Ravens 2026 IOL Positional Assessment: The One Who Got Away

It came as no surprise to anyone that the Ravens used their first-round selection on an interior offensive lineman.

It’s an acute need – still, right now, even after grabbing Vega Iona with the 14th-overall pick – and it would be even more jarring without that draft investment. Whether or not the Ravens truly rotate middling-to-less-than-middling center options all summer or go out and get the real thing will go a long way to determining how much improved the offensive line is … if it is in fact improved.

As we go through this entire process, position by position, no group appears to be more incomplete than this one. They have a rookie right guard and stopgap left guard and, perhaps, no NFL quality center on the entire roster.

Of course, no one around the league is buying this rotation talk, and they figure general manager Eric DeCosta will get real about the situation soon enough. As longtime NFL GM Marty Hurney told me on “The Daily Flock Show,” time is still on their side – “there’s no need to panic,” he said – but now is not to the time to try to vanity journeyman project at such an important position.

Will they regret not paying what the market bestowed upon former Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum? Time will tell. He’s the caliber of player that shouldn’t have been among their deep free-agent exodus, and yet another recent first-round pick of DeCosta’s who didn’t get a second contract here.

That’s a huge problem, and it would be shocking if history repeated with Ioane walking out the door five years from now.

Key Contracts

Starters:

RG Ioane $15M cash ($4.4M cap): You have to pay prospects in the top half of the first round, but he’s controlled for five years and will be more than worth it. And no one is making any real money on the entire offensive line (he’s the top earned with one tackle on a rookie deal and Ronnie Stanley on a team-friendly deal). The lack of financial investment in the line on the whole is kind of staggering for it being such a need.

C Jovaughn Gywn $1.1M cash ($1.1M cap): A one-year, vet minimum deal for a guy who has snapped the ball even 10 times in a game once in his career. I suspect he goes into camp with the first team given his ties to run game coordinator Dwayne Ledford, but hopefully the experiment doesn’t go too long.

LG John Simpson $12M cash ($5M cap): This is essentially a two-year deal, worth $9M for 2027 ($5.5M of that already guaranteed now). He’s done the job before and is a hardhat veteran presence.

Others To Know

Danny Pinter: No money invested in this contested in the center mix. Was as depth piece for the Colts.

Corey Bullock: Former un-drafted player out of Maryland, whose absence in OTAs and minicamp due to injury did him no favors.

Andrew Vorhees: Was selected in the seventh round and drafted while injured with a projection to being a future starter and something of a steal. That has not turned out to be the case.

Prognosis For 2026 – TBD

It would be impossible for the guard play not to be better than a year ago. Almost impossible. They did not get starting caliber performances and no matter what Linderbaum tried to hold it together, it didn’t work. It could be the opposite this season with both guards being quite good, but issues at center perhaps a significant problem. If they go with one of their in-house options as a starting center they will come to regret it and we suggest will end up cycling through different options throughout the season.

Prognosis Beyond 2026 – Maybe Okay

Ioane will cover a lot of warts. He truly has the power and potential to be a difference maker from a position where that isn’t always possible. We’ve seen some guards around here be leaders and set a physical tone for the entire group before. That’s going to happen again; but one man does not a unit make, and the inability to draft-and-develop at center and guard for years in the draft is a blindspot by DeCosta that doesn’t get enough attention. It used to be an organizational strength.

Projections

There is no greater, more-pressing roster issue with this team right now than the center position. The answer really can’t be what they are selling – or they risk undermining a $350M roster over another $6M-$8M for someone who can do the job. Both guards will suffer if the center doesn’t know what he’s doing and can’t hold up and doesn’t have the confidence of the quarterback. Especially when a new offense is being installed by a coordinator doing it for the first time. We say they break down and sign free agent center Ethan Pocic at some point in camp, probably by the second preseason game.

Ioane will be All-Pro level by the end of the regular season if the center play is remotely competent.

Subscribe On YouTube For The Best Ravens Coverage:

Add us as a preferred source on Google