After Baltimore Ravens inside linebacker Chris Board flung Giants quarterback Daniel Jones to the ground for a sack last week, he popped to his feet, bounced forward two steps and stood still. Then with his next actions he offered a hint at his personality, at the traits that have defined an improbable rise: He didn’t beat his chest. He never shouted or clapped or unleashed any kind of creative celebration.
Instead, he turned around and jogged back to the defensive huddle.
Board has emerged as a crucial component of the Ravens’ defense in recent weeks after more than two years of thriving on special teams, and he’ll likely play a large role during Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Bengals (4-10-1) that could vault the Ravens (10-5) toward the playoffs. But he remains an unassuming, quiet presence who moves from task to task with a pointed focus.
That’s been the story of Board’s career. He switched high schools after his junior football season in central Florida, and when he transferred, his new coach had never heard his name. Many future NFL players might have already participated in national events at that point in their lives, conducted dozens of interviews and raked in countless letters from colleges.
Not Board. He had to introduce himself to Jimmy Buckridge, the football coach at Timber Creek High School.
“We didn’t know anything about him,” Buckridge said. “We played his old team, and I don’t remember playing against him. So it was a really big surprise.”
Attracting attention has never been Board’s thing, which added to the shock tagged to his two-sack performance in a pivotal game against the Giants on Sunday. An undrafted third-year pro out of North Dakota, Board earned a place on the Ravens’ roster in 2018 by playing time on punt and kickoff teams.
He’s now blossoming into a vital player on defense. Board played at least 23 defensive snaps each of the past four games and shouldered a variety of responsibilities for the Ravens. His former and current coaches say a lack of ego and willingness to tackle any job has played a part in his transformation from an unknown commodity to a valuable contributor.
“Last week, he played defensive tackle for us on third down, when we talk about our position-less football. This week, he might be in the middle of the field playing safety,” Martindale said. “You just don’t know. That’s a credit to him that he’s able to do all of those different things.”
Buckridge learned quickly that Board carried the talents to play all across a defense. Board transferred to Timber Creek midway through his junior year from East River High, where he mostly lined up at tight end.
He liked to hit, though, and he asked Buckridge if he could play safety. Once spring workouts began and Buckridge watched Board run, he decided to grant his new player’s wish. Board had the size of a linebacker but could dart around the field with speed he inherited from his parents, who both ran track at Southeast Missouri State.
Before long, Board was starring on Friday nights as a defensive standout. Buckridge would show his tape to coaches at big college programs who came to recruit, and though they were often impressed, many said Board’s rise came too late. They didn’t have space in their recruiting classes for a senior whom they hadn’t already scouted as a defensive player.
“I’d put Chris in front of them, and they’d be like, ‘Coach, we’re done. We don’t have any spots,’” Buckridge said. “That’s just the way the business works.”
Still, Board kept quiet, kept working out, kept playing. Buckridge said Board maintained a grade point average around 4.0 and had a binder full of sketches with drawings that looked like they belonged to a world-class art student.
“He was a real good artist, just phenomenal drawing skills,” Buckridge said. “It was attention to detail-type stuff. … It kind of plays into his background: real quiet, didn’t say a whole lot.”
Board’s ability to hone in on details helped launch him to success once he found his college fit.
At that time, North Dakota State was building a dynasty in the Division I college football championship subdivision (FCS) and had started to recruit the Orlando and Tampa areas. Board caught the eyes of the Bison staff.
“We were ramping up efforts in Florida,” said Matt Entz, who’s now the head coach at North Dakota State and served as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for most of Board’s college career. “We had seen Chris’ film — he was a tremendous tackler, a physical kid who ran real well and was getting overlooked. So we took a shot.”
After a redshirt season, Board began to make his mark at North Dakota state on special teams, foreshadowing his path to prominence in Baltimore. He made tackles in front of the 20-yard line on the final two kickoffs of a 29-27 win over Illinois State in the 2014 FCS title game, the fourth of NDSU’s five straight championships.
The next year, Board ran into struggles. He had finally earned a place in the starting defense as a safety but endured a few weeks of up-and-down performances. Bison coaches came together and decided to move Board to linebacker.
“It was kind of a tough year for Chris. He got demoted from a starting role out to a backup role,” Entz said. “And, man, when Chris moved to linebacker, he jumped in with both feet — he was in the film room constantly, he was doing all the little things that you need to do to learn to play linebacker.”
Board’s versatility and humility and uncanny ability to focus helped him use the position switch as a springboard rather than hurdle. He became a linchpin of NDSU’s defense, and never asked to stop covering punts or kicks.
“Throughout the entire time, his value to our special teams was a constant,” Entz said. “He never sacrificed his special teams reps. He never wanted to be taken off special teams.”
Former Ravens special teams coach Jerry Rosburg, a NDSU grad himself, helped the team discover Board and sign him as an undrafted free agent in 2018. In Baltimore, Board studied, did whatever coaches needed and made the roster as a rookie, quickly becoming a special teams standout. His rookie season, he played 14 total defensive snaps.
That number rose to 64 in 2019. And he’s been on the field for 251 defensive plays this season, including 128 over the past four weeks, all victories that have moved the Ravens to within one win of securing a playoff berth.
Coach John Harbaugh said Board was “really making a name for himself” after his performance against the Giants.
While Board’s not an every-down defensive player, and his contributions often depend on an opposing offense’s game plan, he’s proven to be an important part of the unit.
“Very rarely do you see the guys who excel on special teams the first couple of years, and grow into that, not become really good defensive players,” Harbaugh said. “Chris Board is becoming a regular in our rotation. He’s making tackles. He’s covering well.”
Entz said North Dakota State has long held a similar philosophy: They can use special teams to identify potential standouts and weed out players who might not cut it as starters.
Even now, three years after his graduation, Entz said his staff mentions Board’s name in meetings and film room sessions while trying to explain that success on special teams can lead to a fruitful career. Buckridge holds Board up as an example, too. He likes to tell his students that Board wasn’t a flashy player or a loud kid or a heavily hyped recruit, but “he just kept working, working, working.”
One more Sunday of work could leave Board holding a major role on a team surging into the playoffs.
“You’re talking about a kid that wasn’t really a starter until his senior year of high school, and now he’s playing in the NFL,” Buckridge said. “It’s amazing.”
Aaron Kasinitz covers the Baltimore Ravens for PennLive and can be reached at akasinitz@pennlive.com or on Twitter @AaronKazreports. Follow PennLive’s Ravens coverage on Facebook and YouTube.
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