His production at Texas A&M and his quickness at 293 pounds screamed “pass rusher.”

Justin Madubuike never felt he got that credit, however, from NFL scouts or coaches. They harped on his lack of bulk, said he needed to fire off the ball faster, questioned his consistency.

For three years with the Ravens, Madubuike tantalized, sprinkling brilliant games amid longer stretches of ordinary ones. NBC’s Peter King famously touted him as a dark horse candidate for Defensive Player of the Year before the 2021 season, jumping the gun but accurately hinting at the excitement Ravens coaches felt when they glimpsed Madubuike at his best.

Consistency? Well, he needed to strive for that.

Madubuike started keeping a journal so he would never lose sight of his goals. Former Ravens teammate Justin Houston connected him with private coach Chuck Smith, known around the league as “Dr. Rush,” in part for his work with Aaron Donald, perhaps the greatest interior pass rusher of all time. Madubuike gobbled up tips from Smith, now the Ravens’ outside linebackers coach.

He feels all that toil is finally paying off.

“I think it’s night and day,” he said, looking back on the player the Ravens drafted in the third round in 2020. “I think that was one of the red flags on me coming out of college, that I couldn’t rush the passer. I knew I could. I just needed to get tuned up on it, and I feel that I put in the work.”

Madubuike, 25, is tied for ninth in the league with 5 1/2 sacks, and all the players above him are either defensive ends or outside linebackers. Among defensive tackles, he shares the sack lead with All-Pro Chris Jones of the Kansas City Chiefs. His 2023 season isn’t one great game surrounded by a bunch of less notable efforts. Yes, he had two sacks and four quarterback hits in the Ravens’ victory over the Tennessee Titans in London, but he followed that up with three tackles, two quarterback hits and a sack in their 38-6 demolition of the Detroit Lions. He’s playing a career-high 67% of defensive snaps.

“I think he’s continued to grow ever since he’s been here,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “He’s always had a lot of upside, for sure. You would see the dominant plays here and there. He’s just made more of those. [He’s] more explosive, more consistent with his technique — all those kind of things that you would expect as a player would grow and get better who works as hard as he does consistently. You’d expect his play to be more consistent, and I think that’s what’s happened.”

Teammates and coaches noticed how badly Madubuike wanted to be great. That’s why they’re so happy for him.

“He’s been diligent,” nose tackle Michael Pierce said. “It’s always exciting when you have teammates who get what they’ve been working for. That dude is a physical specimen. I know guys have been saying that in interviews for years, but it’s showing through now.”

Madubuike is a key member of the 2020 draft class that has taken center stage for the Ravens’ top-ranked scoring defense. Linebacker Patrick Queen, second on the team in tackles and sacks, has silenced those who declared him a first-round bust. Linebacker Malik Harrison is a rugged edge setter. Broderick Washington, one of Madubuike’s partners on the interior, has already signed a three-year, $15.25 million extension. Seventh-round pick Geno Stone is leading the league in interceptions.

“It’s flying by,” Madubuike said of their four years together. “Guys like Marshal Yanda would always say that, and you wouldn’t believe them, but it’s crazy. The days are long and the years are short.”

With these performances come financial implications. Madubuike, Queen and Stone are headed for free agency after this season, and all three seem to pump up their value every week. Fans are debating whether the Ravens, without a lot of wiggle room in their projected salary cap for 2024, can afford all three. If not, which young defender should be their top priority?

It’s not a subject Ravens officials are interested in discussing at the moment. “I’m not really thinking about guys’ contracts right now,” Harbaugh said. “[I’m] thinking about the next game.”

Madubuike has said repeatedly that his next contract is a secondary concern during the season. Does he like that fans are making his case for him on social media?

“It’s better than them saying I want him to get cut or he should get out of here,” he said. “But I’m just tuning it all out, trying to put my best foot forward and start the journey over again, over again every single day. That’s the only thing you can do really if you’re wise.”

What he knows for sure is that pass rushers are precious commodities on the open market, and those who menace quarterbacks from interior lanes represent an even rarer subset. Javon Hargrave, coming off an 11-sack season in 2022, signed a four-year, $84 million deal with the San Francisco 49ers.

“I told [Justin] you’ve got to do your best not to worry about it too much,” Pierce said. “I think during the season, especially when you’re having success, it’s easier because you know you’re on the right track. The worry kicks in again after the season. I never had that level of success, so I’m sure he’s sleeping a lot easier than he would be if he were sackless.”

Pierce laughed. As a veteran with 6 1/2 sacks to his name in 78 career games, he knows how difficult it is for trench warriors such as Madubuike to produce as pass rushers.

“You have to have some God-given ability,” he said. “The three-techniques that come to mind who’ve had that type of production, it’s Aaron Donald and maybe a few other people. [Justin has] been working on this for years, so to see it come to fruition, that’s big-time.”

Defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald agreed, saying Madubuike is a classic case of “someone says you’re an overnight success when it’s really like 10 years of hard work.”

His inside pressure is a “huge” part of Macdonald’s scheme. “There’s more gaps than there are rushers a majority of the time, so interior rush is going to be very important to push the pocket,” Macdonald said. “I’d be remiss not to mention guys like Michael Pierce and [Broderick] and Travis Jones. A lot of times those guys are taking the double teams and pushing the pocket, which allows other guys to have single blocks. That’s what makes the whole thing go.”

Madubuike seems disinclined to talk about the future in part because he’s having so much fun now as one of the interlocking parts in a defensive machine that’s functioning spectacularly. Sometimes, it’s Queen stunting and opening a lane for Madubuike to roar through. Sometimes, it’s Madubuike tying up a blocker or dropping into coverage so a defensive back can fire at the quarterback from an unexpected angle.

“He just truly cares about the team, what it takes to get the win,” linebacker Roquan Smith said. “Whether that’s him making the play or him setting up the play for someone else. I’ve got a lot of respect for him.”

The Ravens lead the league with 29 sacks in part because offensive coordinators have little idea where to look for the next pressure.

“Sometimes, it clears things up for me. Sometimes, I have to be the selfless one,” Madubuike said. “It’s give or take. The main objective is to make the quarterback uncomfortable. I would just say we’re all on the same page.”

Chuck Smith, who’s still helping Madubuike refine his technique, said before the season that fans would be able to identify a signature move for each Ravens pass rusher.

Does the team’s sack leader believe he has one?

“I think I have the whole bag,” he said, grinning. “And I’m getting better.”

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NEW YORK — He’s Puerto Rican, culturally Christian, a member of the Progressive Caucus, and — until this term — barely had a Jewish constituency to speak of.

But Rep. Ritchie Torres can say it: “There are few people in American politics who have been as visibly and vocally supportive of Israel as I’ve been.”

Dozens of progressive activists protested outside Torres’ district office for a “Bronx Solidarity with Palestine” rally Tuesday, accusing the Democrat of focusing too much on Israel, and not on his district, the poorest in the country.

Torres has promulgated “hate-rhetoric” against constituents critical of Israel, a spokesperson for Bronx Anti-War Coalition said in a statement to POLITICO. He has “long chosen to be a notably visible spokesperson for defending Israeli ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people.”

At the same time, hundreds of Torres’ Jewish constituents — many of them students from the Modern Orthodox SAR Academy, told to come after school — attended a counter-rally in Riverdale, in the Bronx, on the other side of the district, praising Torres for his support.

“We have to stand with our Congressman Ritchie Torres as he fights for us and fights for Israel and fights against antisemitism,” Assemblymember Jeff Dinowitz, who’s Jewish, said at the rally.

Torres was ardently defending Israel well before he ran for Congress, but now in office, donors have appreciated the support. Despite running uncontested, he received more campaign contributions last cycle from pro-Israel sources than any New York member other than House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Torres was in Washington during the Bronx rally, but he’s been everywhere in the news, and particularly on social media sites like X, speaking out for Israel and against its critics since Hamas attacked the country earlier this month.

Torres believes in a two-state solution, but rejects a cease-fire, he said in an interview with POLITICO. “Israel has every right to do to Hamas what the United States did to ISIS and al Qaeda.”

The interview is edited for length and clarity.

Jeff Coltin: You have a notable Jewish population in your district now, since 2023. But your vocal support for Israel preceded that redistricting. How did that become so central to your politics? 

Ritchie Torres: From my first year in the [New York] City Council, I was invited by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York to go on a delegation to Israel [in 2015]. It was the first time I had an opportunity to travel abroad. And my experience in Israel was love at first sight. It was one of the most formative and transformative experiences of my life. I was deeply affected by my experience of Yad Vashem [the Holocaust memorial] and Masada [a kibbutz] and Sderot, which is one of the civilian communities along the Gaza border. And so, my pro-Israel advocacy is based on a decade of engaging deeply with the subject of Israel.

Coltin: Are you personally religious?

Torres: No, my belief in Israel as a Jewish state is based not on religion, but history. There’s a long and ugly history of antisemitism. When you study the history, you begin to see clearly the moral and historical necessity of Israel as a sanctuary for the Jewish people.

Coltin: Have you considered converting to Judaism?

Torres: No. I am a Zionist, but I’m culturally Christian and intend to remain culturally Christian for the foreseeable future. I have no intention of converting to a faith. My Zionism has nothing to do with religion, at all.

Coltin: You’ve gotten a lot of pushback — and you never just take the criticism without responding.

Torres: I’m a fighter from the Bronx. I’m pugnacious. And I will fight for what I believe in, I will fight for what I think is right.

Coltin: You’ve been criticized, especially in the past couple weeks, for focusing too much on Israel in public statements and on Twitter. 

Torres: Anyone who is mistaking Twitter for the real world is living in an echo chamber. The majority of my constituents in the Bronx are not on Twitter. And I can assure you that I am far more ubiquitous in The Bronx Times and on News 12 The Bronx than just about any elected official in the Bronx.

On Oct. 7, (the day Hamas attacked Israel) I was in Puerto Rico. And I was not on vacation, I was receiving a briefing about the state of the energy grid. … I regard it as the worst infrastructure crisis in America.

Coltin: I’ve heard you talk about crime in your district, and the issues of divestment and deprivation. Many progressives apply that same lens to the conflict in Israel and see it as a class-based conflict and find an explanation, or an excuse, for the hatred and the violence. Do you see the same factors at play?

Torres: Imagine a mother whose baby has been butchered to death. I cannot imagine anything more callous and cold hearted and cruel than telling that mother “you had this coming. You and your people brought this terror upon yourself.” For me, this is not about geopolitics. This is not about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is about human decency. It is indecent to blame the victims of terrorism rather than the terrorists themselves.

Coltin: An adviser of yours told me there are people looking to show their appreciation for your support, and that includes campaign donations. How much have you raised since the beginning of the month?

Torres: It’s been an outpouring of phone calls and messages on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook and elsewhere. And the rally was itself an outpouring of support. No comment (on the fundraising).

Coltin: Some pro-Israel groups are supporting a challenge to Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.). Have you had any discussions with them, and would you consider supporting Westchester County Executive George Latimer for that seat?

Torres: I would never weigh in against a colleague unless a colleague weighed in against me. I have a rule of reciprocity. Bowman and I have a good relationship.

Former Ravens wide receiver Anquan Boldin was one of 173 modern-era players nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame last month. Next month, he’ll find out if he made the cut for a second straight year to be one of 25 semifinalists, this time for the Class of 2024.

But Boldin, whose 14-year NFL career included three seasons and a Super Bowl title in Baltimore, insists he doesn’t think about whether he’ll one day have a bust in Canton, Ohio.

“My dad always taught me if you have to tell somebody how good you were, you probably weren’t very good,” he told The Baltimore Sun last week at the Courtyard by Marriott Baltimore Downtown/McHenry Row hotel, where he was on hand to promote Marriott’s Ultimate Baltimore Ravens Fan Room. “For me, I don’t try to state a case. I let my play speak for itself.”

While that play and his toughness were enough to earn three Pro Bowl selections and a championship, whether his career was Hall of Fame worthy will be the subject of debate among the selection committee.

Boldin’s 13,779 career receiving yards rank 14th all-time and are more than Hall of Famers Andre Reed, Steve Largent, Art Monk and Charlie Joiner. His 1,076 catches are ninth in league history.

He was also the fastest player to reach 400 receptions (67 games), 500 receptions (80 games) and 600 receptions (98 games). He set the NFL rookie record with 101 catches and was the league’s Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2003.

Yet there are other factors that will likely keep him out, at least for now.

Only three times did Boldin — who spent his first seven seasons in the league with the Arizona Cardinals and also had stints with the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions — finish in the top 10 in catches and receiving yards in an NFL season. He never led the league in either category, nor was he an All-Pro. Boldin also wasn’t dominant for any length of time, topping 100 catches in two of his first three years but recording fewer than 70 receptions six times.

Still, it’s unlikely the Ravens would have won the Super Bowl during the 2012 season without him.

While Boldin had 65 catches for a team-high 921 yards and four touchdowns during the regular season, his biggest impact came in the playoffs. In four postseason games, he had 22 catches for 380 yards and four touchdowns, two of which came against the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game. In the Super Bowl win over the 49ers, he led the Ravens with six catches for 104 yards and a touchdown.

That 34-31 victory is also why Boldin looks back on his brief time in Baltimore so fondly.

“I look at it as mission accomplished,” he said. “I was brought here to help bring a Super Bowl to the city and was able to do that.

“Although I was only here three years, it felt a lot longer than that because I connected with the community right away, the fan base was great, the organization was second to none. I still keep in touch, not with just players but with people in the facility.”

As for this year’s team, now 5-2 after a blowout victory over the Lions, Boldin thinks they’re still finding their way.

“I don’t think they’ve played their best football yet, especially offensively,” he said. “They’re still trying to find that identity. That happens. You get a new offensive coordinator in, sometimes it takes him a little time to fill out the pieces that he has.

“Switching over to a new coordinator, him trying to make his presence felt here, figuring out the weapons that he has and how to use them, who’s best at what positions and what they can do best, that’s still a process right now. They have the weapons. They’ll figure it out.”

Whether Boldin has enough to make it to the Hall of Fame, time will tell.

“It would mean a lot,” Boldin said of the possibility of being enshrined. “You’re talking about being one of the best to ever do it. If you get that call there’s probably no greater call.

“But it doesn’t cross my mind, not until somebody brings it up. I reached every goal I wanted to in football. For me, the ultimate goal was winning the Super Bowl. If I’m inducted, that’s icing on the cake.”

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In its memorandum of understanding with the Orioles, the state of Maryland has set itself up to receive less revenue from state-owned land near Camden Yards — handing potentially lucrative profits to the team.

Revenue that could reach millions of dollars annually from the development of land and real estate, including the Camden Yards warehouse, would flow to the ballclub. It would come on top of at least $600 million in public money for Oriole Park improvements already approved by the General Assembly, and would be in addition to a further state fund proposed in the memorandum.

“That’s a lot of money,” Kennesaw State University economist J.C. Bradbury said, “and it’s unlikely to pay off to the public.”

In the memorandum announced Sept. 28, the state agreed to lease to the Orioles land near the ballpark for 99 years for annual rent totaling $94 million. But the sticker price is less valuable than it might appear when factors like inflation over nearly a century are considered.

Viewed in present-day dollars, the Orioles will pay the state an average of $129,000 to $208,000 per year for the rights to develop and potentially profit from land surrounding the stadium, according to an analysis from Geoffrey Propheter, a University of Colorado Denver professor who wrote a 2022 book titled “Major League Sports and the Property Tax.”

When compared with alternatives, such as the state itself continuing to rent the warehouse to tenants or selling the land to a developer and returning it to state and city tax rolls, the ground lease yields “a trivial amount of revenue,” Propheter said.

“It’s a pitiful amount of money,” said Dennis Coates, an economist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

The former B&O Railroad warehouse at Camden Yards is the jewel of the ground lease and it, like Oriole Park and M&T Bank Stadium, is owned and rented out by the Maryland Stadium Authority. The warehouse, whose tenants include law, advertising and medical offices, netted $638,000 in profit during the most recent fiscal year, the authority said.

With redevelopment, it could be much more lucrative.

The stadium authority retained Crossroads Consulting and Entreken Associates Inc. in 2019 to provide economic advisory services regarding the historic, 430,000-square-foot building. The consultants’ report, obtained by The Baltimore Sun, said that if the warehouse is converted to a hybrid of retail, hotel, apartment, and/or office space — at a cost ranging between $16 million and $36 million — it could produce net operating income of $4.6 million to $7.1 million annually.

Under the new memorandum, which is nonbinding but which the two parties say is the precursor to a lease, the Orioles, not the state, would be in charge of paying for development and receive potential profits.

“This is essentially gifting the land to the Orioles,” said Bradbury, who often critiques stadium subsidies.

The flip side for the state is that — as part of the still-to-be-reached lease agreement — the Orioles would commit to staying in Baltimore for 30 more years. Plus, the land around Camden Yards, currently largely dormant, would be more effectively used. The stadium authority and Orioles both envision a year-round, entertainment destination with varied attractions that would boost Baltimore’s downtown.

The land has been underutilized for years. Camden Station, which previously hosted the Sports Legends Museum and Geppi’s Entertainment Museum, has not had tenants since 2018. Only about half of the square feet in the neighboring warehouse is used, mostly as office space. That “limits activity to weekday working hours,” the stadium authority said in a statement.

“Private investment coming to the warehouse as well as the vacant Camden Station building and surrounding area will help reinvigorate and re-imagine the space, drawing visitors not just on game days but year-round,” spokesperson Rachelina Bonacci wrote.

Democratic Gov. Wes Moore has championed the memorandum of understanding, saying it will shape “the economic future of the city.”

David Turner, a senior adviser and communications director for Moore, cited the economic impact of entertainment districts around the MLB homes of the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Colorado Rockies and Texas Rangers.

In a statement Thursday, he described the memorandum as a “paradigm shift for the Camden Yards complex” and said the area’s development would result in more foot traffic to the area and tax revenue for the state.

“The new Camden Yards will bring visitors from across and outside the city to spend time downtown, whether there is a game happening or not,” Turner said.

Many economists, however, have argued that subsidizing stadium districts does not benefit the average citizen.

A spokesperson for Orioles CEO and Chairman John Angelos declined to comment, but Angelos has said he hopes to create a “live, work, play” district.

Earlier this year, he and Moore visited the Braves’ suburban stadium and its entertainment district, The Battery, which was developed by commercial real estate company JLL into residential, retail and office spaces, as well as bars and restaurants. In a January letter to Moore, Angelos noted that the Orioles had engaged JLL “to assist in maximizing our creative vision for Oriole Park.”

The Baltimore club would continue a trend of pro teams developing the areas around their stadiums. Asked why it is increasingly common for sports teams to involve themselves in land development, Propheter said: “Why does any business do anything? It’s because they expect a profit.”

The ground lease is one part of the eight-page memorandum of understanding signed by Angelos and stadium authority Chair Craig Thompson.

Jesse Saginor, a professor at University of Maryland’s Real Estate Development Program, said leasing land to pro teams for a low rate is not atypical.

“That discount there is basically a sweetener, ideally so that the team will want to stay,” he said.

The club’s lease for Oriole Park — which binds it to the city and to the state-owned stadium — expires Dec. 31.

Angelos has promised to keep the team in Baltimore and the state committed in April 2022 at least $600 million in improvements to the ballpark to strengthen the prospects of signing the Orioles to a long-term lease. The recent memorandum states that the Orioles would remain in the city for 30 more years.

But fans’ fears about a sale of the Orioles leading to a move were stoked last year when an internecine dispute over the assets of his ailing father spilled into public, revealing acrimonious statements about possible preparations to put the team on the market after Peter Angelos dies.

The memorandum of understanding further details additional financial agreements. The Orioles will pay for operation and maintenance of the ballpark, but will stop paying annual rent. That will ultimately save the state millions of dollars a year and is similar to the arrangement it has with the Ravens for M&T Bank Stadium.

However, the Orioles, in addition to the ground lease, would receive $3.3 million annually for a repair fund that would total $100 million over 30 years. Those are benefits the Ravens do not receive. Because of parity clauses in the teams’ leases, the state might have to provide the equivalent to the NFL team.

The fund would require General Assembly approval and it’s unknown if the legislature would pass such a bill. The legislature isn’t scheduled to meet again until January, but that does not necessarily mean the lease could not be signed before then.

“It is common for contracts to be signed that include terms covering future events, conditions, or approvals,” said Turner, Moore’s communications director.

The memorandum has also been criticized by former stadium authority leaders for giving construction and operating power over the ballpark to the Orioles.

Asked if the Orioles would have the authority to determine how public money is spent, Bonacci, the authority’s spokesperson, said in a statement: “the team is expected to have a larger role in contractor selection and project administration, following models from other stadiums and subject to significant Maryland Stadium Authority controls and approvals.”

Christopher Ryon, a Baltimore-based procurement attorney, noted that the stadium authority has procurement experience, unlike the Orioles, and wondered what procurement guidelines the club would need to follow.

“Those are important details that still need to be worked out between the parties,” Ryon said.

Economists who study stadium subsidies have long warned that publicly funding venues for privately owned sports teams is bad business for taxpayers. Coates, the UMBC professor, criticized the decision-making of the General Assembly and then-Gov. Larry Hogan for approving at least $1.2 billion for the Orioles’ and Ravens’ stadiums in 2022.

On Wednesday, he further decried the recent memorandum for awarding the Orioles additional resources in the form of state land and funds.

“I’d like to see some discussion of what can be done with that money,” he said, “besides it being given to a sports team for their own profit.”

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