Nate Wiggins Gets Carted Off and Baltimore's Secondary Has No Answer

The depth chart told you this was coming. Look past the Wiggins injury itself — a lower-body ailment serious enough to require a cart, suffered in 1-on-1 drills on August 11, with coach Jesse Minter offering only "I think there's optimism" as cover — and what you find underneath is a cornerback room that was already operating without a real safety net before the starter went down.

Marlon Humphrey and Chidobe Awuzie handled the CB snaps last season, with Amani Oruwariye a distant third. That's the entire depth chart. Wiggins, a 2024 first-round pick who was penciled in as a starter, was supposed to be the infusion of youth and upside that gave this secondary a future. Instead he's on a cart in August, and Baltimore is suddenly asking Awuzie — who logged 43 tackles in 14 games last season — to be the answer if Wiggins misses meaningful time. The roster analysis had already flagged cornerback as a moderate concern heading into camp, with Humphrey's contract situation adding another layer of uncertainty. None of that math improves with the starter injured.

What makes this particularly uncomfortable is that the secondary vulnerability doesn't exist in isolation. The Ravens' 2025 season collapsed at home — three wins in nine tries at M&T Bank Stadium against five wins in eight road games — and the defensive side of that equation was never fully explained. You don't fix a 30-percentage-point home-away split purely by rebuilding the offensive line, which is where Baltimore spent its offseason capital: the No. 14 pick on guard Vega Ioane, a one-year deal for center Ethan Pocic, a veteran tackle in Kendall Lamm after Hakeem Adeniji retired. Those are real investments. But a defense that can't hold leads at home needs cornerbacks, and the Ravens just watched their most promising one get carted off the practice field.

The broader secondary picture isn't reassuring either. K'Von Wallace is the nominal starter at safety but produced at a fraction of what a starting-caliber safety should last season — the roster analysis rates it as a high-priority hole, with no viable depth behind him. Jaylinn Hawkins, the strong safety, also has no meaningful backup. So the Ravens enter 2026 with a secondary that was thin at corner, thin at safety, and now missing its starting corner to an injury of unknown severity. Jesse Minter's optimism is noted. It is not a depth chart.

Here is what I think the Ravens are betting on: that Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry, protected by an upgraded offensive line, outscore enough of their problems to make the secondary's limitations survivable. Henry ran for 1,595 yards last season; Jackson threw for 21 touchdowns against seven interceptions in 13 games. The offensive ceiling is real. But the Ravens went 8-9 last year with that same offensive core, and the defense didn't hold up its end. Wiggins getting hurt in training camp is not a death sentence — Minter's optimism could prove warranted, and the injury timeline is genuinely unknown. What it is, though, is a flashing warning on a system that was already running low. Baltimore identified the secondary as a need and didn't address it with the same urgency it brought to the offensive line. That choice looks more consequential today than it did a week ago.