The Ravens Would Be Fools To Move Vega Ioane From Center Now. Don't Do It

The Ravens need to leave Vega Ioane alone.

He is their starting center. He is their best option.

He needs to be given a real runway now to take to the role after being yanked around so much already. Figure out the guard situation, rotate the guards if you want – the Ravens love that fetish – once Ioane gets a little more cemented at center. But the center position is too important, the issues with the guards are acute enough already, and the last thing I would do is move Ioane now.

He had as much to do with them escaping with a 24-18 win over the lowly Titans at home on Sunday, snapping a four-game losing streak at M&T Bank Stadium, as anyone, on an ugy afternoon where injuries kept mounting including to maestro Lamar Jackson.

Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons led Tennessee with 32 pass rush reps Sunday (seven more than any teammate), he got no free runs at the quarterback; he never even touched either quarterback (Jackson, who left with an ankle injury, or Snoop Huntley). Simmons had no pressures and no QB hits and no hurries. The NFL leader among all defensive tackles in sacks, pressures and tackles for a loss since the start of last season, coming in after collecting 10 tackles and a sack against the Eagles, leading all DTs in tackles and solo tackles, had just two solos on Sunday against that interior OL.

You couldn’t get me to move this kid for some journeyman now. No way.

The Titans started moving Simmons to the edge to hunt more favorable matchups before halftime, and get runs at left tackle Ronnie Stanley coming off a toe injury. They preferred their chances there. I’ve seen enough. Simmons had been held without a pressure in just one of his previous 31 full games since Week 3 of 2024 (it happened one other time in a game he played just 12 snaps).

I’m sold until or unless serious issues arise down the road. They found their guy, finally, after injuries to hope-and-prayer guys Danny Pinter and Jovaughn Gwyn and Ethan Pocic coming off Achilles surgery.

Do The Right Thing

“They found their center,” said one longtime NFL personnel executive who watched the Ravens closely. “At least for this year. You are 100 percent right. Leave him alone, let him keep snapping, he can get that solved for you. They just solved a problem … Don’t move him for the guy on the practice squad (center Andre James), and you could end up creating multiple problems.

“Now you have one problem: isolate the guard issue, and figure out who that guy is. You can experiment there. But a week ago it looked like they had three problems on the line. How they handled Simmons, that’s enough. I’m sold. You can figure the other stuff out. Run outside zone, play around with the run game.

“Center is a super important position for them - they drafted the last one in the first round (Tyler Linderbaum who left for Las Vegas as a free agent). They haven’t liked bigger, physical guys there, which is why they probably didn’t see this kid as a center. But the last thing I’m doing now is creating more uncertainty at center to look at a guy I signed off a practice squad last week because I lost three centers to injury.”

Logic. Sound logic.

Do not overthink this. Don’t get too cute.

Simmons, while Jackson was still at QB, lined up basically over Stanley on his final five pass rush reps of the first half, including the sack where Jackson was injured. The only near pressure Simmons had in that first half came early in the game when he was lined up over right tackle. And it’s not like he was getting double teamed like crazy when he did take reps over the center or guards.

I don’t think anyone could have reasonably expected the interior pass protection to function this well, and far super to anything we’d seen the past two weeks. Titans coach Robert Saleh probably should have blitzed more and brought linebackers to try to pierce the A Gap, but that’s not who he is (he blitzed 23.5% of the time. Tennessee had just seven pressures in the game and a pathetic 20.6% pressure rate.

Ioane was handed two very difficult assignments and where catastrophic issues were occurring in the A gap, now your biggest problem isn’t ever-collapsing pockets threatening your shoulda-been-three-time MVP quarterback in his walk season, it’s a 32-year-old running back looking like a 32-year old RB because the OL can’t open much up.

Okay, keep running pitch plays and get away from the under center runs that are going nowhere and yeah, seven rushing with Derrick Henry up the middle for six totals yards isn't ideal, but having the ability to gut teams downfield with Jackson to Flowers is the greatest super power this team has right now and it's not close. it is the super power.

They drafted Adam Randall to be a “Joker” offensive weapon for them and that running back could help with him eligible to come off IR. Justice Hill can get more carries. The more a five-man unit plays together more chemistry should develop. Going to a fourth center for the fifth game of the season, after a game-and-a-half without exchange issues and without the center flinching and without the A Gap being a mess on dropbacks is more than enough for me.

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