If The Ravens Are Trying To Talk Up 3 Centers, It Means They Still Don't Have 1

Centers aren't quite as important as quarterbacks, but the old adage about QBs also holds for them. The Ravens better get one

Nov 17, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Baltimore Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta watches warm ups against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Let me see if I am keeping this straight.

The Ravens groused a bit publicly about their market-shattering contract offer to center Tyler Linderbaum not being enough to keep hm from going to the Raiders.

Yet they did nothing to address the situation whatsoever in even the latter stages of free agency, while a host of other standout Ravens on that side of the ball departed in free agency. Then they utilized all 11 draft picks but invested none on anyone who can snap despite admitting how some several day two centers could have helped them.

Then general manager Eric DeCosta goes on in-house media right after the draft and teases possibilities in trade. And now we’re halfway through the OTA/mini camp portion of the offseason and the Ravens are rotating starting reps between three different options – none actually tenable – by the week, which tells me quite a bit. It’s more revealing than they probably think.

Much like quarterbacks, if you have three centers you have none. And if none of thee candidates has so far given the team the impression that he is worthy of as many of these few practice reps as there are to go around as rookie coordinator Declan Doyle installs his offense, then I don’t care how much their in-house reporters throw around platitudes each week about how good one of them looks without pads, this is a problem.

What Are They Waiting For?

DeCosta talks out of one side of his mouth about how much success the team has had finding centers all over the place, and infer that the position isn’t all that critical. But I’m also old enough to his sounding borderline chafed around the combine that Linderbaum wouldn’t accept all the money they had on the table for a center.

So I’m going to say it again like I said it before, with June now upon us and this being a super imperative position not one that should wait this long to be addressed, let alone later. They don’t have a starting center, they know they don’t have a starting center and they’d better get a starting center. Whatever they think is too much money for a free agent option – our buddy Brian Baldinger made a compelling case for Ethan Pocic on "The Daily Flock."

Lest you forget, we came up with low-level trade options with very limited starting experience – who would have made sense to be here by now, frankly, if you wanted to start getting a feel for if they could be the guy from a mental and physical standpoint. Then we found a third-string center for the Browns who shared a fair bit in common with Linderbaum from a traits standpoint.

Or, maybe, they will be among the teams who go out and snag the 2025 All ACC center who is almost all the way back from a shoulder procedure that led to him going un-drafted.

Honestly, with $350M already invested in this payroll, and the position as critical as this especially when installing a new offense, it seems odd to not have another $6M for a stop-gap starter. It was the biggest obvious need immediately after the draft, and it remains the same now.

Love the signing of Calias Campbell for the defense. But that can’t be the last veteran move they make this offseason. There is too much at stake.