The Ravens didn’t draft a left tackle until the fifth round and they haven’t re-signed Bryant McKinnie, who has started taking some visits with other teams in search of a job for next season.
Uncertainty has led to some worry about the position in Baltimore. Perhaps that’s why General Manager Ozzie Newsome felt it necessary to confirm, via the team’s website, that “we’ll have somebody lined up at left tackle” when the season gets underway in September. Could this be where Tim Tebow lands?
We’re kidding about that -- at least we think we are -- but the Ravens will continue to face questions about left tackle as long as McKinnie is unsigned and the Ravens haven’t anointed someone as his definitive successor. Newsome doesn’t make it sound like the latter will be happening anytime soon.
“It’s so fluid. We don’t know, and I’m going to knock on wood,” Newsome said. “Up until we get this 53-man squad together before we have to get ready to play Denver, this is going to be a very fluid situation. But, I don’t turn down any good players. I just don’t. We find a way to get them.”
It’s important to remember that the Ravens didn’t turn to McKinnie until the playoffs last season after spending the regular season with Michael Oher on the left side. That’s not an ideal way to run an offensive line, but it worked out for them and it does explain their lack of urgency in terms of knowing who will be playing the position more than four months before the first game of the year.