When the Ravens struggled last week against the Arizona Cardinals’ rushing attack, they were saved several times by second-year safety Kyle Hamilton, who finished the game with 10 tackles, including nine unassisted.

That’s why safeties are important.

They are the last line of defense, and the Ravens haven’t had a quality player at the position since Bernard Pollard in 2012, which is also the last time they won a Super Bowl.

Hamilton isn’t a thumper like Pollard, not yet anyway, but he could become that kind of enforcer. In his second season, the first-round selection out of Notre Dame is fourth on the team in tackles (42) and is tied for third in sacks (three).

And he still might add a little more weight and muscle to that 6-foot-4, 220-pound frame.

Ouch.

“It’s almost like he’s across the board gotten so much better, but I would say — if I was going to pick the number one thing that he’s really improved at — it’s just understanding of the relationships in the back end deep, whether it’s the deep middle or deep half, to the routes, having his vision opened up a little bit and seeing all the different routes that come in that he has to be responsible for,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “He’s really done a good job with that.

“He’s a pretty versatile player. He plays everywhere; he plays both safeties; he plays in the nickel; plays in the dime sometimes; he blitzes, he covers … the wide receivers as well. We’re pretty happy with him, and I think he knows more than anybody and the way he approaches it that he can get better, a lot better even than he is right now.”

The effort has been there. Hamilton doesn’t play with a lot of flash, but he is indeed one of the team’s most versatile defensive players. He can cover a tight end, running back or a wide receiver one-on-one.

He is big and physical enough to play near the line of scrimmage and quick enough to blitz off the corner. In coordinator Mike Macdonald’s scheme, a lot of the players in the secondary become hybrids.

Hamilton might be the most interchangeable of them all.

“Yeah, I think it is difficult in a sense,” Hamilton said of Macdonald’s scheme. “We do so many things and I think that’s what makes us great in terms of coverage and rush. I feel like learning all that can be difficult, but once you get it down, I think it makes us really versatile.”

It helps when you’re as big as Hamilton, who could easily be an outside linebacker. Last year, though, all the assignments and shifting around slowed him down.

When the 2022 season started, he was more of a “box” safety who stayed near the line of scrimmage. By the middle of the season, he was getting more time in the deep third of the field in pass coverage.

When 2023 training camp started, he had a different mindset.

“My goals coming into the season, first off, was just to improve on last year, especially slowing the game down,” he said, “and then being a leader on the field and just talking, communicating.

“As a team, obviously we want to come in, win a Super Bowl every year, so that was also a huge goal of mine. I feel like we have a team that can do it with eight games remaining. I feel like we’re just getting better.”

His improvement from a year ago has been significant. Hamilton made four starts last season and finished with 55 tackles, including two sacks. He knocked down five passes and led the special teams unit with seven tackles.

He has started every game this season and has been dominant at times. In Week 3, a 22-19 overtime loss to the Indianapolis Colts, Hamilton had nine tackles, including three sacks in the first half to tie the NFL record for a defensive back. He also forced a fumble and knocked down a pass.

He was just as dominant in a 31-24 victory over Arizona last Sunday.

“I feel like I’ve missed more tackles than I’ve wanted to,” Hamilton said. “I feel like I could have made more plays on the ball, a couple times I had bad eyes or just being too aggressive and then something hit behind me.”

But yet at the same time …

“I think I’ve played well. I think there’s a lot of things I can improve on,” he said. “I feel like I’m still scratching the surface of what I can do.”

The versatility goes back to his days at Marist School in Atlanta. He played safety and receiver on the football team and also played basketball while being recruited by several small Division I schools such as Princeton, Tulane and Holy Cross.

Notre Dame, though, had a different vision. They wanted the then-6-3, 180-pound athlete as a safety, even though Hamilton said he was a bean pole. He was 5-9 as a freshman but grew to 6-3 as a sophomore.

“I was getting more offers in football,” Hamilton said. “It’s really hard to get basketball offers, just the numbers game. I actually almost committed to Princeton to play football, potentially both at Princeton my sophomore year, but at that point I was 150 pounds and then just kind of hit a growth spurt.

“I didn’t know how good I was at the time, but I started to get more football offers and eventually ended up at Notre Dame.”

The work ethic has been in place since he was in third grade. Hamilton’s father, Derrick, played basketball at Southern Mississippi, was a third-round NBA draft pick of the New Jersey Nets in 1988 and played in several European basketball leagues. Hamilton’s older brother, Tyler, played basketball at Penn and William & Mary.

Derrick Hamilton still trains pro and college basketball players. His son is used to getting up in the morning, shooting the ball and getting in the steam room. He has been doing it since age 5.

“I thought at the time it was the norm, because my dad was training pro guys and saw them doing it. So I was like, ‘OK, I guess this is what basketball players do,” the younger Hamilton said.

Hamilton’s demeanor comes from his mom, Jackie. While in Europe, the Hamiltons lived in Italy, Israel and Russia at various times. Jackie always kept them focused, and the brothers were competitive over GPA, SAT and ACT scores.

Hamilton has the same demeanor on the field. The middle of the Ravens defense is extremely smart with linemen Justin Madubuike and Michael Pierce, linebackers Patrick Queen and Roquan Smith and Hamilton. Seldom is Hamilton out of position, and his intelligence allows him to play almost anywhere on defense.

He will get tested again Sunday. The Seattle Seahawks are ranked No. 16 in total offense, and coach Pete Carroll’s teams have always tried to come out with a power running game.

Seattle has a complementary passing game with veteran quarterback Geno Smith, who has resurrected his career with the Seahawks, and standout wide receivers DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett.

“There are no weeks off in the NFL because all these guys are good, but I think we can definitely have the best defense in the league,” Hamilton said. “I think we have the guys to do it. It’s just down to being consistent, little things, running into the ball, tackling, communication. I feel like doing those at an elite level can separate us.

“As for me, I feel like I have a long way to go in terms of where I feel like I can be. I feel like I’m my biggest critic in that sense and I know that I’ve improved, but I feel like I’ve still got a long way to go.”

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