Joe D’Alessandris On the Versatility of The Offensive Line | Baltimore Ravens

today right great weather anything we talked to Ronnie Stanley yesterday and he he tell you some lies I don't know you're going have to tell us but uh he he basically said last year didn't sit well with him because he knows he could play better and then he come into this year with a lot of determination have you sensed that during this offseason from him you know what Ronnie has been doing an excellent job this spring he's come in here he's worked and all the drills everything we have to do and you can see steady progression of his play and we he keeps keeps that up it's going to be good for him and for us both I know Andrew for he said he talked to Ronnie a bit about you know dealing with injury how much are you seeing him and just other young guys look and emulate Ronnie as the vetan well you know I I think I think you know guys feed off of each other they ask how can I re how can I bounce back with the process but each one's individual you know their work ethic their determination their goals with the what they want to have and Andrew is a driven young man so his injury what he's how he's come back he's just done heck of a job so far I've just just from day one and where he is today he'll continue to grow and with experience and and confidence which he's growing every day with it so uh but those guys all met fles well and they all help each other out which is fantastic Jo where do you see the biggest strides in Daniel fought lelay from last year to this year well I I think Daniel now is becoming more of a good football player in a sense he's starting to feel comfortable in his body and what he can do and and um you know uh we're working him at right tackle we're working right somewh Right Guard and he's played left tackle before so went up to New England and beat New England when he was playing left tackle right so and that's a big confidence uh where he what he achieved but um I I just see him getting more familiar what he has to do how he's got to communicate and uh I think it's just work in progress with him and I think the more he does it the better he's going to become you've lost uh three three starters from last year on the offens line right what have you seen out of the competition so far for those spots um you know what I've seen good competition I seen each guy working you know and I move him around quite a bit for their for their benefit and also for our benefit because the more they can do guess what get to stay in this league long right because you can play multiple positions but and they all have accepted that role and opportunity and you know Andrew is doing a great job salah's doing a good job Josh Jones doing a good job you know Ben's doing a good job inside there so you just keep seeing all these young men doing and the good news is this is the time of year where you're learning assignment communication playing fast the contact is not there that's going to come training camp that's what that's built for along with games and then we'll see how it plays out from there Jo would you prefer to have Patrick McCary remain in that Sixth Man kind of role as the primary backup or do you see him being involved in the starting competitions for any of the spots you know what um right now we're just right now Pat's situation is more of a a good quality I I see see him as I see him in my eyes as a starter okay he in my eyes he's a starter but he's in a position where he could play multiple positions and that's the role that we like to see him in right now does that mean if you have an injury guess what you're starting back but it's not that he can't start it's just that we see the versatility and the benefit of that opportunity for him being a there's not many guys in an NFL could play what Center guard both guards and tackle and the last time we had a guy here could do do both was James Hurst and he played both tackles and both guard positions and just retired with a fantastic career so uh Pat's having a nice career Joe um right tackle obviously being one of those jobs is kind of up the gra what have you seen from Roger rosengarten in that in that regard and what he kind you know Roger's doing a great job he's eager um he hustles he gives good effort um he plays to succeed and just continued growth understanding the offense and just let's see now when you put we put you in a game how are you going to produce in games and you're going to have some UPS you're going to have some Downs how you could bounce back of some of those opportunities you know but um we I'm glad we have him he's a heck of a young man another guy Andrew he's what's standing out to you about how he's practicing you know what Andrew is doing great I mean like I said and here's what I'm going to tell you first of all that group of young men I young men I have in there we have 16 of them they're fantastic young men they work hard they come out on a mission every day to get better they work at their craft they work at their skill and you see Improvement by all of them but with Andrew we have him working at left T left guard and center and he's never played center before and he's growing in that area and the confidence so Jo great progress when it comes to that positional flexibility is that something that's becoming less common you think across the league or more common as as guys develop like what do you what do you see I you know I I think you have to have just just me I was fortunate enough to come up under a head coach many many years ago when I started off my care career and the philosophy was the number two right tackle might not be as good as that number two Right Guard let's find a way to get the five best on the field so that's how I grew up as a coach to put your best five as often as you can on the field so position flexibility is important for us here at the Ravens and I know for myself as a coach because you go into a game you have seven sometimes you know you have eight but sometimes the roster has to change a little bit and those guys got to be be able to play multiple positions cuz you don't know what the injury Factor could be for that game you guys have a spot open at left guard a spot open at Right Guard with how smart and capable Tyler is at Center I mean are you kind of comfortable putting even more of a burden on him if like you know you can help us get you know you know Tyler's a great leader f first of all he's a great F fantastic young man great leader heck of a football player I just found out how about this and you you know about your players but we were just talking and Andrew and I were just talking to me I said coach you know that Andrew I mean that Tyler won the Remington award I didn't know that I mean I knew he had accolades but I didn't know he won the Remington award so then I said how about that I said you didn't tell me you won that Remington award so he was a heck of a college football player right center guess what he's heck of a pro he's a great communicator he's a great leader he works with the guys and it's collaboration between all of them up front with their communication those guards got to be able to help Tyler too so it's twofold Joe uh there's been a lot of say expectation on Ben Cleveland being a forrer just what do you see from him and his development as uh his team you know as he works towards yeah you know what here's what I tell you we played last year we played Pittsburgh and we played the Rams I think towards the end and or yeah I think it was and and Ben played very well when Ben's had his opportunities to start he's produced and done well he's out here right now working his craft working his skill you see nice progression and Improvement and I'm anxious to see now when you could start training p camp you put the pads on and we're going to see if he'll continue you get it's got to be earned right and it's earned B based on play production John Harbaugh set a goal of the second week of training camp to kind of solidify the offensive line starters based on what you've seen so far this spring do you think that's a realistic time frame well you know he's the head coach so we'll see how it goes from there I'm not going to BK coach hard ball we we all work together so we'll see and if coach says Hey y want to starting unit by second week hey we we'll deliver all good we good thanks you all have a good afternoon yeah thank you