Ravens are going young on the offensive line at the right time

The team couldn’t have asked for a better offseason to undergo their latest rebuild in the trenches.

About every four years since John Harbaugh was hired as the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens in 2008, the team’s starting offensive line has had to undergo a rebuild of sorts. In the past, it has been a result of a combination of factors such as age, attrition in the form of injuries, or financial constraints that inevitably arise once their franchise quarterback is on a second contract.

That time is officially here once again after the team opted to let both right guard Kevin Zeitler and left guard John Simpson walk in free agency and traded right tackle Morgan Moses, creating three vacancies on their starting line.

“The offensive line is where it starts,” Harbaugh said 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 to be done in there.”

While a growing contingent of national media and the Ravens’ own fan base are beginning to question the logic behind tearing down a unit that helped the team make it to the AFC Championship Game for the first time in over a decade, now is not time to worry or hit the panic button.

General Manager Eric DeCosta faced similar criticism last offseason when it came to his lack of notable moves to improve the team’s pass rush and the Ravens ended up leading the league in sacks, including a combined 18.5 sacks from a pair of 10-year veterans that weren’t signed until August and September. He and the rest of the team’s brain trust couldn’t have asked for more favorable circumstances to get younger and inexpensive on the offensive line.

Given the amount of young talent they’ve accumulated in recent years through the last three drafts and the wealth of promising prospects slated to be available throughout what is believed to be the deepest offensive line draft in years, the Ravens rebuild could be a smashing success in short order.

The top in-house candidate to replace Zeitler, who made his first career Pro Bowl in 2023, is right guard Ben Cleveland, a third-round pick in 2021. He could be in line to be another mid-to-late-round offensive linemen the Ravens draft, develop and break out in the final year of their rookie deal.

That list includes Ben Powers (fourth-round pick; 2019), Bradley Bozeman (sixth-round pick; 2018), Ryan Jensen (sixth-round pick; 2013) and Rick Wagner (fifth-round pick; 2013).

The top in-house candidate to replace Moses in the starting lineup is Daniel Faalele, who was a fourth-round pick in 2022 and has been getting groomed as his eventual replacement for the past two years. Coming into the league, the 6-foot-8 and 300-pound mountain of a man was viewed as a potential steal as many pundits had projected Faalele to go as high as the first round and viewed as a Day 2 lock. The reason he slipped down to the top of the fourth was due in large part to how raw he was given that he had not picked up the game until later in high school. Over the past two seasons, Faalele has only started one game, which came at left tackle in Week 4 of his rookie season, but he got to see some rotational action down the stretch last season while Moses was dealing with injuries.

If the Ravens aren’t confident in Faalele to assume the starting role in year three and he’ll need another year to develop, they still have their ultimate ace in the hole: do-it-all utility lineman Patrick Mekari, who can play all five spots. The five-year veteran served as the team’s swing tackle last year and started seven games between the left and right side as the primary backup to both Stanley and Moses.

The offensive tackle class in this year’s draft is especially deep with starting-caliber offensive tackles in the early rounds that the Ravens could target. Some first-round options include Arizona’s Jordan Morgan and Washington’s Troy Fautanu, who have positional versatility to play guard during the final year of Stanley’s contract, Georgia’s Amarius Mims and BYU’s Kingsley Suamataia, who are two raw but very athletic right and left tackles prospects, and Oklahoma’s Tyler Guyton.

If they wait until Day 2, a prospect such as Washington’s Roger Rosengarten, who has experience playing both left and right tackle at a high level in college, is another alluring option because he could be an immediate replacement for Moses while also being an eventual successor to Stanley.

As far as the left guard vacancy goes, the Ravens have a pair of intriguing in-house options in sixth-round pick Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu and seventh-round pick Andrew Vorhees.

DeCosta expressed his excitement about the opportunity to add Vorhees last year, saying “[Vorhess] will be playing winning football for us in 2024.”

“Andrew is a player who we’ve admired, and the opportunity to trade back in to get him was too appealing,” DeCosta stated after making the pick. “We are getting a tough and physical competitor who is polished and experienced.”

As promising as their in-house guard options are, the Ravens are expected to add another interior offensive lineman in this year’s draft and could do so fairly early. A prospect like Duke’s Graham Barton can play all five spots, though pundits believe he best projects at an interior spot at the next level. Kansas State’s Cooper Beebe is also an option in Round 1, which would provide tough competition for Cleveland to replace Zeitler.

There’s still a solid chance the Ravens could add an experienced veteran option at either guard or tackle between now and the draft, or after signings no longer impact the compensatory pick formula. But now is the perfect time to give the young linemen a chance to earn a starting spot to maximize the return on their rookie contracts. If not, it’s a great year to need reinforcements in the offensive trenches.