Ronnie Stanley feels better than ever heading into pivotal 2024 season

The former First Team All Pro hasn’t felt this good since injuries began to plague him following his breakout season.

After just four seasons in the league, Baltimore Ravens left tackle Ronnie Stanley established himself as arguably the best blindside blocker in the game. In his breakout season in 2019, the sixth overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft was voted to both his first career Pro Bowl and received First Team All Pro honors.

Through the first six games of the following season, Stanley picked up where he left off and was still ascending which prompted the Ravens to award him with a top-of-the-market extension for five years worth $98.75 million on October 30, 2020. Two days later, on November 1, 2020, he suffered the first in a rash of injury-related setbacks that would hamper his ability to consistently stay on the field and perform at the elite level he had reached.

Throughout the remainder of the season and three following, Stanley would miss 38 of a possible 72 games including the postseason. Last year, he was plagued by a knee sprain which caused him to miss four games and platoon with veteran utility lineman Patrick Mekari down the stretch of the regular season and even in the playoffs.

With his injury woes finally behind him, the eight-year veteran feels better than he ever has up to this point in his career and is as motivated as ever to prove it.

“I feel great,” Stanley said in a press conference on Tuesday. “I feel like I’m as strong and as quick and as athletic as I’ve ever been. So, I’m ready to put that all on the field.”

Not being available for his teammates in the capacity they needed him and not being able to perform at the level he knows he is capable of was “killing” Stanley last season when the Ravens had their best season since 2019.

“It was killing me. We may have been playing well, but it was really killing me on the inside just knowing that I wasn’t playing to my potential,” Stanley said. “That’s something that is harder for me to live with. But, moving on from last year, I feel very good about this upcoming season.”

Unlike some other established veterans on both sides of the ball, Stanley has been present for the entire offseason program including the voluntary Organized Team Activities as well as mandatory minicamp. With so many new pieces vying for starting jobs along the offensive line after the team parted ways with three starters this offseason, establishing chemistry with his new potential line-mates was paramount for him.

“First of all, I think it’s always good to be around the guys and be able to do football things – be able to do drills,” Stanley said. “[There’s] some stuff you really can’t mimic on your own, so it’s good in that case. Also, I just know that we have a lot of new faces, a lot of new guys [that are] going to be part of this team [and] part of this offense. [I] just want to make sure we get our chemistry off on the right start.”

His coaches have been impressed with how Stanley has looked and performed thus far through the offseason program and look forward to finally having a healthy version of him available this upcoming season.

“Ronnie has been doing an excellent job this spring,” Joe D’alessandris said in a Wednesday press conference. “He’s come in here, he’s worked in all the drills – everything that we have to do – and you can see steady progression of his play. If he keeps that up, it’s going to be good for him and for us, both.”

“Ronnie’s doing a good job,” Harbaugh said. “He got in shape, it looks like. He’s ready to go. It’s exciting. I love Ronnie. I love who he is – his personality – but I also love what he’s capable of doing on the football field. If we get Ronnie Stanley out there playing to that level, that would be wonderful.”

Having just turned 30 in March, Stanley is still relatively young at a position where longevity is a common trait among its elite. He agreed to rework his contract this offseason, voiding the final year of his deal, but the Ravens still believe the best version of Stanley is still one of the top left tackles in the league.

“What I see from Ronnie is he’s moving his feet, he’s got a good anchor, and he’ll get into the pads and just work,” Harbaugh said. “He’s just got to get to work and really get everybody ready. He’s the same as everybody else, but obviously, having a talented left tackle playing at a high level will be really good for our football team.”