How Cam Jurgens aims to fix the Ravens’ battered offensive line

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The best way for an offensive lineman to get noticed is to blow a block. The second-best way is to go missing. The third-best way, as Ravens center Cam Jurgens learned Wednesday, might be to offer a remedy for the first two.

As much as this Ravens line would prefer to toil anonymously in the trenches, ineptitude and injuries have conspired to push it under even brighter spotlights. So it was that, after practice Wednesday, one of this season’s biggest locker room crowds formed around Jurgens. Over a six-minute media session, Jurgens’ first meeting with reporters since arriving in an Oct. 7 trade, even outside linebacker Trey Hendrickson stopped by to take in the scene, hovering briefly near the back of the three-deep throng.

The hope in Baltimore is that Jurgens’ return to health, after two weeks in the NFL’s concussion protocol, will solidify the team’s offensive line ahead of a brutal six-week stretch. The reality is that his Ravens debut Sunday, in an AFC North showdown against the Cincinnati Bengals, would only underscore the absurdities of their line’s availability issues.

Through six weeks, according to SumerSports, the Ravens have used eight distinct five-man offensive line combinations; only the New England Patriots (11) have featured more. Ten Ravens linemen have played at least one offensive snap; only the Los Angeles Chargers (12) and Philadelphia Eagles (11) have played more.

Jurgens would be the Ravens’ third starting center in the past five games; the team went through just two total from 2022 to 2025, a 68-game span.

“It’s just been a wild couple weeks,” Jurgens said. He was recounting his own journey back to the field, but he could’ve just as easily been describing the state of the Ravens’ line. “I mean, it’s hard to describe everything. I’m just glad I’m here. This team has been so welcoming.”

The Ravens need the help. Their Week 1 starting line was no surprise: left tackle Ronnie Stanley, left guard John Simpson, center Jovaughn Gwyn, right guard Vega Ioane, right tackle Roger Rosengarten. Their projected Week 7 lineup at M&T Bank Stadium has just one change: Jurgens, a two-time Pro Bowl pick with Philadelphia, in at center.

But the Ravens’ path to perhaps their most talented starting five in years has been anything but straightforward. Stanley missed a game with a toe injury. Simpson has dealt with a groin injury for over a month. Gwyn and Ethan Pocic, the Ravens’ most experienced center, headed to injured reserve after Week 3 setbacks.

Ioane has started three straight games at center. Andrew Vorhees started at right guard after Ioane bumped over, then lost the job to Emery Jones when he got hurt. Now Ioane is back at right guard — with an ankle injury that limited him in practice Wednesday.

“There are problems every week, and you’re trying to solve them,” offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said Thursday. He called the Ravens’ offensive line “kind of a rotating door.”

That the Ravens have soared as high as they have this season (No. 6 in overall offensive efficiency, according to FTN) with quarterback Lamar Jackson sidelined by an ankle injury for two-plus games and their line riddled by inconsistency is both a warning sign and a sign of hope. Either Doyle’s offense is bound to regress, as it did in Sunday’s 13-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns, or its best days are ahead.

Consider: The Ravens have the NFL’s highest blown-block rate, according to Sports Info Solutions, yet rank fourth in yards per play (6.0) — and first with Jackson on the field (6.9). The Ravens have allowed the highest rate of unblocked pressures (43.9% of drop-backs), according to FTN, yet Jackson ranks fourth in the league in yards per pressured attempt (7.8). The Ravens are 30th in late-down rushing success rate, according to RBSDM, yet rank sixth in early-down rushing success rate.

“Injuries and things like that happen, so it’s our job, with the players that we have, to put them in the best position to be successful,” coach Jesse Minter said Monday. “I think that’s a challenge to all of us as coaches, honestly.”

General manager Eric DeCosta, whose investments in the offensive line have come under heavy scrutiny since a disappointing 2025, said before the Ravens’ season opener last month that the unit was headed “in the right direction” under offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford. He hoped the Ravens’ blocking would “build and build and build,” peaking in time for a potential playoff run.

With five playoff contenders looming on the Ravens’ schedule before a Week 13 bye, their midseason rebuild will need to be fast-tracked. Sunday’s game could offer a useful measuring stick.

The Ravens must protect either Jackson, likely slowed by his ankle injury, or backup Tyler Huntley from a Bengals pass rush that ranks third in the NFL in sack rate (8.8%). And they must establish the run against a Dexter Lawrence-led defensive front that ranks first in the league in stuff rate (runs stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage) and last in explosive-run rate (at least 10 yards allowed).

Jurgens, who hasn’t lined up at center in a game since Week 1 with Philadelphia, is intimately familiar with the massive Lawrence, a three-time Pro Bowl pick with the New York Giants. But Jurgens has plenty else on his plate this week: learning the Ravens’ offensive terminology (“It’s like I’m speaking English and the next day I’m learning Mandarin”), familiarizing himself with Jackson and Huntley’s cadence, executing Ledford’s blocking schemes in practices and walk-throughs, even getting settled in Maryland.

“When you look at bringing in a veteran, experienced guy that’s played a lot, that’s played in huge games and that’s been in [the] Super Bowl, I don’t think there’s going to be any type of moment or anything that’s going to be big for him,” Minter said Wednesday of Jurgens. “He’s going to communicate at a high level. It’s our job to make sure that he’s communicating the right stuff, and that’s what the preparation and the practices allow you to do. But I expect him to actually really lift that area for us.”

Growth up front will not be linear. The Ravens followed maybe their best run-blocking performance of the season, a Week 5 win over the Atlanta Falcons (208 rushing yards), with easily their worst, Sunday’s loss in Cleveland (87 yards).

Ioane could need time to readjust to playing right guard, just as Jurgens could need time after moonlighting at guard for the Eagles. Doyle is still finding his rhythm as a play-caller. Further injuries are always a risk.

But if this Ravens line is to emerge as a strength — “The sky’s the limit for us,” Rosengarten said Thursday — its weaknesses must first be understood. Ledford said this month that the “real-life reps” of the regular season provide “so many wonderful lessons” that are otherwise out of reach during the offseason and preseason.

“When we come back in here on Monday for film review, there is so much growth that we can take from that film session,” Ledford said. “You try to make sure that that growth is happening throughout the season, and I think that that is what you want from the group.”