The Baltimore Ravens will try to get three new offensive line starters up to speed for the 2024 NFL season. Gone are John Simpson, Kevin Zeitler, and Morgan Moses, who are younger and, in some cases, more athletic players to take their place.
The offensive line is one of the most critical positions on any offense, and it will be imperative that the unit gets off to a fast start during the upcoming year. The offensive line sheds light on what he’s expecting from his new-look offensive line in a long and detailed answer that includes references to the departed players and those who could take over.
“Well, you’re right; we did rotate [in] those guys [Daniel Faalele and Ben Cleveland], which was invaluable experience, because you have game tape – not just preseason tape – but against front-line starters of how they played, and it’s easy to show them on tape where they need to improve [and] where that is. It’s not [the] third quarter of the first preseason game; it’s against the best in the world. And so, you do have some tape to go back and look, and again, we’re in the development business; that’s why you draft players, [and] that’s why they keep coming up and developing. When you look at the left guard situation here, we [ended] up with [Ben] Powers in 2019 – who was here – and developed, and he went on, and then you get John Simpson, and you develop him, and then you feel good enough that they went on to make money somewhere else, because you developed them. So, we’re in the development business, right now, with Ben [Cleveland], and you’ve got some of the young guys that we drafted a year ago, like ‘Big Sal’ [Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu] and [Andrew] Vorhees, and you’ve got Daniel [Faalele]. All those guys are getting invaluable reps now, and obviously, once we put the pads on, for them, [that’s] where it will really be critical. We put the pads on, we get a chance to play in the preseason, and then you can assess, ‘Hey, as they keep developing, what are their strengths? [What] do we need to continue to work on?’ And they’re doing a great job now, and I expect them to play at a really high level – I really do.”
Baltimore’s projected opening-day offensive line 2024, from left to right, is Ronnie Stanley, Andrew Vorhees, Tyler Linderbaum, Ben Cleveland, and Roger Rosengarten. Only Stanley and Linderbaum are guaranteed, but Monken appears to have confidence in his linemen up front, both veterans and young players.
