John Harbaugh says rebuilding offensive line will be Ravens top priority

Addressing “question marks” the team has in the trenches will be of the upmost importance for the offense.

Having a strong foundation in the trenches and being stout up front has long been a core belief for the Baltimore Ravens. Without it, fielding a unit that can impose their will on opposing defenses is exceedingly difficult.

Even though their starting blockers dealt with injuries and inconsistency at times during the 2023 season, it remained a strength and that will need to continue if they hope to build upon the success they had in the first year under Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken.

“The offensive line is where it starts,” Head Coach John Harbaugh said Tuesday at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine. “We talked about that in 2008 and that’s been true forever. You win in the trenches first, right. We think that we’re offensive line centric in our philosophy and we’ve got some question marks in our offensive line. There’s going to be some rebuilding that is going to have be done in there.”

The Ravens are slated to have three of their five starters back in 2024 barring the release of one of their two veteran offensive tackles—Ronnie Stanley and Morgan Moses—who were banged up for stretches last year. Meanwhile, both of their starting guards are pending unrestricted free agents in Kevin Zeitler and John Simpson.

Harbaugh went on to say the rebuilding process is “probably going to be the most important thing we do on offense” and that they’re already working on addressing some of those question marks. That likely includes trying to bring back either Zeitler or Simpson as well as evaluating the prospects in the 2024 draft class and the pending unrestricted free agents around the league.

“It’s always going to be a priority; that’s Coach Harbaugh from 2008 on,” General Manager Eric DeCosta said Tuesday. “We have to have a big, strong, imposing offensive line. So, we’ll continue to build that out. Obviously, this year, we’re going to have, probably, some change on the offensive line in different ways. It remains to be seen exactly what that looks like, [but] we will have a plan.”

There are also potential salary cap casualties who wouldn’t count against the compensatory pick formula if signed after they are released. That was the avenue through which they were able to land Zeitler during the 2021 offseason following his release from the New York Giants.

One such player who fits that description this year and is already on the open market after being released by the New York Jets on Monday is nine-year veteran Laken Tomlinson. The 2021 Pro Bowler has started every game he has appeared in since 2017 and has been incredibly durable, playing in every game in each of the last six seasons of his career.

The Ravens also have several in-house options that they’ve drafted in recent years that will be in contention for one or both of the two starting guard spots or perhaps even one of the starting tackle spots that might open up.

Ben Cleveland was a third-round pick in 2021 who has made seven career starts in his first three seasons including the final two of the regular season at right guard in the place of Zeitler. In 64 pass-blocking snaps he only allowed two pressures, didn’t give up a sack, and earned a Pro Football Focus grade of 85.9.

Cleveland has played well when called upon and is the most experienced member of the group of young returners. Many pundits believe he could follow a similar path to Ravens 2019 fourth-rounder Ben Powers who didn’t earn a full-time starting role until the final year of his rookie contract and parlayed a breakout season into a big payday in free agency last offseason.

The Ravens also selected a pair of linemen in the later rounds of last year’s draft, taking Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu out of Oregon in the sixth round at No. 199 overall and trading back into the seventh round to take Andrew Vorhees out of USC at No. 229 overall.

Aumavae-Laulu competed with Simpson for the starting left guard spot last year before essentially redshirting his rookie season as he got developed while still on the 53-man roster. Vorhees suffered a torn ACL at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine and was essentially medically redshirted on the Ravens Non-Football Injury list as a rookie and is expected to be in contention for a starting job at one of the two guard spots in 2024 and beyond.

Harbaugh admitted that he has just started diving into the tape on this year’s crop of offensive line prospects in the draft but has already heard good reviews from DeCosta and trusts his evaluation process.

“The draft can help a lot and certainly with the offensive line,” Harbaugh said. “I just started watching it and so far so good. Eric tells me its a good o-line draft.”

The Ravens have already been projected to take an offensive lineman early in numerous recent mock drafts by some of the top analysts who believe they could emphasize upgrading at guard or finding an eventual success for Stanley who could play guard in the interim.

“Fortunately, this is a deep draft class, as well, so we’ll have a lot of different options in different rounds [and] players that we like at the offensive line position – at tackle and also guard,” DeCosta said. “I think there is a lot of depth along the way, specifically at the tackle position and the guard position, so that’s exciting. It really helps me as we look at what that offensive line is going to look like.”

There’s a chance that the entire interior of the Ravens’ offensive line and perhaps even three-fourths of the starting five could be rebuilt or at least remodeled and feature three or more players with fewer than four years of NFL experience that could include two or more with none.

“We’re going to always have a plan,” DeCosta said. “We’re aware of the injuries and the salary cap, and we’re aware of the talent that we have and the talent that’s available, and we’ll build the best offensive line that we can with the best players that we can.”

Being forced to rely on younger talent more than ever and having hit on draft picks at a higher rate is part of the new reality the team has to get accustomed to now that they’re paying two-time MVP-winning quarterback Lamar Jackson an average of $52 million a year on a near-top-of-the-market deal.

“The roster is always going to morph and change year to year,” DeCosta said. “You’ve got to stay young, but you’ve also got to have [a] great veteran presence, as well, [on] your offensive line and every other position. So, it’s really a balance. You want to be as young as you can, but you also want to have a lot of veteran experience, and I think everybody feels that. So, it’s really a delicate mix, because with a salary cap – with a salary cap league – it makes it hard to keep every single player that you want to keep.