Ryan Mink

Now that the Ravens' 2025 schedule is out, it's time to make some predictions.

Here are five to get the ball rolling:

The Ravens will take down the Bills and Chiefs.

For Roquan Smith, what immediately popped off the schedule was the Week 1 rematch in Buffalo. After the Bills prevailed in a tightly contested snowy divisional playoff game, Smith said he's hungry to "unleash" his offseason pain.

"That's how you start the season off and that sets the tone for the entire season," Smith said on the NFL Network. "Revenge is best served as a cold dish. It'll be nice to get up there in Buffalo and get a little payback for those guys from the end of the year."

It's the second straight year that the Ravens will open the year against the team that knocked them out of the playoffs the previous season. Last season, the Ravens narrowly lost to the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs to kick off the year.

This season, the Ravens will look to take advantage of warmer conditions in Buffalo. Baltimore beat the Bills last September at M&T Bank Stadium, 35-10.

The Ravens haven't won in Kansas City since their Super Bowl season in 2012. Lamar Jackson is 0-3 at Arrowhead Stadium. The Ravens know that in order to reach their Super Bowl goals, they have to get over the hump against their fellow AFC leaders.

"Knowing that we have everything it takes to be the best team in this NFL and we have to show that game in and game out, and it's going to start up there in Buffalo," Smith said.

Derrick Henry will have a monster December again.

The Ravens are going to have a chilly finish to their regular-season schedule. Their final five games in December-January are in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Green Bay, and Pittsburgh all outdoor and northern venues.

Colder temperatures, and possible snow, often means more running. It's almost poetic that the Ravens signed Derrick Henry to a contract extension the same day this schedule was announced.

Henry was a monster down the stretch last season. In the final three regular-season games, he ran for 447 yards. Then he rolled over the Steelers a second time with 186 yards in the wild-card playoffs.

The Ravens may need another heavy dose of "King Henry" to close out the regular season strong. As cold as it will be for the Ravens, imagine being the opponent trying to tackle Henry in freezing temperatures.

Baltimore's defense will prove a point early in the season.

The Ravens defense stumbled out of the gates last season but finished as the league's best defense down the stretch.

This year's schedule sets up for a particularly challenging start for the Ravens defense. In the first six weeks, the Ravens defense will face Josh Allen, Jared Goff, Patrick Mahomes, C.J. Stroud, and Matthew Stafford (and their many offensive weapons).

As outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy posted, "We are live bullets out the gate this year huh??

Baltimore has upgraded its defense this year, particularly with its top two draft picks of safety Malaki Starks and edge rusher Mike Green. Defensive Coordinator Zach Orr is entering his second year and the team's veteran difference-makers are back.

Orr's unit didn't make a good first impression last season. This year, they'll make a different kind of statement from the start.

The Ravens will win three straight road games.

Baltimore's quirky schedule has three straight road games sandwiched between a pair of three-game homestands.

After a challenging start to the schedule and with a tough finish, the Ravens will need to be road warriors in between. Those road games are in Miami, Minnesota, and Cleveland three teams that went 25-26 last season.

It won't be easy, as the Dolphins still have some of the league's most explosive offensive playmakers when healthy. The Vikings were 14-3 last season. They will have essentially a rookie quarterback in J.J. McCarthy, but U.S. Bank Stadium is one of the NFL's loudest venues. The Browns are always a tough out and beat the Ravens in Cleveland last year.

The Ravens have never won three straight road games in franchise history, but this year's stretch is an opportunity to stack wins.

The AFC North race starts on Thanksgiving and is decided in three weeks.

The Ravens don't face the Bengals or Steelers until Thanksgiving. Then they finish with four games against their AFC North in the final six weeks.

While we'll have a good idea about where teams stand by late November, there's a high likelihood that the AFC North is still anyone's race down the stretch.

The Ravens host the Bengals for what will be a raucous Thanksgiving, then welcome the Steelers to M&T Bank Stadium the following week. Those are back-to-back "defend your turf" games.

Then Baltimore heads to Cincinnati. The Ravens have won the past four meetings between the two squads in high-scoring affairs and could deal the Bengals a fatal blow with a win in their house in mid-December.

No team has ever won the AFC North crown three straight years. The Bengals won in 2021 and 2022. The Ravens won in 2023 and 2024. It will come down to those three weeks (14-16) for the Ravens to make history.