The Baltimore Ravens will be in a very weird spot on Sunday. After three of their centers suffered long-term injuries, the team is preparing to turn to Vega Ioane as its starting center. It puts the whole offensive line in a tough position.
The center position is one of the most important positions on offense. It’s probably second to quarterback. Communication is key, and now Baltimore is throwing a rookie guard into the fire, who’s logged 8 snaps at center and limited reps in practice.
That puts the spotlight on everyone along the offensive front.
There should be four veterans playing alongside Ioane — Ronnie Stanley, John Simpson, Andrew Vorhees, and Roger Rosengarten are the expected starters. They need to help make this transition as smooth as possible.
That goes for Lamar Jackson and the rest of the offense, too.
Baltimore Ravens’ offense needs to hold up their end of the bargain in Vega Ioane’s center debut
Most of the attention may be on Ioane in Week 4, and that’s warranted. There’s a ton of valid concern surrounding Ioane’s first career start at center. However, there are 10 other guys on the offensive side of the football.
Most importantly, it’s the rest of the offensive line that needs to step up. That unit has been horrendous in the pass-blocking department, posting a 29th-best pass-block win rate through three weeks.
Against the Tennessee Titans, Ioane will have to lean on his experienced teammates. They need to hold up their end of the bargain, especially with the down-to-down communication.
In his press conference on Thursday, offensive coordinator Declan Doyle spoke about that exact factor.
“We gotta put guys around [Ioane] that also know what to do, and that can kind of cover those blind spots as best we can,” Doyle said. “We’re going with a guy who's never really played center at a high level yet; everybody else has to lift their communication, their level of play; we all are responsible for where the shortcomings are.”
Luckily for Ioane, the offense consists almost entirely of veterans who have been through these operations day in and day out of the past several years of their lives.
On the offensive line, Stanley, Simpson, Vorhees, and Rosengarten have a combined 251 starts. Sure, it’s a newer offense under Doyle, but it’s still football at the end of the day, and those guys have all the experience you could ask for.
Obviously, that unit needs to play better, and Simpson and Vorhees have been really bad over the course of their careers. They can’t keep putting Lamar Jackson in danger. However, in terms of making sure Ioane and everyone else stays on task, the communication should be fine.
And for Ioane, the biggest help is knowing he has Jackson under center. The two-time MVP makes everyone around him better, and he’s shown countless times that even when protection breaks down, he can make magic happen.
Regardless, much of the stress will still fall on Ioane. No matter how much help he gets from the rest of the offense, it’ll mean nothing if he doesn’t prove he’s ready for the moment. We’re going to learn about the player he is in Week 4.
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