What To Expect From The Ravens Rookie Draft Class On Offense Heading To Week 1

The Ravens built an offensive roster dependent on a deep rookie class making an impact.

It’s difficult to concoct winning scenarios for rookie play caller Declan Doyle, who just turned 30, without the handful of offensive players selected in the first five rounds in the spring chipping in. And, given the inevitable nature of injuries in this league, and considering that quarterback Lamar Jackson has had multiple season marred by injuries and Mark Andrews has missed a lot of time in recent years and is slowing down and Derrick Henry is 32, where mortal NFL running back careers go to die, and left tackle Ronnie Stanley thought an ankle injury might end his career years ago, and starting center Ethan Pocic just got cleared from Achilles surgery a few weeks ago … and you get the idea.

This group has to be a thing, collectively and individually. In small and nuanced roles for the most part to start, but growing all the time. Even undrafted rookie quarterback Joe Faganano has played himself into being mentioned as valuable depth and the rest of this group are already starting or projected to hold a quasi starting role or the next-man up at a critical position. Based on what we saw from them in the preseason, here’s what we can reasonably ascertain about those top five picks on offense – Vega Ioane, Ja’Kobi Lane, Elijah Sarratt, Matthew Hibner, Josh Cuevas and Adam Randall - ability to be a winning player by Week 1.

Of course, Doyle held a lot back this summer, but with players this raw coming from offense that weren’t under center this much that didn’t have playbooks this deep and verbose, he also had to expose them to quite a bit. Here’s what it all means:

Ioane

The 14th overall pick looks the part of a monster guard who can set a physical tone right away. No one can say he was the story of camp and it’s not like he was putting people on their ass everyday and they held him back in the preseason (31 total snaps), which makes sense. But I don’t love the fact he didn’t play one snap with Pocic in the exhibition games and I expect there to be a learning curve for him and I wonder about the interior offensive line. Some false starts and procedural stuff feels quite inevitable to me for a five-man unit that didn’t get many reps together in any setting, ever.

Lane

The third-round pick was the story of camp to the point where he had his pads off in the second half of the first exhibition, barely played the second preseason game, and sat the third. Rashod Bateman’s legal issues could create a roster issue, they obviously have a plan for this 6-4 target going across the middle and on in cuts and I bet he sees a lot of action in the slot right away. Zay Flowers has been nicked up and Bateman simply isn’t any good no matter how much propaganda this general manager whispers on background to the media, and they desperately needed one of the young pass catchers to truly pop and Lane has.

“Going through his evaluations, what we thought about him continues to show up,” Doyle said late in camp. “He’s got this great catch radius. He’s got great hands. He’s very sticky … The guy I was around that his hands remind me of is Mike Thomas.”

Thomas had 92 catches on 120 targets as a rookie in Sean Payton’s Saints offense in 2016 (Doyle arrived on that staff in 2019). I would not be projecting anything remotely close to that here.

Sarratt

I thought he would be the guy flashing more early on high-percentage throws and high-traffic slot suff. If you had told me Fagnano would be this good, and then showed me his spray charts, I’d have guessed Sarratt was the story of the summer. He has no experience in an under-center setup and it showed. I love a lot about this kid, but as a rule midround receivers need time – especially in Baltimore – so this shouldn’t come as a surprise if he shows up more in the second half of the season.

Hibner

I don’t believe he is anywhere close to truly being a tight end in this offense. I just don’t see it.

He can catch a go route and has straight-line speed, but he’s not super twitchy and he doesn’t have the all-round physical skillet that Cuevas has right now (and trust me that’s very much a work in progress too). He is a big slot receiver who can show up in certain down-and-distances and hopefully can provide an explosive play every few weeks. That’s what GMs and scouts told us right after the draft and that’s what we see.

Cuevas

He looks adept at getting open underneath on the under-center bootleg stuff an has sure hands and isn’t going to run past anyone but could maybe, maybe, hold up a smidge better at the line of scrimmage than some other options. I really wonder if undrafted FB/TE/whatever Lucas Scott sees some role with this team in games that count at some point here.

This roster desperately misses Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar right now and they shoulda signed Darren Waller.

Randall

Got the ball put in his gut more than anyone could have expected, with other backs hurt and than unfortunately missed the second game himself. We got to see him out in space operating much more as the Joker in this offense Friday and he was a bowling ball of energy and ran through some guys and pulled out a stiff-arm (only played one year of RB in college) and racked up 70 scrimmage yards on eight touches and if Fagnano hit him while open a few other times we’re looking at 100 total yards, easy.

“It’s something that (running backs) coach [Eddie] Faulkner has been harping on me about [in] just being able to use that [and] put it in my toolbox. So, it was just good to get that on tape tonight.”

Faulkner gave Randall the thumbs up in pass protection, which is vital, and Minter noted his strong work Friday.

“Man, I really like his versatile skill set,” Minter said, hinting at The Joker role. “He can obviously run the ball, which I think he has improved a lot in, as he really was a one-year running back in college. But he has learned to run behind his pads, he has learned to be a really physical runner, and he also has a really good skill set out of the backfield in the passing game.”

They can fudge the game-day actives and be down a tight end potentially on paper, and look like they have four running backs up, but Randall isn’t really a running back. “I don’t care what they list him as (on the roster),” Payton explained to us on “The Daily Flock Show,” before camp, detailing how Randall’s versatility can potentially help on game day, “He’s a joker.”

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