The Baltimore Ravens are currently slated to have 10 draft picks in the 2022 NFL draft, including nine in the first four rounds. They have plenty of holes on their roster that they can fill throughout draft weekend, and they’ll certainly look to put together another great rookie group.
The 2022 draft class is an extremely deep one, with many different prospects looking to have what it takes to become quality contributors at the professional level. However, just because a rookie has talent doesn’t mean that he’ll be a fit for every team. When looking at the worst potential landing spots for a few of the top 2022 prospects, Alex Ballentine of Bleacher Report named Baltimore as the worst for former University of Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum. When explaining why, Ballentine pointed to how Bleacher Report scout Brandon Thorn views Linderbaum’s game.
“Bleacher Report draft scout Brandon Thorn noted that Linderbaum “can execute gap concepts, but ideally he’s in a zone-based scheme that sprinkles those in rather than majors in them”…The Baltimore Ravens could (correctly) feel like Linderbaum would immediately fill the hole left by Bradley Bozeman’s free-agent departure. However, his game is a round peg in the square hole of the Ravens’ scheme.”
Ballentine then talks about stats behind the Ravens’ offense and why that wouldn’t be a good fit for Linderbaum’s style of play.
“According to Sports Info Solutions, Baltimore’s run game had the second-highest percentage of gap concepts in the league at 51 percent last year…The Ravens would be better off targeting another position in the first round, and Linderbaum can go to a more zone-centric system that will allow him to dominate.”
After losing Bradley Bozeman in 2022 free agency to the Carolina Panthers, there’s reason to think that Baltimore could be in the market for a center in the early rounds of the 2022 draft. However, they’ve rarely invested big money or premium draft capital at the position, and the fact that Linderbaum doesn’t seem to exactly be the best fit in the Ravens’ system likely means that barring a surprise, the former Hawkeye won’t be a member of the Baltimore organization after the draft concludes unless they could potentially get him outside of the first round, or at the very minimum at the very end of the first day of the festivities.
