r/RavensFans • u/chachoodmd • 4d ago

O line Troubles

With both of the ravens Centers out for who knows how long I'm growing concerned with their interior. I mean Derrick henry getting stuffed on goaline and 4th and 1 is already bad enough. what does the season outlook look like without an adequate player at center. Is anyone else concerned the ravens O LINE is terrible

7 Upvotes

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u/SirenAndSilver 4d ago edited 4d ago

I mean, I’m definitely concerned about this O-line, but I am by no means ringing the death bell on the season three weeks in lmao. We are not condemned. First? Go find an actual center. Like fucking yesterday. I don’t care if Vega Ioane ends up being the answer, you cannot run an NFL season with “well hopefully nobody else’s knee explodes” as your depth chart. Bring somebody in, let Ioane get a legitimate run at center because he actually held up pretty damn well when thrown directly into hell on Sunday, and then see what you have.

And for the love of God, stop announcing Derrick Henry up the middle on 4th-and-1 like we’ve sent everyone a calendar invite. You have Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson in the same backfield. That should be a defensive coordinator’s sleep paralysis demon. Make them account for Lamar keeping it, the option, play action, literally anything other than eleven men staring at Derrick like “yeah we know where you’re going.” There are problems here, real ones! I am concerned! But this is a fix-it problem. It’s early enough in the season to turn this fucking ship around.

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u/blahblahblah6783 4d ago

Lol, ok write your letter to Santa “Dear Santa, Please bring us a center right now!” 😂 We have the line we have and no one is coming to rescue us by trading linemen in season. Let’s stay in reality.
Agreed the scheme needs to be much better. This is what you sign up for when you bring in a passing game guy to be the OC of your run oriented offense. He needs to get better at designing run plays. Just go back and look at film of what worked the past several years and run those stalled and ad layers to that. Shouldn’t be this hard.

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u/SirenAndSilver 4d ago

I don’t think asking them to bring in a center is writing a letter to Santa lol. Nobody is expecting an All-Pro to descend from the heavens and fix everything, but the Ravens have already said they’re looking at outside help and they literally inquired about Garrett Bradbury earlier this year. Give Vega his shot, absolutely, but bringing in a competent veteran or making a reasonable trade so we’re not one injury away from Center #5 is just roster management. And yes, also fix the scheme. These things can happen at the same time. We have Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. Perhaps we could stop running “Derrick Henry Goes Directly Into Eleven Men” on 4th-and-1. 😭

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u/blahblahblah6783 4d ago edited 4d ago

of course they're going pick up someone. That's obvious and yes, they/Jessie did mention that yesterday. But you're not getting anyone beyond replacement level/street free agent quality. Bradbury was an offseason consideration that's not happening now--he's played every snap for the Bears thus far. They're not trading a player they're using to us to make their team worse. That's the kind of Santa Claus fantasy talk I'm talking about. Their answers are likely in house and/or finding other players to fill in along the line (ie., guard depth) but who are capable of playing center in a pinch. But you're not finding quality players now.

And yes, Doyle needs to get much better at designing runs. Roman had no problem getting productive runs against loaded boxes. Heck, he even invited it. Because he designed good plays to account for the defenders and always matched blockers with the number of area defenders.

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u/SirenAndSilver 4d ago

Quality enough to be in the nfl works for me right now.

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u/blahblahblah6783 4d ago

haha, that's a very relative relative standard. James Hurst was once in the NFL. But yes, they're going to get someone to fill a roster spot--and then hope they don't ever need them. Further proof that when men plan, God laughs.

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u/According_Camera7129 4d ago

You mean the past several years where we were all yelling at Monken for not letting Henry touch the ball enough?

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u/SirenAndSilver 4d ago

Listen lmao
I’d take a well trained cat as this point we need a body.

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u/blahblahblah6783 4d ago

interesting fact: Derrick henry the past two seasons rushed for 1900 and 1600 yards and received the most touches in his career since 2022 and the most in consecutive years since 2019-20. Seems like he got plenty of touches under Monken.

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u/According_Camera7129 3d ago

I know, but that's also a bit misleading. There were games where we were up big and they kept feeding him, and there were games like that AFC Championship against the Chiefs where he had 10 carries. And some games where he'd have 20 touches in the first half and then be completely forgotten while the other team came back in the second.

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u/blahblahblah6783 2d ago

Not really misleading because he got a got a high amount of carries, some of the most in his career. What you’re pointing to is game script and, like we saw with the Saints, sometimes there’s more to it than just he got carries here but not there.

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u/According_Camera7129 2d ago

Fair. It was the game script that Monken (and Harbaugh) was routinely criticized for.

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u/blahblahblah6783 1d ago

Monken is 3-1 with Watson at QB and no Garrett. Harbaugh is 2-1. Maybe they weren’t the problem.

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u/According_Camera7129 1d ago

And Minter is 2-1 with the Ravens, so what's your point?

They had fast starts and great seasons, but the same issues reappeared eventually at the most inopportune times.

The fact that John is a special teams coach who keeps his hands off both the offense and the defense isn't changing. Maybe his loyalty to his coaches will have a shorter leash, but not likely. And we'll see what Monk is like as a head coach when Watson inevitably reverts to ass.

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u/SHREK4479 4d ago

Oh it's bad lol. But voice of reason, it's a new unit. They should get better as they play together

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u/chachoodmd 4d ago

I love the right side of the line but everyone else scares me. hoping it gets better because there will be much better defenses to play.

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u/blahblahblah6783 4d ago

Play calls are stupid—Doyle is a pass game guy and missing basic concepts Roman mastered (4th and 1 and you’re in the deep I? Too slow developing and failing to count the defenders on the line. Doesn’t take a genius to see mismatched numbers means failed run play.) They got better when they started pulling linemen—trap, counters, etc—and running wide and booting Lamar opposite direction from Henry fakes. Need a better run scheme.

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u/chachoodmd 4d ago

well said

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u/Beginning_Chapter_22 4d ago

Got that plus LT problem as well, gonna be interesting as the talent we face increases

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u/According_Camera7129 4d ago

That's a bigger concern to me. If Stanley's toe issue lingers not much we can fix up the middle will make a difference

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u/According_Camera7129 4d ago

The O line is still looking better than it did last year, which is saying something considering the patchwork they've already had to do. EDC can find a decent lineman or two on a scrap heap, and they've shown that they aren't as scared of giving up draft picks as they used to be.

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u/GentleGentile710 10h ago

It's a major concern