OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Baltimore Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta acknowledged Thursday morning that the decision, which has the potential to doom a year of high expectations if it backfires, was made early in the offseason.
The Ravens were determined to get younger — and in some cases, cheaper — along the offensive line. The two went hand-in-hand.
So they allowed starting left guard John Simpson to leave in free agency with the idea of replacing him with Andrew Vorhees, a seventh-round pick in 2023 who missed his entire rookie season while rehabbing a knee injury. Vorhees, 25, was two years younger than Simpson and on a modest rookie contract. His upside was higher than Simpson’s, too.
They parted ways with right guard Kevin Zeitler, the 34-year-old warhorse who had battled through knee injuries but was still playing at a high level. Team officials felt they had enough young interior offensive line talent — and they could always add more through the draft — for someone to grow into Zeitler’s spot.
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Baltimore also traded venerable starting right tackle Morgan Moses to the New York Jets following a season in which the 33-year-old played through a torn pectoral muscle. The Ravens loved everything Zeitler and Moses represented on and off the field, but allowing them to depart was a classic case of one of former general manager Ozzie Newsome’s mantras: “It’s better to get rid of a player a year too early than a year too late.” After last season, the uncertainty of how long Zeitler and Moses would still be able to perform physically at a high level felt appropriate.
Roger Rosengarten was drafted in the second round in April, and he and veteran swing tackle Patrick Mekari are part of the team’s initial plan to replace Moses. When the Ravens face the Kansas City Chiefs next Thursday at Arrowhead Stadium in the NFL’s regular-season opener, the offensive line in front of reigning league MVP Lamar Jackson could feature as many as three first-year starters with Vorhees and Daniel Faalele at the two guard spots and Rosengarten potentially getting the nod at right tackle.
The Ravens also have a new offensive line coach with George Warhop joining John Harbaugh’s staff just over two weeks ago. The team’s longtime offensive line coach, Joe D’Alessandris, known for his ability to develop young players, died on Sunday from complications of an “acute illness.”
Predictably, all of the change is causing some angst after a preseason where the run blocking wasn’t good and Vorhees and Faalele, in particular, alternated good and bad reps.
“I think there’s still a little bit of an unknown because we haven’t played as a unit in games. We’ve only seen it in practice,” DeCosta said, adding that a neck injury that has temporarily sidelined Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum exacerbated some of the issues. “Not having a Pro Bowl center out there, that’s kind of the guy that drives the car in a lot of ways on the offensive line. He’s the guy that will typically adjust the offensive line and works with the quarterback on things like protections and stuff. It’s a very important position, and we’re blessed to have one of the best guys in the league.”
GM Eric DeCosta on the O-line: pic.twitter.com/QEKM9yHJEM
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) August 29, 2024
Linderbaum returned to practice earlier this week and is expected to play against the Chiefs. His return, however, won’t answer the team’s myriad questions up front. DeCosta acknowledged Thursday that the team understands there could be growing pains.
“I’m excited for the future,” he said. “We may have a couple of hiccups along the way, but I think we’ve started to build from the bottom up, and I think a year from now, we’ll be in a great place.”
Harbaugh has declined to announce who will start against the Chiefs on the offensive line. However, Vorhees and Faalele, a converted offensive tackle, have dominated the first-team reps at guard. Changing things up now — Baltimore’s first practice of Kansas City week is Friday — would represent a major about-face.
It’s been more of a rotation at right tackle between Mekari and Rosengarten, and that could continue through the early part of the regular season. The Ravens rotated at both tackle spots in the second half of last season, and Harbaugh said he wouldn’t be afraid to do it again this year.
Regardless of the alignment the Ravens go with, the decision to let three starters walk and only bring in a second-round pick in Rosengarten, a seventh-round pick in backup center Nick Samac and a veteran reserve in Josh Jones will be scrutinized all season.
“Unfortunately, with a salary-cap league, you just can’t build a team up with veterans at every position. If you could, that would be great,” DeCosta said. “We made the decision that we were going to go young on the offensive line as best as we could and develop our guys. We’ve had a lot of success developing offensive linemen in the past. I could give you a bunch of players that we took in the draft or even got off the streets, and those guys became good players for us.”
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A few other topics DeCosta touched on during his 30-minute news conference Thursday:
• The Cleveland Browns’ release of Tyler Huntley, Jackson’s primary backup for the previous three seasons, has increased the dialogue around Baltimore’s backup quarterback situation. Josh Johnson, a 38-year-old who has started nine games in an NFL career that began in 2008, was anointed the No. 2 by Harbaugh before training camp even began. The Ravens also made clear that rookie sixth-round signal caller Devin Leary was more of a developmental guy.
Johnson had an uneven summer while getting extensive reps with Jackson missing some time with an illness and not playing in the preseason. Leary, meanwhile, was waived and re-signed to the practice squad after he struggled in the preseason. Still, DeCosta said he liked the quarterback room. And while he didn’t rule out another addition, he certainly didn’t make it sound like acquiring another quarterback was an accelerated pursuit.
“With Josh, we have a really experienced guy. He’s like having another coach, and he’s great with Lamar, the players love him, he’s highly respected. He’s a talented player, so we love Josh,” DeCosta said. “And with (Leary), we have a young player — and he had his moments. As we’ve seen with quarterbacks, there’s a lot of things that he can improve on and get better at, and we believe he will. We like the room, but it doesn’t mean that we won’t add another guy, which we could do at some point. It’s like any position on the team, we’ll continue to evaluate and look at players that become available and make decisions based off of that.”
• DeCosta said he received calls around cutdown day with teams interested in Baltimore’s secondary depth, but he held off on any deals, wanting to maintain extra bodies in an area where the team has struggled to keep players healthy in the past.
The Ravens kept 11 defensive backs on the roster, with projected starting corners Marlon Humphrey and Brandon Stephens backed by first-round rookie Nate Wiggins, rookie fourth-round pick T.J. Tampa and returning players Jalyn Armour-Davis and Ar’Darius Washington. Veteran slot corner Arthur Maulet is starting on injured reserve after having an arthroscopic knee injury, but he’s eligible to return after Week 4.
GO DEEPER
Ravens’ initial 53-man roster features no surprises. But it’s fair to ask, what’s next?
At safety, the Ravens have starters Kyle Hamilton and Marcus Williams, with veteran Eddie Jackson and rookies Sanoussi Kane and Beau Brade behind them.
“We’re strong in the secondary and we stayed strong,” DeCosta said.
• The Ravens will imminently make moves to create salary-cap flexibility, DeCosta said. After assembling the practice squad, DeCosta believes the team is actually over the cap. However, he said that will be cleaned up when Baltimore needs to get cap-compliant. He also said the Ravens will create enough space to give them the flexibility to add players when the need arises.
“There’s a lot of different things that we can do,” DeCosta said.
• One financial decision down the road will be the status of Stephens, who is considered one of the team’s top pending 2025 free agents. DeCosta reiterated the team’s vow to keep as much of its young talent as possible, but he acknowledged the challenge of paying an ascending guy at a premium position.
“Brandon had as good a year last year as anybody on the team, and I love his attitude,” DeCosta said. “Love how he just takes care of his business as a player, and I think he’s going to make another jump this year. Again, he’s a guy that we certainly want to keep here long term. It’s not without challenge. He plays a position where the best players are highly compensated, but we’ll do our best.”
(Photo of Daniel Faalele: Nick Wass / Associated Press)
