It’s late July, which in Baltimore means one thing:

Ravens fans are getting ready to get hurt again.

Let’s erect a safe space where we can acknowledge — nay, admit — that nerves are running a good deal higher than excitement for the Ravens, even though this team has the NFL’s best quarterback leading what is probably the NFL’s best roster.

Seeing the Ravens ranked No. 1 by so many football experts doesn’t sow the confidence it ought to. A good chunk of the fan base is biting its nails, nervous to start spotting the cracks in the foundations.

Experience? Check. More weapons in an offense that led the league in defense-adjusted value over average last year? Check. Shoring up depth and talent to improve last year’s leaky secondary? Check. Coaches who have won championships? Check.

Then why doesn’t this feel like a preseason of conquest? Simple. Because we’ve been burned quite a bit already.

Instead of Purple Reign, we’re bracing for Purple Pain.

You can say with a straight face that this should be the best team of the Lamar Jackson era. The lessons of playoff losses past — the Tennessee Titans debacle, the grueling AFC championship loss to Kansas City, last season’s frozen nightmare in Buffalo — should have been learned. On Monday, ESPN ranked the Ravens’ projected starters as the No. 1 group in the NFL — which makes a lot of sense given who is back and who they’ve added (former Pro Bowlers DeAndre Hopkins and Jaire Alexander).

Veterans such as Mark Andrews, Ronnie Stanley and Nnamdi Madubuike seemed quietly assertive that this year is the long-awaited Redemption Season, the one in which a team with dynastic talent can deliver on the promise we’ve known it has had for six years running.

“The sky is the limit on what this team can do,” Stanley said. “We can do everything we want to do and more, and I feel like we are very capable, and we have the people to do it.”

Only … we just won’t know until January.

The Ravens are simply worse at the end of the year, starting with turnovers. Jackson is just 3-5 as a playoff starter, with seven interceptions and seven fumbles in his postseason appearances. Baltimore has given up 15 turnovers in its last six playoff losses dating to 2018, and its opponents have surrendered only two. The most frustrating part is that the regular-season performance seems to have so little correlation with how disappointing these defeats can be.

There’s not another team in the NFL that needs to fast-forward through the regular season more than the Ravens for the fans to feel they know this squad is made of tougher stuff. It might be possible that Baltimore fans get the least enjoyment out of regular-season wins of any winning team, because every moment between now and the playoffs is a tea leaf that we’re constantly trying to use to project if this squad can get back to the Super Bowl.

Every victory will be qualified. Every stumble will be amplified. That’s just how it feels in Baltimore right now.

The Ravens themselves know what it is. After missing out on a Super Bowl ticket in January 2024, the locker room seemed shaken and shocked. This past January in Buffalo, the pain was more visceral — with veterans shouting furious expletives in the wake of a loss to a Bills team that made fewer mistakes but was not necessarily the stronger combatant.

They live with the baggage, trying as they can not to let it drag.

“It just wasn’t our best play, and it wasn’t a good loss to digest in the offseason,” Madubuike said. “We’re definitely hungry this camp to get our juices flowing, get back to playing the type of football that we know we can play.”

Like last season, the Ravens will get a shot at exorcising the last loss early, at least in small measure. Quarterback Josh Allen and the Bills are first up on the schedule.

Andrews, who has every reason to dread a return to Orchard Park after two critical misplays in the playoff game, had a tenacious glint in his eyes when asked about the Sept. 7 rematch.

“It’s going to be a great story,” he said. “I’m excited about that game.”

Andrews’ confidence defies the team’s recent history, but that’s the attitude the Ravens will need to push past the barrier: utter defiance of the past. They’ve learned enough lessons. They’ve taken enough lumps. The clock — and the shrinking space under the salary cap — is against them.

It feels evident that this could be the best roster Jackson ever gets in his prime, and instead of being haunted by the past, the players need to hurtle straight ahead and break through it.

That’s true, too, for fans. Merely waiting for the playoffs is not a healthy way — or a happy way — to experience football. The small, irritating voice of doubt, fueled by playoff memories past, isn’t going to go away before January.

But it doesn’t have to encompass the whole experience.

It may be harder than ever to enjoy the Ravens without a hefty dose of cynicism, but for a roster this strong, it’s worth smoothing over a bit of the scar tissue and trying to start fresh.

The Ravens’ shortcomings in the postseason will always trail behind them.

It’s going to be harder to get back to January if we only keep envisioning them ahead, too.