How have the Ravens drafted at offensive guard over the past 10 years?
The NFL draft is fast approaching and beginning to dominate the landscape of the league, including for the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens currently possess nine total picks for the 2024 draft and are slated to select at No. 30 overall in the first round.
Much can change between now and draft weekend, but the magnitude of the draft will remain the same. The Ravens have long prioritized using the draft as their primary mechanism to add talent and strengthen their roster.
In preparation for this year’s upcoming cycle, it can be useful to revisit history to understand the team’s drafting tendencies, where they’ve hit, where they’ve missed, and other notable trends. This series will outline each of the Ravens’ draft picks at certain positions dating back 10 years to 2014, broken down into the following categories:
- Early-Round = Player drafted in Round 1-2
- Mid-Round = Player drafted in Round 3-4
- Late-Round = Player drafted in Round 5-7
This is the second in a series of articles as we revisit noteworthy positions for the pending draft. Check out part one, where we analyzed wide receivers.
Next we’ll look at the offensive guard spot, where the Ravens have made a total of 10 draft selections during this span.
Early-Round Picks: N/A
Mid-Round Picks:
- Ben Cleveland (R3, 2021)
- Ben Bredeson (R4, 2020)
- Ben Powers (R4, 2019)
- Nico Siragusa (R4, 2017)
- Alex Lewis (R4, 2016)
Late-Round Picks:
- Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu (R6, 2023)
- Andrew Vorhees (R7, 2023)
- Jermaine Eluemunor (R5, 2017)
- Robert Myers (R5, 2015)
- John Urschel (R5, 2014)
Biggest hit: Ben Powers
Biggest miss: Ben Cleveland
The Ravens have not drafted an offensive guard in the first or second round in the past 10 years. They did select center Tyler Linderbaum with the No. 25 overall pick two years ago, however, so they haven’t completely obliged from adding to the interior offensive line with an early-round pick.
On top of that, they’ve only used one third-round selection on an offensive guard as well, which was Cleveland in 2021. Cleveland was initially thought to be a potential plug-and-play starter within his first two seasons. However, that has yet to bear true. He’s been a backup and rotational piece through three years thus far with seven career starts.
Inconsistencies as a blocker have canceled out Cleveland’s sheer size and athletic upside, but this upcoming 2024 season could be a breakthrough. It’s certainly a make-or-break type of season, as he was on the roster bubble last offseason. Given he’s the highest draft pick from this list, Cleveland could be considered the most disappointing selection. However, he could turn things around in a big way in the coming year.
Rounds 4-5 have been guard-heavy for the Ravens as they’ve drafted seven players at the position in those two rounds combined. Powers, their fourth-round pick in 2019, ultimately has proven to be the biggest success story thus far. He developed into a full-time starter by Year 3 and started all 17 games for the Ravens in 2022.
Powers had a career-best season that year and graded out as one of the league’s best blocking guards. His performance earned him a lucrative four-year deal in free agency from the Denver Broncos — one that the Ravens could not afford to match. Still, he gave the team back-to-back solid seasons as a starter.
The other players from this list no longer on the roster did not provide much aside from some spot starts and quality depth. The jury is still out on Aumavae-Laulu and Vorhees, who were taken in the sixth and seventh round last year, respectively. Aumavae-Laulu did not crack the rotation in Year 1 while Vorhees was on the shelf recovering from a torn ACL injury.
Both players will have an opportunity to compete with Cleveland and others for one of the starting guard positions this coming spring and summer. If either one can emerge as a quality starter, it would be a big boost and return on investment for a late-round selection.
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