The Baltimore Ravens trimmed their roster to abide by the NFL rulebook and named a 53-man squad on Tuesday. They followed that up by building a 15-man practice squad on Wednesday, and they wrapped it all up on Thursday placing some folks on Inured Reserve while signing the final member of the initial PS unit.
One of the most talked-about units through the whole summer pertaining to the Flock and their approach to it was the offensive line. With a key member of the line departing the team at the start of the offseason, and a tight race for the rights of starting at LG, there have been plenty of headlines making the rounds on a daily basis all summer.
With the dust now settled and all starters named by head coach John Harbaugh, here's a breakdown of the members of the Offensive Line of the Baltimore Ravens for the 2023 season.
Ravens OL Depth Chart
Starters: (LT) Ronnie Stanley, (LG) John Simpson, (C) Tyler Linderbaum, (RG) Kevin Zeitler, (RT) Morgan Moses
There is no doubt about Stanley's role as the leader of the Ravens line, the absolute talent boasted by Zeitler, and the ever-growing presence of second-year man Linderbaum, not to mention the stout Moses on the furthest-right position.
The offensive line of the Ravens is hella strong and delicious. However, there was a hole to fill at the left guard spot and that came down to a training camp battle that started with the men fighting for it but ultimately ended in a two-man battle.
Ben Cleveland entered training camp leading the way but he fell in a rather ugly fashion as August advanced. The race was left with two contestants: sixth-round rookie Sala and veteran FA-signee John Simpson.
Baltimore did everything on its hands to give Sala as many chances and reps as possible through the preseason games, but a late-round rookie is a late-round rookie and that means Sala is, at the end of the day, just a developmental prospect and a simple warm body to throw into the fire only in case of emergency.
The Ravens will need Stanley to play more next season than he did in past campaigns (he's played 18 matchups in the last three years combined) and sophomore center Linderbaum to keep building on an extraordinary rookie season, but the foundation is solid and the OL should be one of the best across the NFL.
Depth: Patrick Mekari, Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu, Ben Cleveland, Daniel Faalele
The Ravens are getting into the regular season boasting five starters and a four-man deep rotation when it comes to their offensive line.
Ben Cleveland fell short of getting the starting nod at the LG role but he made the cut and saw his name added to the initial 53-man roster above center Sam Mustipher's, who is now a member of the Ravens practice squad.
Baltimore seems to have favored multi-position, versatile players to build the depth of their OL this season, including many dudes that can play at different positions but no real replacement for Linderbaum at C nor any other player strongly limited to playing at one position exclusively across the line.