Ravens’ Team-Building Approach ‘Will Keep Them Competitive for Years to Come’
The Ravens’ approach to team building is to field a team that contends for a championship every year, and their track record of success speaks for itself.
Fittingly, when ESPN’s Bill Barnwell handed out offseason superlatives for each AFC team, he named the Ravens, who lost a slew of key players in free agency, as the team most likely to trust itself.
“No organization can keep all of its outgoing free agents without spreading itself so financially thin that its roster snaps. The Ravens have been in the midst of competing in the AFC for most of the past, oh, 25 years, and they have a strong handle on what they’re good at and where they can develop talent,” Barnwell wrote. “With reigning MVP Lamar Jackson now in the middle of his new contract extension, GM Eric DeCosta & Co. had to be thoughtful about where they used their money and draft picks this offseason.”
Barnwell cited the personnel changes the Ravens made on both sides of the ball this offseason as examples of their organizational philosophy.
“The Ravens have a long record of drafting and developing interior linemen or otherwise acquiring journeymen linemen who become useful starters,” Barnwell wrote. “Last year, they lost guard Ben Powers and replaced him with John Simpson, who had been anonymous with the Raiders. They also let veteran guard Kevin Zeitler leave this offseason, and we’ll see Patrick Mekari, Ben Cleveland, Andrew Vorhees and Josh Jones compete for starting work on the interior around center Tyler Linderbaum.
“On the defensive side of the ball, the Ravens probably had to choose between keeping one of their two standout draftees. With Roquan Smith playing at an All-Pro level at middle linebacker, the choice was easy: They let Patrick Queen depart and retained interior disruptor Justin Madubuike, who was one of the league’s most…
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