John Harbaugh says Ravens’ left guard battle is ‘wide open’

The Baltimore Ravens have a vacancy at the starting left guard position after the team decided to move former left guard Bradley Bozeman to center. There are plenty of solid candidates ready to compete for the job, including Ben Cleveland, Ben Powers, Ben Bredeson and more.

When asked about how he would assess the positional battle that will ensue during training camp at left guard, head coach John Harbaugh said that it’s “wide open”.

“Yes, I would assess it probably as being wide open. All of those guys have played to a very high level so far [with] what we’re in in this phase for what we’re allowed to do. They all look good. Nobody has separated at this point, but you’re not going to separate in something like this. We don’t ask them to separate at this time; training camp is when that will happen. But we’ve got candidates, for sure, and they’re all high-level candidates. So, I’m excited about that and can’t wait to see it play out. I’m sure everybody is kind of … If you like football and you’re a real student of the game, you’ll be watching that left guard battle during training camp.”

Right now, it seems like Cleveland has the lead at the position, but anything can happen once the pads come on and training camp begins. With the amount of talent Baltimore on the offensive line, tough decisions could have to be made by the team come cut day. However for now, the team will sit back and watch how their players perform, and one lineman will have the honor of suiting up as the starting left guard in Week 1 based off of their efforts before the season begins.