Ravens Offensive Line Still Can't Pass Protect: It's Almost As If That's By Design

A year ago, an inept offensive line was so below grade that it sapped any ability quarterback Lamar Jackson had to win in the redzone or downfield or even in short yardage, despite being paired with a first-ballot Hall of Fame running back and a veteran offensive coordinator who helped steer him to his second MVP in 2023 and an even more iconic dual-threat performance in 2024.

It really was that bad.

In response, the Ravens let the best performer on that group by a ridiculous margin – center Tyler Linderbaum – walk in free agency at a time when the unit was even more compromised than ever. The Raiders won a bidding war for his services a year after Ravens left tackle Ronnie Stanley, because of acute injury concerns, had such a tepid free-agent market he re-signed with Baltimore on a team-friendly deal before even really wading into the league year. Hmm.

The right tackle, who was overhyped the way Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta loves to gas kids up to the local and national media, took a major step back in overall play but especially pass protection, and any chance he would eventually replace Stanley on the left side was reasonably rendered moot. The Ravens somehow still came out of the draft (using 11 picks!) lacking a starting center, and a swing tackle who had prior starting experience, and a true understudy to Stanley (they’re pushing 2025 fifth-rounder Carson Vinson as that guy, for now).

They overpaid guard John Simpson to be a just a guy and then signed Ethan Pocic late in the offseason coming off Achilles surgery to start at center and they drafted a guard 14th overall because they lacked the fortitude to move up in the first round and get the future franchise left tackle they coveted (Kadyn Proctor), because the only thing DeCosta loves more than draft picks are comp picks, so those kind of deals are verboten.

Let me give you an early glimpse at how that’s working out: They are allowing a 44% pressure rate, third-worst in the NFL, helping DeCosta blow his 15th double-digit lead since 2019 on Sunday. The league average, by the way is 36%. A year ago the Ravens were third-worst in the NFL allowing a ... wait for ... 42% pressure rate. The interior offensive line is getting pierced with abandon, any sort of twist or stunt gets home and the Saints thoroughly exposed this overwhelmed group by deploying linebackers with abandon in the second half.

Man, it’s almost as if this was by design.

DeCosta Being DeCosta

Could anyone who knows anything about football, and the massive significance that the offensive line wields, be surprised by any of what’s transpired through two weeks? Could you possibly be shocked that Stanley, who thought his career was over years ago, is hurt, and that him going out there Sunday on one foot resulted in Chase Young wrecking the game?

Surprised that Pocic hasn’t seen the field yet (that’s why you draft a starting center in the second round and not reach for Zion Young), and the lack of a steady hand at center immediately blew up in their face?

Anyone amazed that, as great as Vega Ioane will be, that he is struggling mightily in pass protection (near the bottom of NFL in hurries allowed by guard) while having to play with an overwhelmed center in Jovaughn Gwyn who no other NFL team thought was really a regular back-up center? Are you astonished that somehow this ridiculous experiment didn’t quickly take hold? (If Pocic isn’t better than Gwyn to this point, just cut him man and take the loss and try someone else).

Are you dumbfounded that an interior offensive line already as bad as any in the NFL before letting an All-Pro caliber center walk at the same time the Ravens intended to install a new offense with a staff that had never done it before should already be swapping out the center and trying to sign a guy like Cornelius Lucas as suggested months ago?

You mean, it’s not going swimmingly?

Stupefied that a 30-year-old offensive coordinator, Declan Doyle, whose mentor Sean Payton told us badly needed an experienced center to help him get his offense installed, crapped the bed the first time adversity hit? Surprised he defaulted to more passing out of doomed 11 personnel and not leaning into ugly, old-school tackle eligible runs to milk a lead with a fresh Derrick Henry with an OL in despair? You know the way basically every uber-inexperienced offensive coordinator has in the modern history of this league does until they figure it out.

Do we really think the former play caller – Todd Monken, now coach of the Cleveland Browns - got really dumb, all of a sudden in 2025 … or, and I know I’m reaching here, but could it possibly be that DeCosta continues to construct failure offensive lines that undermine the genius of others (especially his QB)? You mean to tell me a team that from 2022-2025 ranks in the bottom 10 in the NFL in cash spend on OL and also hasn’t found any gems late in the draft and has missed badly in the mid rounds might just be as pathetic protecting the generational QB as he is getting himsigned to a contract extension the way his peers do?

No way. I don’t buy it. It’s gotta be Monken’s fault.

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