Ravens off-season priority is to sign a new OT, says beat reporter

Will the Baltimore Ravens re-sign any of their three main free agents next offseason? Will the franchise let them go? Will Baltimore, somehow, some way, be able to ink a deal with each of the three most prominent pending free agents currently rostered by the Flock?

We'll have to wait for that, but Mike Preston of the Baltimore Sun is not even thinking about the Ravens signing Justin Madubuike, Geno Stone, and/or Patrick Queen to an extension. The main priority for the Ravens next spring, according to Preston, is to sign an offensive tackle!

"Right now, [the biggest offseason priority] has to be finding a young, quality offensive tackle, preferably on the left side. I would also start looking at outside linebackers, even though David Ojabo and Odafe Oweh are young players. Neither has played up to expectations."

- Mike Preston, Baltimore Sun

In his latest mailbag, Preston answered a question from a fan asking the beat reporter "What’s the biggest offseason priority?" To that, Preston wrote an answer reasoning "Right now, it has to be finding a young, quality offensive tackle, preferably on the left side."

While Preston also added another position (outside linebacker), none of these two roles are currently vacant nor facing emptiness come next season. As Preston himself said, "David Ojabo and Odafe Oweh are young players" and they are still under contract for a few years coming off what would be their second and third seasons in the NFL when the 2024 season gets rolling.

The need for a younger offensive tackle to the left of the center is certainly something the Ravens should consider given Ronnie Stanley's struggles to keep defenders at bay this season, putting Lamar Jackson in danger of getting sacked nearly on a per-play basis.

That said, the absolute, definitive, most-pressing priority of the Ravens should undoubtedly be re-signing at least one of their three main free agents entering next offseason: DE Madubuike, ILB Patrick Queen, and S Geno Stone.

Once two or, at the very least, one of those three pending free agents are signed to an extension (or franchise-tagged), only then should the Ravens move on to landing other players to fill roles such as the aforementioned offensive tackle or outside linebacker.

It's going to be really hard for the Ravens to retain all of their pending free agents, but that's what they will have to deal with in a few months. If they don't prioritize retaining them, however, they will be committing the biggest of mistakes. There will always be time to assess the offensite tackle position after that.

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