How the Baltimore Ravens adjust to life without Ronnie Stanley
Ronnie Stanley is out for the rest of the season. What now for the Baltimore Ravens:
The Baltimore Ravens will be without Ronnie Stanley, one of the best offensive linemen in the entire NFL, for the rest of the season. This is a knock for the offensive line. Much like with Marshal Yanda, there is no true replacement for somebody like Stanley. Yet somebody will be the left tackle of the purple and black.
The most likely path forward is what the Ravens did on Sunday against the Steelers. Orlando Brown Jr. will move to the left side of the offensive line while D.J. Fluker will most likely be the right tackle. The swing tackle has become an every down starter. This obviously isn’t great for Baltimore’s depth up front, yet that’s why you have depth in the first place.
This will be a pivot-ally important time in the career of Brown Jr. as he gets to play left tackle. Should this go well for the massive offensive tackle he will add to his value and raise his price tag when he becomes a free agent. That’s the macro-view though so let’s focus on the here and now.
According to reports, Tyre Phillips has a high-ankle sprain. This is obviously less notable than if the Ravens losing Stanley for the year, but it’s not great. After eight weeks in the season the Ravens still have to figure out the short-term and long-term plan at right guard. Patrick Mekari was the fill in for Phillips on Sunday. Ben Powers remains in the mix, one would think.
The silver lining to all of this (mind you it’s a thin silver lining in a very not fun situation) is it could get the Ravens back to running the football more. Stanley was a premiere pass protector and a very good run blocker. What do the current tackles do well? They run block incredibly well. This could force the hand of Greg Roman’s play-calls. The Ravens have to be a run based team and now have a built in reason to ground and pound.
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The good news is that even down two starting offensive linemen, J.K. Dobbins got the run game going against the Pittsburgh Steelers. His speed may make that ground and pound work. The bad news is the Ravens already struggle in situations where they have to throw the football and everybody knows it’s coming. Now, Jackson is without his best offensive lineman.
Baltimore may be forced to do more short passing. Even if Brown Jr. and Fluker meet expectations, the pass protection didn’t improve. It’s been a problem all year long, it’s not going to stop being a problem when you take out the one All-Pro caliber pass blocker.
More reliance on a short passing game isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The Ravens have more of their pass catching talent lined up to that kind of a game. The Ravens have speed and quickness not a lot of size in the pass game, and Jackson loves to throw to the middle of the field. The counter to all this bright side looking is that Marquise Brown may continue to wait for proper utilization of his downfield speed. It’s not going to make him less frustrated.
It is doubtful that the NFL trade deadline (which may have come and gone by the time you read this) will help the Ravens find help on the offensive line. First of all offensive linemen aren’t readily available, even bad teams need them to get through the season. Secondly, the Ravens have to be prepared to make what they can out of this. This is always a possibility going into the season.
The bottom line:
The combination of Brown Jr. on the left and Fluker on the right should work. It won’t be perfect and it’s far from a best case scenario. The possible side effects could get the Ravens in more of the ground and pound offense that they need to run. Pass protection will continue to be a problem so the Ravens really need to stay ahead of the chains offensively.
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The offensive line took a blow when the offense still hasn’t found it’s top gear and the quarterback is struggling. It’s hard to be positive about this. Having Brown Jr. on the left side works until it proves not to. The Ravens can get by but they really need the rest of the offensive lineman to stay healthy.