Ravens 2026 IOL Positional Assessment: The One Who Got Away
Ravens 2026 IOL Positional Assessment: The One Who Got Away
The front office still has a lot of work to do to secure the interior offensive line after an ugly 2025 season and odd offseasonJason La Canfora|
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Baltimore RavensIt came as no surprise to anyone that the Ravens used their first-round selection on an interior offensive lineman.
It’s an acute need – still, right now, even after grabbing Vega Iona with the 14th-overall pick – and it would be even more jarring without that draft investment. Whether or not the Ravens truly rotate middling-to-less-than-middling center options all summer or go out and get the real thing will go a long way to determining how much improved the offensive line is … if it is in fact improved.
As we go through this entire process, position by position, no group appears to be more incomplete than this one. They have a rookie right guard and stopgap left guard and, perhaps, no NFL quality center on the entire roster.
Of course, no one around the league is buying this rotation talk, and they figure general manager Eric DeCosta will get real about the situation soon enough. As longtime NFL GM Marty Hurney told me on “The Daily Flock Show,” time is still on their side – “there’s no need to panic,” he said – but now is not to the time to try to vanity journeyman project at such an important position.
Will they regret not paying what the market bestowed upon former Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum? Time will tell. He’s the caliber of player that shouldn’t have been among their deep free-agent exodus, and yet another recent first-round pick of DeCosta’s who didn’t get a second contract here.
That’s a huge problem, and it would be shocking if history repeated with Ioane walking out the door five years from now.
Key Contracts
Starters:
RG Ioane $15M cash ($4.4M cap): You have to pay prospects in the top half of the first round, but he’s controlled for five years and will be more than worth it. And no one is making any real money on the entire offensive line (he’s the top earned with one tackle on a rookie deal and Ronnie Stanley on a team-friendly deal). The lack of financial investment in the line on the whole is kind of staggering for it being such a need.
C Jovaughn Gywn $1.1M cash ($1.1M cap): A one-year, vet minimum deal for a guy who has snapped the ball even 10 times in a game once in his career. I suspect he goes into camp with the first team given his ties to run game coordinator Dwayne Ledford, but hopefully the experiment doesn’t go too long.
LG John Simpson $12M cash ($5M cap): This is essentially a two-year deal, worth $9M for 2027 ($5.5M of that already guaranteed now). He’s done the job before and is a hardhat veteran presence.
Others To Know
Danny Pinter: No money invested in this contested in the center mix. Was as depth piece for the Colts.
Corey Bullock: Former un-drafted player out of Maryland, whose absence in OTAs and minicamp due to injury did him no favors.
Andrew Vorhees: Was selected in the seventh round and drafted while injured with a projection to being a future starter and something of a steal. That has not turned out to be the case.
Prognosis For 2026 – TBD
It would be impossible for the guard play not to be better than a year ago. Almost impossible. They did not get starting caliber performances and no matter what Linderbaum tried to hold it together, it didn’t work. It could be the opposite this season with both guards being quite good, but issues at center perhaps a significant problem. If they go with one of their in-house options as a starting center they will come to regret it and we suggest will end up cycling through different options throughout the season.
Prognosis Beyond 2026 – Maybe Okay
Ioane will cover a lot of warts. He truly has the power and potential to be a difference maker from a position where that isn’t always possible. We’ve seen some guards around here be leaders and set a physical tone for the entire group before. That’s going to happen again; but one man does not a unit make, and the inability to draft-and-develop at center and guard for years in the draft is a blindspot by DeCosta that doesn’t get enough attention. It used to be an organizational strength.
Projections
There is no greater, more-pressing roster issue with this team right now than the center position. The answer really can’t be what they are selling – or they risk undermining a $350M roster over another $6M-$8M for someone who can do the job. Both guards will suffer if the center doesn’t know what he’s doing and can’t hold up and doesn’t have the confidence of the quarterback. Especially when a new offense is being installed by a coordinator doing it for the first time. We say they break down and sign free agent center Ethan Pocic at some point in camp, probably by the second preseason game.
Ioane will be All-Pro level by the end of the regular season if the center play is remotely competent.
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Published Jun 19, 2026
JASON LA CANFORAJason has covered sports professionally for newspapers, websites and broadcast networks since 1996 and have covered the NFL extensively for The Washington Post, CBS Sports and The NFL Network from 2004-2025.
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Badenoch blasts 'moaning' female Labour MPs over Burnham jobs 'quota'
Kemi Badenoch has told Labour women to earn a job in Andy Burnham's Cabinet instead of demanding they are handed jobs because of their gender.
The Tory leader lashed out today amid reports that female MPs are demanding the de-facto new prime minister introduce a 50:50 gender split 'quota' in his government.
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister also complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts.
But in a scathing article in the Times today Mrs Badenoch told them to 'stop moaning' and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'.
'There are many, many reasons why you shouldn't have any Milibands in the cabinet,' she said.
'But complaining that the boys haven't given them the right jobs or that the boys are taking all the jobs, just shows that Labour's women still don't get it.'
The idea of quotas was also attacked by Baroness Jacqui Smith, Labour's Skills Minister.
Asked by Times Radio if Mr Burnham should reserve jobs for women, she said: 'No, I think what Andy Burnham should be doing is building the very best team around him to change this country.'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband (above, right, in 2010) is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts
But Mrs Badenoch told them to pipe down and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party and seen by the BBC has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs after he succeeds Sir Keir Starmer.
'We are asking you to demonstrate this change from day one and address the toxicity and misogyny within our own party and government,' it said.
Labour has never had a female leader, while the Conservatives have had three, and Mrs Badenoch urged the government to follow its meritocratic example.
'If you run a meritocracy, then you do not have to worry about jobs for the boys,' she wrote.
'Every woman who is a Conservative MP, every woman who has ever won the leadership, has had to fight to get where she is.
'By contrast, Labour women are demanding guarantees from Burnham. But the truth is he doesn't have to give any guarantees.
'If none of Labour's women are prepared to get their hands dirty and challenge him for the leadership, their demands are toothless.'
'In fact, it's quite revealing that the women's parliamentary Labour Party has written to Burnham asking him to commit himself to at least 50 per cent female ministers.
'This has nothing to do with meritocracy. It is yet more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country.'
