Some thoughts from watching the game again on the OL
I feel so much more comfortable and confident about this OL now that we've seen these guys - it's a deep unit at basically all 5 positions:
- Ja'Wuan James has eased all my anxieties about Ronnie's health and whether he'll be ready for week 1. If he's ready then great, but if he's not Ja'Wuan James is a high-level backup to tide us over until Ronnie is ready - he showed excellent mobility and hand usage and veteran nouse.
- Ben Cleveland had a great game. I think it's clear that he's more comfortable on the right side at RG and that's somewhat frustrating given where the vacancy is in the OL but from wondering a week or so ago whether he'd be in danger of missing the roster entirely, I think it's pretty clear he's not going to be in danger of missing out on a roster spot. What was really encouraging were the pancakes and finishes in this game... something that was notably lacking in his game in 2021.
- Tyre Phillips also had a good game. Taking all the 1st half reps at LG and he looked comfortable, moved better than I've seen him move and just looked super assured especially in pass protection. Good work as a puller which is so important at LG in this right-handed running scheme. I think a couple more weeks like this and he's taking the starting job off Powers who did have a few notable whiffs in pass pro.
- Ben Powers getting some veteran treatment which is understandable but importantly didn't take any reps at LG. Hard to parse why exactly unless they're so confident he's won the job that they just wanted to focus on his versatility in this game. Still would have expected him to play the 1st series at LG if that was the case. A massive plus for him no matter what the snap counts mean was the work he put in at C.
- Faalele had an up-and-down game but that did nothing to hide the incredible positives we saw in terms of his development. Some pretty clean vertical sets with no false steps and decent balance through the reps. Technique was so much better than the senior bowl where he was first trying it out. Was able to get his pad level down enough to get leverage in the running game and frequently had nice plays washing down with Cleveland on that right side to create space for pullers behind. I wonder if we just got a first look at the future of the right side of the ravens offensive line with Cleveland and Faalele.
Just generally, feels so different to last year's OL situation. So much depth. The fact that in the worst case scenario only 2 of these 5 guys will even be starting against the Jets and in the best case only 1 is pretty outrageous. A lot to be pleasantly optimistic about and maybe even be genuinely excited about.
