One Ravens Position Battle That Has Quietly Been Decided Already

The Ravens settled a few major position questions with a single signing.

The biggest questions about a roster considered among the best in football were addressed, and one move very likely put multiple lingering issues to bed. The trickle-down impact seems fairly obvious already now, before training camp has even begun. The position the Ravens were forced to talk about the most between passing on it in the draft and finally doing something about it last week, isn’t really up for debate anymore.

No matter how some still want to frame it.

Ethan Pocic is going to be the Ravens starting center unless he suffers a major setback from his return from Achilles surgery or suffers some other injury. He wasn’t brought in to battle it out with a few journeymen and an un-drafted free agent upstart. He was signed to forge a bond with Lamar Jackson and learn this new offense as quickly as possible as it is being installed by a rookie coordinator in Declan Doyle and help anchor this offensive line.

Make no mistake the interior of the Ravens offensive line was completely overhauled this offseason after a brutal 2025, and Pocic will step in as starting center for departed free agent Tyler Linderbaum and John Simpson will start at guard as a free agent and 14th-overall pick Vega Ioane will start at guard and that’s that.

We didn't spend as much time and energy as we did campaigning for this because he might not be as good as these other guys. It's just the opposite.

Other Ramifications

In fact, I suspect the Pocic signing will also go a long ways to dictating some other roster decisions the Ravens make with their depth on the offensive line. Having a full-time proven center in Pocic lessens the need to perhaps carry as many numbers there from a depth perspective, especially with there being a lack of depth at tackle.

And with Pocic a known commodity, I would suspect that Danny Pinter is in good stead to be the back-up center who can also be the next man up at multiple other positions in a role he is familiar with from Indianapolis and someone like Corey Bullock could end up on the practice squad as he continues to get groomed to perhaps take over a year from now with more development and Pocic clearly a one-year stopgap.

The position is far to important to play around with and it needed tending to in a fairly meaningful way (Sean Payton,, mentor to Doyle, made that pretty clear to us on "The Daily Flock Show") and that’s what happened.

Could Jovaughn Gwyn still make the team? Sure and he has ties to the run game coordinator from Atlanta. But Pinter has played more than he has and this is a team that is in win-now mode. Any pretense about three or four men battling it out for the right to snap balls to Lamar Jackson has been put to bed.

Pocic had multiple options in free agency and the money was always going to be around a max of $5M. This is about opportunity and winning, and playing football as soon as possible, not joining a faux competition.

This one’s settled.

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