The Ravens have signed a free agent pass rusher, hired a defensive-minded consultant with a game-day role and benched a highly paid safety. Their defense is still performing among the league’s worst.

Coach John Harbaugh did not sidestep the notion of further changes.

“Depends what kind of changes are available to us,” he said. “We’re going to continue to turn over every stone on defense. … We’ll do whatever we can do.”

Through eight weeks, the Ravens (5-3) have given up the most total air yards on completions (1,177) and are tied for first in passing touchdowns allowed (17). They’ve given up the most completed passes (207) on the most attempts (308) for the most first downs (123).

And they’re 21st in takeaways, all under first-year defensive coordinator Zach Orr.

That’s a pretty stark contrast from a team that only a year ago became the first to lead the NFL in points allowed, sacks and takeaways in a single season. And it’s a poor complement to perhaps the league’s top offense.In their 29-24 loss to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, the Ravens dropped three interceptions, according to Pro Football Focus. Two slipped through Eddie Jackson’s fingers and a third — the most consequential that would have iced a sixth straight Ravens win — pinballed between Kyle Hamilton’s arms and legs before tumbling to the turf.

It was an agonizing end to an otherwise sound day from Hamilton, who starred among a depleted defense against a bottom-of-the-barrel Browns offense.

Hamilton’s drop came just outside the game’s final minute. The next play, Browns receiver Cedric Tillman dusted Jackson and caught a 38-yard pass from Jameis Winston for the eventual game-winning touchdown.

When asked about how his defensive backs can translate catching on the JUGS machine to in-game interceptions, Harbaugh sounded as if he, too, was struggling to come to grips with the glaring issue. “There are probably a lot of factors that are pretty hard to measure on that,” he said, “but we lead the league in drops. It’s no secret.”

According to Fantasy Football analyst Ian Hartitz, there has been only one other instance of an NFL team dropping three potential picks this season. It was Baltimore in Week 4 against the Buffalo Bills. The Ravens defense has eight total drops on the season, while no other team has more than five.

“Man, those are huge opportunities,” Harbaugh said. “That’s low-hanging fruit.”

Baltimore’s secondary was playing without its takeaways leader Marlon Humphrey (knee) and rookie Nate Wiggins, who Harbaugh said did not travel because of an illness. Safety Marcus Williams was benched for Ar’Darius Washington but the veteran coach declined to offer further details.

Tillman’s earlier touchdown — his first of two, part of the best outing of his young career — came on the heels of another Ravens defensive blunder. There was miscommunication at the line of scrimmage that left Odafe Oweh sprinting to the opposite end as Winston snapped the ball.

Tillman caught a quick slant over the middle, shed a Jackson tackle and scurried into the end zone to give Cleveland the lead back late in the third quarter.

“We’ve had a few of those this year,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve got to do a much better job of that. … It’s what defenses face nowadays in the NFL. There’s a lot of moving parts to the offenses and we’re trying to match personnel and match formations. You got to be on point and we’re not on point with that play.”

How and when the Ravens blitz was another point Harbaugh said they’ll take a good long look at. He said he’s been happy with the pass rush — which is top five in the league in sacks with 24. And to the Ravens’ credit, their bottom-10 blitz percentage (18.6%) is somewhat a byproduct of playing a murderer’s row of mobile quarterbacks.

That was not the case Sunday against Winston, who was making his first start since September 2022.

Baltimore also played most of Sunday’s loss without nose tackle Michael Pierce and defensive end Brent Urban. Pierce exited in the first half with a calf injury. Urban suffered a concussion on his lone snap of the day. And Travis Jones played only 15 defensive snaps while still dealing with an ankle injury.