The Ravens have turned center into the one spot on their roster with real suspense, and they’re not backing off that stance yet.
Rookie head coach Jesse Minter said Monday the team is still sorting out the position. “I think we are still evaluating that,” Minter said. “We will probably have, over the next week or so, to kind of figure that out, but I still think that is a real competition."
That competition appears to be between Jovaughn Gwyn and Ethan Pocic, and the Ravens are apparently comfortable letting that linger. If Gwyn gets the job, it would be a major bet on a player whose résumé at center includes 11 snaps as a special teams guy in Atlanta. Pocic, meanwhile, has nearly 6,000 career reps and was a player the Ravens had to beat out other teams to sign.
The timing makes the whole thing harder to ignore. Pocic is still working back from Achilles surgery, but the Ravens have placed themselves in a spot where they may need a center ready for Week 1, with Lamar Jackson at the controls. That matters even more because Jackson is coming off another injury-plagued season and is in a potential walk year, with the Ravens framed as being in Super Bowl or bust mode.
The bigger frustration is that this never had to become a scramble. Tyler Linderbaum left in free agency, and the Ravens had a record $360M payroll while losing an important piece at a critical moment, right as they install a brand-new offense. Rookie coordinator Declan Doyle has already stressed how much experience, communication and understanding matter at the position, and his mentor, Broncos coach Sean Payton, has said the same thing about his own scheme and especially when he was a young coach.
Still, the Ravens let the situation drift. They knew as far back as the combine that Linderbaum likely had a richer offer than they were willing to match.
The draft offered options. Instead, they signed Colts lineman Danny Pinter, who is now out for the season, and then lost more depth when the Panthers claimed Corey Bullock on waivers.
There’s at least some familiarity on Gwyn’s side. He worked with offensive line coach and run game coordinator Dwayne Ledford in Atlanta. But he never played offense there, and that only sharpens the concern if the Ravens truly plan to lean on him.
That’s why this choice carries so much weight. Calling it “Pocic vs.
Gwyn” simplifies a much messier problem. If the Ravens go with Gwyn for any stretch, he has to be ready to hold up immediately.
If Pocic isn’t ready, or if they believe Gwyn is simply the better option, they need to be right fast.
And if they’re wrong, the cost lands where it always does: right on the quarterback.
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Eric DeCosta later made it clear Baltimore had more than one team interested in Fagnanos availability, with trade offers coming in before the Ravens decided to hold onto him. For a club that has spent plenty of time evaluating young quarterbacks behind Lamar Jackson, that kind of attention is a meaningful sign, even if the next step for Fagnano still has to be earned one practice and one opportunity at a time. [Read more 🡒]