The offensive line for the Baltimore Ravens is set to look quite different this season after losing three starters this offseason. The Ravens will have new faces at both guard positions and right tackle after John Simpson and Kevin Zeitler left in free agency and Morgan Moses was traded to the New York Jets.
One player initially thought to be in the mix for the opening at right tackle was Daniel Faalele. Faalele, entering his third season, has seen some playing time at both tackle spots through the first two years of his career. During training camp, however, Baltimore has experimented with the massive offensive lineman at guard.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh confirmed that the team was giving Faalele a shot at the position.
“We’re going to give it a shot and see how it looks,” Harbaugh said. “Daniel [Faalele] has very good feet for his size. He’s a big man, but he can move his feet; he can also bend and create leverage. When you’ve got that kind of size when you’re coming off the ball and some of those combination blocks, we feel like he’s got a chance with Tyler [Linderbaum] to move people in there, so all of those things. He keeps working on using his hands. [When] things happen quicker, you have to get your hands up quicker, you have to get your hands on people a little quicker – he’s working on that part of it, too – so we’ll see how he adapts.”
Ben Cleveland and Andrew Vorhees are two other names in the competition for the open guard spots.