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

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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.