Madubuike and Buchanan Are Back. The Depth Chart Still Has Holes.

Nnamdi Madubuike and Ya-Sin Buchanan have both been cleared for Week 3, which is genuinely good news for a defense that has been thin up front since before the opener. Madubuike's return is the bigger deal — he missed the first two weeks after a recovery from a career-threatening neck injury that had kept him off the field for the better part of a year. Getting him back behind John Jenkins, who is 37 and can't be asked to anchor every snap, was the whole point of the offseason patience.

The problem is that clearing two players doesn't fix what's underneath them. Jenkins remains the starter at 37. Calais Campbell is 40 and listed as the top defensive end. Trey Hendrickson is still questionable. The linebacker situation hasn't changed — Roquan Smith is essentially playing without a credible backup logging real snaps behind him. That's a lot of load-bearing weight on players who are either aging or banged up.

Madubuike's availability matters most as rotation insurance, not as a solution. He hasn't played meaningful football in months and will need snaps to get back to where he was. The Ravens need him to be good eventually; they need him to be available right now. Those are different things, and Week 3 is probably somewhere in between.