Ravens defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike has waited over seven months for the rematch. It will arrive Sunday, along with the start of another season filled with Super Bowl dreams. Last year, the Ravens’ championship drive ended in Orchard Park, New York, denied by the Buffalo Bills in a divisional-round playoff game. This year, it’ll start there.

“We’re all fired up to get ready to go,” Madubuike said Monday. “It’s like revving a car up. You’re getting the engine going, but it’s not takeoff time yet. So you just have to be patient and just stay revving, stay practicing, stay sharp, and you’re ready to play.”

Some cars handle like a dream. Others turn out to be total lemons. With the Ravens’ season opener at Highmark Stadium just five days away, here are 10 reasons this season could turn into a massive disappointment.

1. The injury bug will bite back.

The Ravens lost a very important player at a very inopportune time last season. Zay Flowers’ knee sprain in Week 18 sidelined the Pro Bowl wide receiver for the Ravens’ two playoff games, an absence that might’ve derailed their Super Bowl push.

Perhaps the Ravens were due a destabilizing departure. For much of last year, injuries were not a drag on their fortunes. According to FTN, they finished with the NFL’s healthiest offense and healthiest defense in 2024. The Ravens had the lowest adjusted games lost — an FTN metric that measures the aggregate impact of a team’s injuries in a given season — since the 2017 Atlanta Falcons. No other team in the NFL was nearly as healthy last season.

A regression to the mean is inevitable. Already, the Ravens have lost safety Ar’Darius Washington to what could be a season-ending Achilles tendon tear and tight end Isaiah Likely to a minor foot fracture that’s threatening his early-season availability.

More injuries are coming. Football is a contact sport, and the Ravens’ season could last 20-plus games. All they can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

2. Their stars probably won’t shine as brightly.

Regression isn’t just a threat to the Ravens’ health. It’s also a threat to some of their top performers.

Quarterback Lamar Jackson had one of the greatest statistical seasons in NFL history last year, finishing with over 5,000 yards of total offense and 45 touchdowns. Can he really approach those levels again in 2025?

Running back Derrick Henry averaged an NFL-best 1.77 rushing yards over expected per carry, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. Can he really sustain that level of efficiency at age 31 after a nearly 400-touch season?

Outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy finished fourth in the NFL with a career-high 12.5 sacks. Can he really spearhead the pass rush at age 34?

The Ravens could make up for their lost production with increased production elsewhere. But the NFL is a star-driven league, and the Ravens will struggle if their stars don’t shine.

3. Their schedule could leave them at a disadvantage.

The Ravens’ schedule doesn’t project to be the NFL’s most grueling this season. But it does look harder than that of their closest competition in the AFC, and that could be the difference between getting the conference’s No. 1 seed and a road game in the divisional round.

The Ravens have four games against projected division winners — the Bills (road), Kansas City Chiefs (road), Houston Texans (home) and Green Bay Packers (road) — plus games against the Detroit Lions (home) and Minnesota Vikings (road), who combined to lose just five games last season. The Los Angeles Rams (home) and Pittsburgh Steelers both won double-digit games last season as well.

The Chiefs also have four games against projected division winners — the Philadelphia Eagles, Ravens, Bills and Texans — but only the matchup against Buffalo is outside Kansas City. The Chiefs get the Washington Commanders at Arrowhead Stadium, too, and their road slate outside of AFC West play is far from rigorous.

Buffalo, meanwhile, should benefit from six games against the AFC East and three games against the NFC South. Sharp Football Analysis ranked the Bills’ schedule ranks fifth-easiest, while ESPN’s Football Power Index ranked it seventh-easiest. The difficulty of both the Ravens’ and Chiefs’ schedules is considered above average.

Considering the AFC North’s daunting history — no team has won the division three years in a row since the division was created in 2002 — the Ravens’ bid for another division title, much less a Super Bowl, could be harder than expected. The Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns and Steelers are almost never pushovers in divisional games.

4. They get in their own way at times.

In a three-week span last season, the Ravens overcame a 10-0 hole to score 34 straight points in a prime-time road win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, allowed 334 passing yards to backup quarterback Jameis Winston in a dispiriting road loss to the woebegone Cleveland Browns, then torched the Denver Broncos’ elite defense in a blowout home victory.

The Ravens’ highs last season were almost untouchable. But their lows could be just as pronounced. According to FTN, they finished No. 23 in the NFL in variance, meaning they were among the league’s 10-least-consistent teams. In 2023, when the Ravens entered the playoffs as the AFC’s best team, they ranked No. 32 in variance.

In the push for playoff seeding, consistency matters. Blowout wins count just as much as narrow wins do in the standings, and they do little to numb the sting of bad losses. Had the Ravens taken care of the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 2 or the Browns in Week 8 or the Steelers in Week 11 last season, they could’ve enjoyed home-field advantage in a potential divisional-round game against the Bills. Instead, they had to head to upstate New York.

Can the Ravens manage a steadier ship in 2025? Coach John Harbaugh sure is hoping so.

5. Their depth at key positions is worrisome.

It’s impossible to build a perfect roster in the NFL. Every team is just a few injuries away from dysfunction.

The Ravens have impressive depth, but not at all the most important positions. On offense, quarterback Cooper Rush had a bumpy camp and preseason, and the athletic drop-off from Jackson to his 31-year-old backup is substantial. At tackle, how much confidence would the Ravens have in Joe Noteboom if left tackle Ronnie Stanley gets hurt again? Noteboom had an uneven preseason and has a track record of injuries himself. Fifth-round pick Carson Vinson likely needs another year of development before he’s ready for regular action, and injured third-round pick Emery Jones Jr. has yet to practice.

On defense, the Ravens are banking on inside linebacker Trenton Simpson’s continued development next to Roquan Smith, whose struggles in coverage early last season were notable. Their other options are young and inexperienced. Teddye Buchanan and Jay Higgins IV are rookies. Jake Hummel has played just 117 defensive snaps in his career. Even the Ravens’ depth in the secondary could fade quickly if injury-prone cornerbacks Jaire Alexander and Chidobe Awuzie get banged up.

6. They have a lot of mouths to feed on offense.

The Ravens’ most consequential contract situation is Jackson’s. He’s due an extension that will likely make him the NFL’s highest-paid player and keep his salary cap hit from jumping to an unwieldy $74.5 million in 2026.

But the Ravens’ most interesting contract situation? Well, look at all the mouths Jackson has to feed.

Tight end Mark Andrews is in the last year of his contract. So is Isaiah Likely. And Charlie Kolar. And fullback Patrick Ricard. Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is on a one-year prove-it deal. So is Tylan Wallace. Zay Flowers will be eligible for a contract extension after this season. Running back Derrick Henry’s new contract won’t diminish his appetite for meaningful snaps. Neither will wide receiver Rashod Bateman’s own offseason extension.

Jackson’s greatest challenge this season might not be external but, rather, internal. How do you keep up the spirits of so many teammates with so much to prove, even when their playing time is slashed and their production is limited? Wins help, but so do touches. Even the NFL’s most humble superstars have egos that require maintenance.

7. Relying on a rookie kicker is risky business.

Justin Tucker did not leave a high bar for Tyler Loop to clear. The Ravens’ longtime kicker went 22-of-30 (73.3%) on field goals in his final season in Baltimore. He also missed two extra points, tying a career high.

But the Ravens can’t settle for mediocrity, either. And Loop’s impressive training camp and preseason success won’t mean much if the sixth-round pick’s accuracy dips in the regular season.

Rookie kickers are always a risky proposition. Last year, the NFL’s 21 most accurate qualifying kickers all made at least 85% of their field goals. Over the past five years, just nine of the 22 rookie kickers who attempted at least 10 field goals in a season have finished above that threshold.

Loop has impressed coaches with his attention to detail and natural leg talent. But can he handle the pressure of nailing a fourth-quarter game-winner? Can he account for the swirling winds in Pittsburgh? Can he be automatic on extra points?

Tucker, for years, made it look easy. It’s not.

8. Their special teams could struggle again.

The Ravens’ special teams problems last season went beyond Tucker. They finished 23rd in overall efficiency, according to FTN, by far the team’s worst ranking since 2011. None of the units graded out as elite.

And now coordinator Chris Horton will have to rely on a remade, inexperienced core. Loop is a rookie. So is punt returner LaJohntay Wester. Rasheen Ali and Keaton Mitchell have a combined nine career kickoff returns.

The Ravens need stability elsewhere across their five units, too. Linebackers Chris Board, Malik Harrison and Kristian Welch and safety Beau Brade were four of the team’s 10 most active special teams contributors last season, accounting for over 1,100 combined snaps. Board, Harrison and Welch left in the offseason, and Brade joined the New York Giants after the Ravens waived him last week. Punter Jordan Stout had an encouraging preseason, but he’s been inconsistent over his three seasons.

Under Harbaugh, special teams excellence has long been the expectation in Baltimore. But this could be a year of growing pains.

9. Their playoff reputations are well earned.

At what point does a narrative become self-fulfilling? Every year looks like the year the Ravens will finally banish their playoff demons. Every year, the demons find their way back to the sideline.

Even the Ravens’ improvements are conditional. Yeah, Jackson has improved as a passer and steward of the offense … but he was still responsible for two crucial turnovers in the January loss to the Bills. Yeah, the running game averaged nearly 6 yards a carry against Buffalo … but Henry struggled to get much going in the first half, and the Ravens had to settle for a gimme field goal after a drive stalled near the goal line. Yeah, the defense held the Bills to 273 yards of total offense in 2024 and the Chiefs to 319 yards in the 2023 AFC championship game ... but it didn’t force a turnover in either playoff loss.

With every disappointment, the Ravens’ postseason history gets a little harder to process — for fans and media, of course, but for players and coaches as well. And with the caliber of teams that await in the playoffs, the Ravens can’t be their own worst enemy. Too often, they have been.

10. History is not their friend.

The Ravens should rightly be considered Super Bowl contenders. But there’s no historical precedent for the Jackson-Harbaugh partnership breaking through in their eighth year together.

One of the quirks of NFL history is that every Super Bowl-winning coach and starting quarterback have gotten a ring within their first five years together. In Baltimore, Trent Dilfer and Brian Billick won in Year 1 (2000), while Joe Flacco and Harbaugh won in Year 5 (2012). The Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid got there in Year 3 (2019). The Eagles’ Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni lifted the Lombardi Trophy in Year 4 (2024). Tom Brady and Bill Belichick piled up Super Bowl titles deep into their 20-year reign, but their first came in Brady’s first year as a starter with the New England Patriots.

The so-called five-year rule isn’t a prescription for change. Until two years ago, no quarterback had won a Super Bowl with a salary cap hit higher than Steve Young’s in 1994 (13.1%), the league’s first year with the cap. Then Mahomes and Kansas City won their third title together, beating Philadelphia in Super Bowl LVII, and nearly their fourth a year later.

It’s not just Jackson and Harbaugh looking to buck historical trends, either. The Bills’ Josh Allen and Sean McDermott are also in their eighth year together. The Bengals’ Joe Burrow and Zac Taylor got close, but they’re without a ring entering Year 6.

With the Eagles poised to maintain their NFC supremacy, and the Chiefs almost always in the way in the AFC, a breakthrough won’t be easy. But then, winning a Super Bowl is never easy.