Harbaugh Encouraged by Ravens Depth on O-Line
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Ravens coach John Harbaugh got a chance to see the depth of his offensive line in the first preseason game.
He was encouraged by the performance.
With several of the regular starters on the sideline against Tennessee, Baltimore opened the game with left tackle Ja'Wuan James, left guard Tyre Phillips, center Patrick Mekari, right guard Ben Powers and right tackle Daniel Faalele.
This unit did a solid job blocking for the running backs, who ran for a total of 130 yards. The pass blocking was also mostly effective.
Phillips led the team with 67 snaps (93%) and Faalele was second with 63 snaps (86%). James saw his first action at left tackle and had an encouraging performance.
“Well, Faalele, compared to the first week when he got here, just going all the way is amazing," Harbaugh said. "He’s come a long way, and I thought he played well. We’ll see. It was good for Ju’Wuan [James] to get back and play some football. He hadn’t played for quite a while, so he was pretty happy about that."
The offensive line will be drastically different for the regular-season opener Sept. 11 against the Jets. The hope is rookie Tyler Linderbaum will be back from a foot injury and start at center. Kevin Zeitler will be at right guard and there is optimism Ronnie Stanley will return to left tackle.
Phillips has potentially secured the starting role at left guard and second-year player Ben Cleveland appears to be back on track after a disappointing start to training camp where he failed the conditioning test multiple times.
“[They] seemed good," Harbaugh said about Phillips and Cleveland. "The replays that I saw, they look pretty good. Can’t wait to see the tape again, but it seemed like they played well. To see them play the whole game and not get gassed or anything is a good thing too.”
