Ravens rookie offensive coordinator Declan Doyle didn’t exactly hide his answer at center on Tuesday. He just said it in the careful, coach-speak way that makes the obvious sound like a debate.
The obvious answer is Ethan Pocic.
That became even clearer after Doyle’s first real taste of life as a play caller Saturday in Minnesota, where the rookie’s inexperience showed up in a big way. Brian Flores and the Vikings defense threw enough exotic looks at Baltimore to rattle the offense, the first half was a mess, and the unit finished with seven penalties. For a staff and scheme in the middle of a sweeping overhaul, that kind of sloppiness was always going to surface sooner or later, especially on the road.
And in a setup like this, Doyle needs certainty somewhere. Center is the place.
“In our system,” Doyle said, reaffirming what Sean Payton had already stressed, “that center position is massive for us, especially in Year One, with a different quarterback at the helm, that guy’s (the center) got to direct a lot of the show.”
That is not the kind of line you say if you are truly leaning into a mystery. It sounds a lot more like a coach explaining why the most experienced communicator in the room matters most.
Pocic fits that description. Jovaughn Gwyn, with 11 career snaps at center, does not.
Jesse Minter has tried to keep the competition language alive, saying Monday, “We certainly like where he is at,” Minter said of Vaughn on Monday, “and we like where Ethan is at. I think he has really asserted himself into that competition. I think that is going to be an ongoing thing here over these next couple weeks."
But Doyle’s own words point in the other direction. He talked about Pocic the way coaches talk about the guy they trust to handle the center’s traffic cop duties - protections, adjustments, the constant communication that keeps an offense from falling apart when the defense starts moving pieces around.
“I always like a good communicator there,” Payton said. “We’ve had a number of different body types there, athletes.
I go all the way back to our first year (2006). You know, we’re drafting Roman Harper, we back up maybe four spots and we acquire Jeff Faine (traded 34th overall pick for the Browns starting center) and we essentially got two players with that move …
“I think the communication skills, just relative to the run game and protections, I think those (Doyle will) value, and then the athleticism,. “Our league has told us historically speaking that a player can have some different body statures, but I think it’s also told us there’s a certain level of football IQ, intelligence and communication skill that exists. So I think that’s important relative to the timing of the snaps and the closer to the ball, the more we value that type of thinker.”
That thinking tracks perfectly with Doyle’s situation. He is a first-time offensive coordinator.
He has a roster full of rookies in key spots. He also decided where he wants to call plays in Week 1, choosing the press box.
In that kind of environment, the center becomes more than just a lineman. He becomes the stabilizer.
Pocic, meanwhile, brings the kind of resume the Ravens need here: 5,967 regular-season snaps, experience handling protections and adjustments for multiple coaches, and the kind of veteran presence that teams pay for when they know they need reliability. He also arrived with real interest from around the league. That matters.
Doyle made it sound as if he already knows that. He said Pocic has been one of the first players in the building each morning, and praised how quickly he has taken to the offense.
“I come in every morning and he’s one of the first players here,” Doyle offered. “He’s exceptionally smart, he communicates at a really high level and you could see it from the first day he came out here.”
That is the answer hiding in plain sight. Gwyn can be depth and a developmental piece. But if the Ravens are protecting Lamar Jackson in a system that is brand new to Doyle, and if the rookie coordinator wants his offense to function cleanly from the start, Pocic is the center he keeps coming back to.
The “competition” talk can continue if people want it to. Doyle already told you where this is headed.
And if something happens to Pocic, the whole thing gets a lot shakier, fast.
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