expected to be and where it is now, there might be no locker room in the NFL where talk is more cheap than in Baltimore. And even within that pile of wooden nickels, there is enough doubt among some veterans, like Humphrey, that it’s still not fully known if the Ravens really believe their own words.

While injuries have been Baltimore’s primary antagonist for the last three games or so, there is a recognition among the players that the their current level still isn’t acceptable. For as much heat as the coaching staff is getting — and as much as they may deserve it — more is expected of a team with this much healthy talent, a concept that the Ravens can at least articulate even if they haven’t changed course yet.

“It’s tough when you’re missing your starting quarterback,” Flowers said. “But we’ve still got all our pieces that we [need]. We’ve got everything we need. We’ve just got to put it all together.”

Given the gaps in leadership through the season’s first weeks, it’s worth wondering if the Ravens do indeed have all the pieces for this particular puzzle. The next few games are their opportunity to show that their words have any worth.