The Ravens may have flirted with the idea of a center battle, but Ethan Pocic looks like the guy who was always meant to win it.
That possibility sharpened when Danny Pinter was carted off the field in Minnesota during a joint practice with the Vikings, just as Pocic was moving his recovery from Achilles surgery to the next phase. What might have been framed as a competition now looks much more like a formality.
Baltimore’s roster already feels mostly settled, and Pocic was the last meaningful addition to it. He arrived as the best interior offensive lineman still on the market after getting cleared to practice, and the Ravens moved quickly to bring him in after spending the spring looking at Pinter and other centers without ever really sounding convinced enough to hand the job to any of them.
Pocic brings exactly what a team wants at the position: experience, steady snapping, and a long track record as a capable starter. Pinter, meanwhile, always seemed more likely to be the backup who can cover multiple spots. Head coach Jesse Minter said after Wednesday’s practice that there was no real update on Pinter as he waited on more testing, and the hope is he won’t be out long.
Minter was much more direct when talking about Pocic and the way the Ravens have been bringing him along. He said Pocic was able to start taking snaps in the preseason opener, and that fit the team’s timeline.
“I felt like we kind of targeted this second week of the preseason of kind of ramping up into more of the action anyway,” Minter said of Pocic. “It is why you sign guys like that - is to, one, put them in the competition, two, to make sure you have enough in that situation. You do not ever want to see anybody go down, but certainly feel good about the way 'Jo' [Jovaughn Gwyn] played in the game and obviously about Ethan in the way that he has played throughout his whole career."
Gwyn has drawn notice in camp, and Minter described him as “Really powerful and athletic,” while also pointing to the fact that Baltimore’s offensive line coach has worked with him for the last few years.
“I would say that he has been really well-trained, because our offensive line coach has coached him for the last few years. So, he really understands how we want to play, which is great.
“He has been in a similar system, some of the wide-zone stuff that the Falcons ran, and a lot of familiarity with Coach Ledford and how he operates. So, he is definitely great to have."
Even with that praise, the path for Gwyn still looks steep. He has snapped the ball only 11 times in his NFL career and has never handled more than six offensive snaps in a game. Most of his work has come on special teams.
Pocic’s resume is simply too long and too established to ignore. He has logged 5967 offensive snaps in his career, and that kind of experience carries real weight for a team asking a center to help guide an offense that is installing a new system with a rookie coordinator and trying to keep Lamar Jackson on track after Tyler Linderbaum left for a record contract in Las Vegas.
That is why the Ravens signing a veteran center always made more sense than trying to force a younger, less proven option into the role. Doyle’s mentor, Sean Payton, made a strong case for the value of having a veteran center while building out a system, and the less Doyle has to worry about what his center can and can’t do in games that matter, the better.
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