John Harbaugh confident Ravens internal offensive line options will compete for starting roles

Despite 2024 NFL Draft being loaded with offensive linemen, the Ravens still believe in their in-house candidates.

There is a lot of outside concern as it pertains to the status of the Baltimore Ravens offensive line moving forward after the team moved on from three of their five starters in 2023 this offseason.

Although the focus of their annual pre-draft press conference on Tuesday was centered around how they view the incoming class of rookie linemen, Head Coach John Harbaugh expressed confidence in the talented options already in-house who will be in contention to fill the vacated starting spots.

“It’s going to be competitive. There’s going to be competition for those spots,” Harbaugh said. “We always say ‘who is the best player, it’s the player who plays the best,’ You could’ve been the best player five years ago but you’re not the best player now.”

Harbaugh and the Ravens are firm believers in putting the best starting five regardless of pedigree or previous draft status. Determining who the best are will be evaluated over the course of performance in practice and the most recent game film. While he admitted players who are proven incumbents often don’t have to worry about their job security year in and year out as long as they maintain the same high level of play, the only two players who fit that description in 2024 are Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum and former Pro Bowl left tackle Ronnie Stanley.

“Right now we’re a little more open,” Harbaugh said. “Those guys who you’re talking about are going to be competing with whoever comes in here and we’ll so who does it. But I think those guys are ready to compete and do well.”

The top in-house candidate who will be competing to replace Morgan Moses at right tackle will be 2022 fourth-rounder Daniel Faalele, who rotated with the 10-year veteran down the stretch last season. He only has one career start to his name which came in Week 4 of his rookie season but the 6-foot-8 and 380-pound mountain of a man was always viewed as a bit of a developmental prospect who would need some time to refine his technique given how late he started playing the sport. Faalele could not have asked for a better veteran mentor to sit behind for the first two years of his career than Moses, nor a better teacher than Ravens Offensive Line Coach Joe D’Alessandris.

Heading into the final year of his rookie contract, 2021 third-rounder Ben Cleveland is the top in-house candidate to take over at right guard for 2023 Pro Bowl veteran Kevin Zeitler, who departed in free agency. He has seven career starts under his belt including two last season when he filled in at right guard for the final two games of the regular season and gave up just two pressures and no sacks on 64 pass-blocking snaps according to Pro Football Focus. Cleveland is poised to be the next in a long line of mid-to-late-round offensive linemen who made the most of an opportunity to start in a contract year and went on to sign lucrative second deals in free agency the following offseason.

For the fourth year in a row, the Ravens starting left guard spot is up for grabs and will be one of the top position battles to monitor in training camp and the preseason after 2023 starter, John Simpson, departed in free agency. The team selected a pair of promising prospects with their final two picks in last year’s NFL draft, both of which will be in contention to seize the job this year.

Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu was a 2023 sixth-round pick and was Simpson’s top competition throughout last summer and in the early portion of training camp. He was also viewed as a developmental lineman who could benefit from learning behind a more experienced player rather than establish bad habits by being thrown right into the deep end as a rookie.

The Ravens traded back into the seventh round to take Andrew Vorhees who many pundits believed would’ve been a Day 2 pick last year had he not suffered a torn ACL at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine. He will be about a year and a half removed from the injury by the time training camp starts and has already been cleared to participate in the offseason program.

In the Ravens organization the phrase ‘competition breeds excellence’ is not a cliché, it is how they go about business especially when it comes to roster construction and deciding who lands where on the depth chart. Even if General Manager Eric DeCosta adds as many as three rookie linemen, there is no guarantee any of them will beat out any of the aforementioned youngsters already on the roster for starting spots or versatile veterans Patrick Mekari and Josh Jones for primary backup roles.