Baltimore Ravens Have Upgraded Their Offensive Line Room the Most for 2026

It's not often to see a unit that loses its most decorated member still be considered the most improved unit on the team, but that is just how bad the Baltimore Ravens were on the offensive line in 2025, particularly at the two guard spots.

They're going from one of the worst starting tandems in the league with former Day 3 picks Daniel Faalele and Andrew Vorhees to what has the potential to be one of the best with veteran John Simpson and 2026 first-round rookie Olaivavega Ioane. That fact alone makes losing three-time Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum in free agency not nearly as catastrophic as it could've been had they decided to run it back with last year's interior options, who played next to him.

The inconsistent, and too often downright poor, play the Ravens got from their guards last year not only impacted the play of Linderbaum and tackles Ronnie Stanley and Roger Rosengarten, but also led to the offense as a whole short-circuiting and failing to execute in some crucial situations throughout last season.

After fielding one of the best offenses in the league in 2024 that finished first in total yards, rushing yards and redzone touchdown conversion rate, they still managed to finish second in the league in rushing last year but plummeted to the bottom half in the other two metrics, including tying with the New York Giants for the fifth-worst red zone conversion rate.

Two of the main reasons that they regressed so precipitously in the other two were directly tied to their performances at guard in short-yardage and pass protection that caused the offense to stall out in the red zone, prevent the passing game from getting in sync and most importantly, keeping franchise quarterback Lamar Jackson upright.

The quickest way to pressure a quarterback or just blow up an offensive play on any given down is right up the middle with penetration. By overhauling the two most glaring weaknesses on their roster from last year by investing more resources at guard than they have since Marshal Yanda retired, the Ravens raised both the floor and ceiling of their entire offense.

With Simpson and Ioane leading the way as the physical tone setters in the trenches, the offense can get back to dominating at the point of attack in the run game for running back Derrick Henry, and provide consistently clean pockets for Jackson to operate from and step up into.

While he won't be suiting up for the Ravens, one could argue that the hiring of new offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford, who is also their run game coordinator, is just as big an addition to the room as either of the two new guards, if not more.

He is one of the most revered offensive line coaches in the entire league and was one of the first assistant hires that first-year head coach Jesse Minter made, even before he brought on Declan Doyle as the offensive coordinator. His reputation as a teacher, developer of young talent, and guru of the outside zone running scheme makes him a tremendous asset for a Ravens team that will be deploying an entirely new starting interior this year.

Ravens can more than get by without an elite center

When Jackson won the first of his two league MVP awards, and only by a unanimous vote in 2019, the Ravens had a pair of former undrafted free agents snapping him the ball, starting with then-third-year pro Matt Skura for the first 11 games before he suffered a season-ending knee injury, and then he was replaced in the starting lineup by a rookie, Patrick Mekari.

Before the Ravens selected Linderbaum in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft to be the anchor in the middle of their offensive line, the highest-drafted player who made multiple starts at center for the first four years of Jackson's career was 2018 sixth-rounder Bradley Bozeman.

Despite not investing significant or even moderate resources into the position, they were still able to field elite offenses and consistently dominate in the trenches for nearly half a decade. They were able to do so because they had an experienced veteran right guard in three of those four seasons, starting with Yanda in 2018-19 and Pro Bowler Kevin Zeitler in 2021.

As the roster currently stands, barring any trades between now and the start of the 2026 regular season, history is primed to repeat itself.

The top internal candidates in the running to replace Linderbaum are 2024 undrafted free agent Corey Bullock, who is a converted college tackle like Mekari, undrafted rookie Nick Dawkins, who was a natural center coming out of college like Skura and versatile veteran Danny Pinter, who has 10 career starts between guard and center in his six-year career.

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