Mike Preston: Ravens won't win unless they solve O-line puzzle

BALTIMORE — The Ravens are shuffling centers and guards like it’s a revolving door.

One day, it’s Danny Pinter as the starting center, but that lineup could change at any moment with Corey Bullock or Jovaughn Gwyn stepping in. Or it could be Bullock starting at right guard for rookie Vega Ioane, who made the mistake of jumping offsides during the 11-on-11 period late in Wednesday’s practice.

Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta might still seek a trade if the Ravens’ options don’t work out in training camp, but this team can’t and won’t win unless it can protect star quarterback Lamar Jackson.

Currently, the Ravens don’t have any elite players at center or guard. They have Jackson at quarterback, Derrick Henry at running back and Kyle Hamilton at safety.

But there’s still a long way to go before we see what this team looks like.

“There’s certain guys that [if] we put up a depth chart right now, like Lamar’s our starting quarterback. I think everybody would understand that,” first-year coach Jesse Minter said Wednesday. “But a lot of the positions where you might not have a super established guy, right now, it’s an organization chart. It’s different guys getting work with different groups.

“Sometimes you want to see how a guy does with certain people next to him and then other certain people next to him the next practice. And so, we just want to give those guys a bunch of different reps with our offense, a bunch of different reps with the different interior linemen that they’re playing next to, different quarterbacks that they’re handling, cadences and things like that. And so, I think there’s a multitude of positions where we’re really trying to rotate a lot of pieces.”

At this point, the Ravens aren’t too concerned, not in the second week of voluntary organized team activities.

The Ravens beefed up the defensive line in the offseason. They already had defensive linemen Broderick Washington Jr. and Travis Jones before signing veteran Calais Campbell and outside linebacker Trey Hendrickson and drafting Missouri outside linebacker Zion Young in the second round to complement a group led by Tavius Robinson and Mike Green.

Now, if lineman Nnamdi Madubuike returns from a neck injury that sidelined him for 15 games last season, they might be on to something. It’s just that the offensive line has to get better. Last season, Jackson started and played in 13 games, but injuries clearly limited him as he passed for 2,549 yards and rushed for a career-low 349 yards on 67 carries.

The big stat, though, is that the Ravens allowed 45 sacks.

They lost center Tyler Linderbaum in free agency to a three-year contract worth $81 million with the Las Vegas Raiders. The Ravens brought in guard John Simpson and later drafted Ioane out of Penn State with the No. 14 overall pick.

Ioane can be a stud.

He has great knee bend and is very explosive off the ball, especially at the point of attack. He uses his hands well, and it was apparent that the Nittany Lions used a lot of combination blocks during the past couple of seasons.

It’s a safe bet that both he and Simpson will start at guard, where the Ravens struggled last season. But the center position is still a toss-up, even though it should be nailed down by the second preseason game. That’s what Minter and offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford must figure out.

The Ravens were without starting left tackle Ronnie Stanley on Wednesday, but second-year player Carson Vinson, a 2025 fifth-round pick out of Alabama A&M, took most of his repetitions.

Vinson is similar to former Ravens right tackle Orlando Brown Sr. Both are big; Vinson is 6 feet 7 and 320 pounds. The raw talent is there, but Vinson might need more nurturing. A year in the weight room in the offseason helped him.

“I think he’s doing a really good job,” Minter said of Vinson. “Anytime you get reps, it’s just a great opportunity to improve. He gets an opportunity to line up across from Trey Hendrickson a lot, which, they just work really well together. So still, it’s noncompetitive, but they talk a lot after each play. I was talking to him in the weight room this morning about it. They help each other out. They talk about their pass sets, their run blocking and their hand placement. So, it’s invaluable for him. I think he’s done a great job this offseason getting bigger and stronger. He’s put in a lot of work, and I am very excited about him.”

It appears that Jackson is comfortable in his new offense, led by first-year coordinator Declan Doyle. Jackson had one pass batted down and two intercepted on Wednesday, but he was at ease in the West Coast offense, especially on the short crossing patterns.

Jackson said he and his teammates are “having fun with the new system.” Will that mean running a bit more this year?

“That’s been my thing every year — [doing] whatever it takes to win,” he said. “Whether I’m running less or running more, it’s about doing whatever it takes to win. That’s all.”

Either way, it’s all brand new after Jackson spent his first eight NFL seasons under former coach John Harbaugh. Jackson called Minter’s coaching staff “a breath of fresh air.”

“The atmosphere is smooth,” he said. “I’m just looking forward to the season now.”

After an 8-9 season in 2025 that fell short of the playoffs, so are Ravens fans.