Justice Hill has been pushed to the background again, even as the Ravens head toward the 2026 NFL regular season with a clear role waiting for him. The 28-year-old missed the second half of the 2025 season with a neck injury, but he is still expected to open the year as Baltimore’s third-down back.
That is the part of Hill’s game that keeps him relevant. Derrick Henry is expected to absorb most of the rushing work, which leaves Hill in the passing-down role that has quietly made him useful since 2023. Over that stretch, he has averaged 4.8 yards per carry and 8.3 yards per reception, a level of efficiency that makes him more than a fallback option.
The reason Hill keeps showing up in this conversation now is simple: the Ravens have changed a lot around him. They rebuilt their interior offensive line, retooled their pass rush and turned over virtually their entire coaching staff, while the new offense has been installed over the past few months. In that kind of turnover, a player who does one job well can disappear from the public debate even if the plan inside the building still points to him.
That is where Declan Doyle’s role matters. Hill is not being projected as a volume runner, and he does not need to be. His value comes from the math of the position: screens, isolation routes against linebackers and the occasional third-down snap are the most direct ways to get him involved, and those touches fit a back who has already shown he can turn limited chances into steady production.
The overlook also says as much about the rest of the roster as it does about Hill. Travis Jones, the Ravens’ second-best defender last year behind Kyle Hamilton, is another player who can get lost when bigger names draw the attention. Jones helped hold the defensive line together whenever he was on the field, played 889 total snaps and carried a 70% defensive snap share, which is the kind of workload that usually gets noticed more than it has.
For Hill, the next test is not whether he can become a featured back. It is whether he can stay healthy enough to keep the third-down job once Week 1 arrives, because that is still where the Ravens seem prepared to use him. If he is on the field in the same role he has filled before, his impact may end up looking ordinary only until the key downs arrive.
