I can do my best. Ngata has been playing injured for quite a while now, he's definitely not the dominating force in the middle he usually is. Harbaugh put him at about 80%. However, the Ravens did a solid job stopping the run against Denver, especially in big short yardage situations. Ngata's just not getting the pressure up the middle like he used to.
As for Ray, his arm definitely is not functioning like it should. He racked up a bunch of tackles in the past two games, however, many of them were several yards downfield. Peyton targeted him a bunch in the passing game. He's not very quick in coverage, which is incredibly scary against the Pats, but he still comes up with big plays and knows how to get our defense set.
Suggs still isn't fully healed either. He hasn't been getting much pressure on the quarterback at all. But hopefully after another week, he'll play a little bit better. I would be watching out for Paul Kruger on the other side of the line, who has been getting a lot of pressure the past two weeks, more than I would watch for Suggs.
As for Reed, he's another year older and definitely a little slower. You can say that Peyton never threw the ball deep because he didn't have the arm strength. But you could also argue it was because Ed Reed was playing well on the back end. I've got no real way to tell. Either way, Ed may be slower, but he's still got great instincts and ball skills. To put it simply, I want him back next year, even if we have to pay a little too much.
Finally, since the end of the year, a lot on our team has changed. On defense, Ray was out, and Danelle Ellerbe was also out for a period. Suggs was just coming back from injury, and Ngata was hurting even more than he is now. Furthermore, Chykie Brown and Corey Graham are now playing corner, and they've played pretty darn well so far. On offense, our line has changed dramatically. Oher moved from LT to RT, Mckinnie took his spot at LT and has been playing great there, and Osemele got to move from RT to his natural spot at Guard. Marshall Yanda is also playing again. At the end of the season we had also just switched offensive coordinators, so it probably took a little time to adjust. Hope that helps!
