Now that the Ravens season is over, it’s time to look back and take stock in what the team did well, and what the team did poorly. To this end, we’ll be reviewing each of the positional units. I reviewed the Ravens front seven and their secondary earlier. Next up, I’ll be reviewing the Ravens offensive line.
(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)
The Ravens offense significantly improved from 2013 to 2014. In 2013, the Ravens offensive was easily one of the worst of the league and ranked 30th in offensive DVOA. This year, however, the Ravens offense was top ten in the league, ranking 9th in offensive DOVA. While there are a lot of reasons for the improvement, in my mind, the improved play of the offensive line is far and away the biggest one.
Before I get into the individual talent on the offensive line, I want to talk about the line as a whole. Usually, when a team brings in new starting members of the offensive line and a new blocking scheme, you expect that there will be some transitional hiccups. But the performance of the line was above and beyond what you would expect. First, they were much more disciplined. In 2013, the Ravens committed the most false start penalties in the entire NFL. In 2014, they were ranked near the bottom. Second, the adaptation of the zone blocking scheme was very successful. I’ll talk about this more when I review the run game, but the Ravens personnel was well suited for the scheme, since almost all of their lineman were smart and quick.
The dominance of the Ravens offensive line begins with the fantastic play at guard. First, Marshall Yanda continued his career excellence. The perennial pro bowler had an off-year last year, when he dealt with injury issues all year, but was back in form this year. Yanda was the highest rated offensive lineman in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus. I could fill this article with accolades about how Yanda is smart and talented, but I don’t need to. Basically, Yanda is everything you could want from an offensive lineman, so writing about him is kind of boring.
Instead, I want to talk about Kelechi Osemele. Osemele has been inconsistent: he was awesome his rookie year but had an unexpected slump his sophomore year. This year, however, he rebounded spectacularly. Osemele was great, and formed one of the top guard duos in all of football with Yanda. Osemele is a mountain of a man at 330 pounds, but still has the lateral quickness in the zone blocking scheme. I can’t put gifs on the site directly, but watch and Osemele and Yanda dominate the Bengals in a gif in this Grantland article. The big, physical combination of the Ravens guards allowed the team to dominate in interior rushing.
But that dominant interior rushing would have been impossible without the play of center Jeremy Zuttah. Zuttah was a Volvo sedan: not too flashy and won’t dominate guys, but he gets the job done. But the biggest upgrade in all of football is the upgrade from awful to passable, and given Gino Gradkowski’s play last year, that’s certainly what happened here. Even with help from Osemele and Yanda, Gradkowski was chewed up and spit out by opposing teams, and Flacco faced intense pressure from the interior pass rush. With Zuttah, however, they don’t need to worry nearly as much about their interior line with the help of the guards.
Finally, the Ravens tackles were another huge part of the team’s success this year. Eugene Monroe was inconsistent this year and was plagued by injuries, but when he was good, he was very good. While it is worrying that Monroe has struggled with injuries so far, I am a Ravens optimist, and believe that he’ll live up to his contract. It also helps that the Ravens had undrafted James Hurst to fill in for Monroe when he was out. Hurst was probably the worst of any Ravens lineman that played a lot of snaps, but he filled in admirably when called upon.
Probably the most pleasant surprise of the Ravens line play was second-year player Ricky Wagner. Wagner replaced longtime Ravens tackle Michael Oher and was an immediate upgrade. Wagner was a plus in the run game and pass protection. Look at how much push he gets below against the Steelers.
Concluding thoughts:
There is a chance that the Ravens offensive line could backslide next year, if Osemele regresses to his play as a sophomore or the line suffers injuries. But I doubt that will happen. Each member off the offensive line was at least average, and collectively, they were one of the top units in all of football. The team should sign Yanda to an extension. He deserves, and the Ravens should ensure the potential future hall of famer retires a Raven. The Ravens made fixing their offensive line a top priority last offseason, and showed how a team can quickly turn its biggest weakness into a huge strength.
Offensive line chemistry is important. The longer a line plays together, the better they perform. Given what they did this year with barely any experience together, they should be even better next year.
Will is a Ravens fan born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He has previously written for Baltimore Beatdown at SB Nation. He is currently a senior at St. Mary’s of Maryland.