Ravens lose Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum to the Las Vegas Raiders

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After a season of inconsistency on the offensive line, the Ravens are losing their only 2025 Pro Bowl lineman after failing to agree to a contract extension with three-time Pro Bowler Tyler Linderbaum.

Linderbaum and the Las Vegas Raiders reportedly agreed to a three-year, $81 million contract with $60 million guaranteed. The deal makes him the highest-paid interior offensive lineman in the NFL.

Since Linderbaum arrived in 2022 as one of the Ravens’ two first-round draft picks, he has anchored Baltimore’s offensive line.

He started all 17 regular-season games as a rookie, and he played in and started all but two games over his four years in Baltimore. After finishing seventh in AP Offensive Rookie of the Year voting, Linderbaum has been a Pro Bowler every season since.

Kansas City’s Creed Humphrey set the market for centers with an average annual value of $18 million, but entering the offseason, Linderbaum was expected to surpass that mark. Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said at the NFL scouting combine in February that the team offered Linderbaum a market-setting deal in an attempt to keep him.

Linderbaum ranked fifth among qualifying centers in overall PFF score in each of the last two seasons. He finished sixth in 2023.

He’s also had the fourth-highest run blocking grade among centers in three of his four seasons. In the fourth season, he finished sixth. The Ravens led the league in yards per carry in 2024 (5.8) and 2025 (5.2), and had the third-highest mark (4.9) in 2023 and the second-highest (5.2) in 2022.

While Linderbaum’s pass blocking hasn’t reached the same level of consistency and excellence, his PFF grades in that area have steadily improved over the years. Linderbaum didn’t allow a sack in 2023 and 2024, according to PFF.

In addition to growing as a player, Linderbaum developed into a leader over his four years in Baltimore.

In 2024, after three veterans left in free agency, teammates lauded Linderbaum’s increased role in the offense that season, and that carried into 2025.

Heading into the final year of Linderbaum’s rookie deal, the team declined to pick up his fifth-year option, which would have locked him in for another year at the high price of $23.4 million.

On the offensive line, the Ravens are set to return veteran starting left tackle Ronnie Stanley and right tackle Roger Rosengarten, who’s heading into his third season. While Rosengarten had an inconsistent 2025, the guards took the most heat. Left guard Andrew Vorhees will be a free agent in 2027, and right guard Daniel Faalele is a free agent this offseason.

The Ravens drafted lineman Emery Jones Jr. in the third round of the 2025 draft. He can play tackle and guard, but he was limited by injury throughout his rookie campaign.

This past year, the Ravens’ backup center was Corey Bullock, who went undrafted in 2024 and made the 53-man roster in 2025.

The Ravens entered the offseason with some work to do to become cap-compliant. Quarterback Lamar Jackson’s cap hit is set to reach $74.5 million (24.55% of the projected cap) unless the team extends or restructures his contract. The team’s trade with Linderbaum’s new team, the Raiders, for defensive end Maxx Crosby put their cap space in the red.

But they were able to address part of the interior line earlier Monday when they brought back left guard John Simpson, who played the past two seasons with the New York Jets. Simpson played for the Ravens next to Linderbaum in 2023.