a lot of the talk this offseason for the Baltimore Ravens has been about their offensive line and for good reason left tackle Ronnie Stanley and Center Tyler lindbom are the only two returning starters from last year's offensive line now the concern for both Lamar and the offense in general is definitely something to consider mainly due to the experienced difference between last year's starters and that of those that are expected to fill those vacancies in 2024 the three positions the Ravens are looking to replace Are Right Guard which was held down by Kevin zeitler a player that many believed has been snubbed on occasions for the Pro Bowl the right tackle position held by Morgan Moses another longtime solid starter in this league and the left guard position held by John Simpson who while not as experienced as zitler or Moses was still a starter in this league for a few years before coming to the Ravens and he played better than many expected all year the discussion for today's video is centered around the question of whether or not these inexperienced linemen who are projected to fill these three spots can perform at a high enough level to protect Lamar Jackson as well as block for what was the best rushing team in the NFL last year with all that said let's get to [Music] [Music] it welcome and everyone this is Jordan with Ravens flash report and while the Ravens fans are getting excited about the idea of Derrick Henry in the backfield alongside Lamar Jackson as well as the continued progression of past catchers Z flowers Rashad baitman and Isaiah likeley a shadow seems to loom over the offense as we approach the start of the season a shadow cast by the offensive line the largest part of that uncertainty comes simply down to the fact that you pretty much knew what you were getting from the players who were here last year I don't mean to keep reusing the same phrases but this is yet another case of better the devil you know than the one you don't proven veteran players like Kevin zitler and Morgan Moses offer you a high floor and their abilities are well known to the players and coaches while many fans including myself may be excited and hopeful about the potential in players like Andrew Vorhees and Roger rosengarden the fact of the matter remains that we simply don't know how well they will play in the NFL throughout the 6 years that Lamar Jackson has been the starter for the Baltimore Ravens the offensive line has had a bit of a makeover first with Greg Roman who wanted to maximize Lamar Jackson's rushing ability to create one of the most Unstoppable rushing offenses in the history of the NFL the way he did this was by getting large imposing and physical run blocking offensive linemen since moving to Todd monins offense which relies more on a balanced game plan than Romans the emphasis for offensive line has shifted more towards athleticism as well as being able to block whoever is in front of you without help within Todd Mon's offense players like Morgan Moses and John Simpson could play well but they were limited when asked to perform the more athletic movements of the scheme a scheme which plays to the strength of players like Ronnie Stanley Tyler Linder bomb and especially rookie Roger rosengarden and while Andrew vor's athletic abilities have yet to be put to the test Ben Cleveland who is presumed by many to be in line for the starting right guard position has known athletic limitations but despite these potential athletic limitations he is also a known commodity for the coaching staff as far as Vorhees in rosengarden however we really only have their College film and combine numbers to go on so what do they tell us well they tell us that Andrew Vorhees is probably one of the strongest players on the team and Roger rosengarden is an extremely athletic right tackle and while those things are great to hear it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be locked down players at their positions where they are now protecting a two-time MVP player in Lamar Jackson and this is what has fans concerned let's take a look at the numbers and try to get an idea of what we losing in the previous starters over the three years that Kevin zitler started for the Baltimore Ravens he played in 47 regular season games out of a possible 51 during that time he had a total of 11 accepted penalties seven for offensive holding three false starts and one ineligible player downfield since 2021 zeitler has been credited with five total sacks over 3,158 offensive snaps according to PFF that's an average of 1.67 sacks per year granted guards don't have to deal with as much as tackles do but still a low number is a low number besides as they say the mark of a good offensive lineman is to not hear your name called long story short we shouldn't have let him walk Morgan Moses was the Ravens right tackle in 2022 and the 2023 season during which he played 31 regular season games out of a possible 34 through those two seasons he racked up 12 accepted penalties eight false starts two ineligible players down field one offensive holding and one personal foul in Moses's two seasons with the Ravens he allowed 10 sacks according to PFF over 1,800 snaps while Moses is a Fairly reliable right tackle his past protection leaves something to be desired five sacks a season isn't what you want from one of your starting tackles for reference Ronnie Stanley allowed only five sacks over the same two-year period and he wasn't fully healthy now I'm not trying to bash Moses too hard I'm just saying that maybe he wasn't as good as it seemed but being fair to him he was also dealing with a pectoral injury for a majority of last season now let's look at the stats for John Simpson from last year Simpson started and played in all 17 regular season games at the left guard position and had 11 penalties called against him all of which were accepted they include seven offensive holding calls two false starts one for illegal use of hands and one unnecessary roughness call Simpson played in 1,118 offensive snaps and allowed only one sack according to PFF overall John Simpson surprised a lot of people perhaps even himself after not just competing for the starting left guard job but ultimately winning it and playing well enough to hold on to it all season long he maybe had too many penalties but he kept Lamar mostly upright throughout the whole season while he played consistently during the season and stayed healthy his production should be replaceable if Andrew Vorhees comes in and plays at the level that EDC thinks he can after drafting him last year let's just hope that Vorhees can stay as healthy as Simpson did during this upcoming season a point of discussion that I often hear between Ravens fans when concerns about the offensive line come up in conversation is that Lamar Jackson masks many of the flaws of the offensive line his elusiveness and ability to escape pressure in the pocket often lead to less sacks than another quarterback might take in those situations and while this is a point that I agree with I also believe that there are some drawbacks to Lamar Jackson's style of play and his approach to the quarterback position when talking about pass protection from his offensive line the first and most obvious in my opinion is the fact that Lamar Jackson is fully aware of just how athletic and Elusive he is this then can create the issue of him staying in the pocket longer than most other quarterbacks thus making him more susceptible to getting sacked basically because he's so fast and athletic he cuts it closer than most people would because his margin for error is bigger the other part is that with Lamar Jackson's Mobility his offensive linemen are often put in difficult positions to block when Lamar Jackson scrambles many Ravens fans laugh and cheer when defensive players fail trying to tackle Lamar Jackson but on the other side of that they don't understand when our own offensive lineman can't seem to get out of Lamar Jackson's way or straight up look lost when Lamar starts to scramble a perfect illustration of this is when Lamar Jackson got in Ronnie Stanley's face for not being where he should be to block but try to imagine yourself as a 6'6 offensive tackle at 330 lbs trying to maneuver for Lamar Jackson while also blocking Elite pass rushers I don't know about you but that doesn't sound as easy as many people make it seem now I bring this up as part of the discussion not because I'm saying I would rather have a less athletic or elusive quarterback than Lamar Jackson I would hope at this point regular viewers of my channel know how much respect and admiration I have for our two-time MVP quarterback rather I want to make sure that we all take into account as many angles of this conversation as possible hardly anything in life is completely one thing or completely the other there's always a little bit of compromise does Lamar Jackson's ability to escape pressure and move in the pocket with Incredible awareness make things easier for his offensive line of course it does we can all probably count on one hand how many times last season a bad block from an offensive lineman ruined a scramble from Lamar but there's probably almost 10 times as many of those plays that Lamar Jackson used that ability to make a game-breaking play with the athleticism of Lamar Jackson at the quarterback position and some of the issues I said it could cause his offensive linemen in my opinion Todd Mon's approach to a more athletic offensive line is probably the better way to go now if Lamar Jackson is executing 10 to 15 designed quarterback runs a game then Greg Roman's approach to the offensive line makes sense but if you have derck Henry running the ball 15 or 20 times a game instead of Lamar relying more on Henry's size and ability to keep his momentum after contact the need for a large physical run blocker becomes less important another part of our running scheme that should pay huge dividends this year perhaps even more than it has in the past is the use of Patrick Ricard even Ricard himself and Derrick Henry seem to already be aware of just how devastating they can be as a Duo when running the ball in this offense at the end end of the day I believe that the Ravens offensive line has taken two steps forward and one step back with regard to replacing these three starting linemen the two steps forward being the replacement of John Simpson with Andrew Vorhees and a potential step forward by replacing Morgan Moses with Roger Rosengard at the right tackle position the step back in my opinion is swapping Kevin zitler for Ben Cleveland and I don't want to be just a sour fan at the end of the bar disparaging Ben Cleveland's abilities it's more a reflection of how good and consistent Kevin zitler was at the right guard position I think if many Ravens fans were in Eric dasta's shoes when making the decision to not retain Kevin zitler most of us would probably have gone in the direction of keeping zler but at the same time we as fans have to trust that our general manager knows what he's doing well I don't want to seem too pessimistic nor give false hope as an overly optimistic fan I believe another part of this conversation about the offensive line should involve the aspect of our offensive line coaches coach dandras in particular has garnered praise for literal decades on his ability to turn inexperienced and mediocre linemen into players who may not be home Fame worthy but can certainly make a living in the NFL but give him a player that has the potential to be an allpro like Roger rosengarden and having Joe D on the staff becomes a much more important part of this conversation so much of the NFL experience is fans giving all the credit to players and none to the coaches and while the players do indeed deserve a majority of the credit as they're the ones making the plays and putting their bodies on the line for our entertainment the ability of of a coach to not only see potential in a player but be able to bring that potential to bear and help them realize how good they can actually be cannot be understated and it's often the difference between great teams and teams fighting for relevance if I had to put a number value between zero and 100 based on my confidence level that I have in the offensive line with the Personnel we've discussed in this video with zero being complete failure and 100 being the best offensive line in the NFL I would say a realistic number in my mind is around 70 now this might seem too high for those of you who thought we lost too much talent in the three starters this off season and I can understand that but it might also seem too low for those of you who have unconditional Faith and Hope in the Ravens front office and the players themselves but I landed on the number of 70 because not only do I believe in our front office and the coaching staff as well as the players we've drafted for this new offensive line scheme of athleticism but I can't quite go higher than 70 as I feel the replacement of Kevin zitler with Ben Cleveland is a net loss and no matter how much hope and belief anyone has in the development and talent of Andrew Vorhees and Roger rosengarden there will inevitably be growing pains mistakes and mental lapses as both players learn to play their positions against the highest level of competition in the world I look forward to hearing any and all reports about how well or poorly the Ravens offensive lineman do during the upcoming training camp after all information is just that information how we view that information either positively or negatively is up to our own interpretations with that being said guys I hope you've enjoyed this video if you did go ahead and hit the like button subscribe if you're new around here and comment down below your confidence number between zero and 100 on the offensive line for 2024 as always guys stay safe out there and go Ravens [Music] [Music] I'm