Looking for another ‘dominant’ line, Ravens draft guard Vega Ioane with top pick

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A week ago, Eric DeCosta hinted that the Ravens’ draft strategy could be unpredictable.

But on Thursday night, with a surprising choice available at No. 14 overall, the Ravens general manager made one of the night’s most expected picks — and took one of the class’s cleanest prospects.

Penn State star Vega Ioane, whom DeCosta had touted as a prototypical guard pulled “straight from Central Casting,” will headline the Ravens’ offseason rebuild of their interior offensive line. After losing Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum in free agency, along with starting right guard Daniel Faalele, DeCosta has added two projected starting guards in free-agent signing John Simpson and now Ioane.

“We want to be a strong, imposing team,” DeCosta said late Thursday night. “So I think this guy just really checked off every single box for us as a player: mentality, personality, ability, skill level, athletic ability, physicality, all those different things, at a very high level. We love when we can get the best player at his position in the draft, which we’ve done a lot and kind of take pride in that. So we think he’s a great fit for us and certainly going to help the players around him on the offensive line. They’ll help him as well, but I think he’s going to make us better and really make the middle of our offense very strong.”

Ioane was considered one of the draft’s best offensive linemen. He allowed no sacks over the past two seasons and gave up just four total hurries last year, according to Pro Football Focus, while never drawing a penalty. Ioane had a blown-block rate in pass protection of just 0.7% in 2025, according to Sports Info Solutions.

Coach Jesse Minter acknowledged that the Ravens still have to determine where Ioane will play. He lined up almost exclusively at left guard at Penn State; Simpson, meanwhile, has played less than 100 snaps at right guard over his six NFL seasons. Ioane also started a game at center, though the Ravens are expected to look for a starter there on Day 2 or Day 3 of the draft.

Ioane’s limited positional flexibility was one of the few weaknesses in his draft profile. Offensive line analyst Brandon Thorn rated Ioane as his top overall offensive line prospect in this class.

“He projects as a tone-setting interior presence who can control the pocket and create movement in a downhill or balanced run game,” Thorn wrote on his “Trench Warfare” blog.

Ioane was widely expected to be available at No. 14. So was Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq. Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain, however, was not. One of the draft’s most polarizing players, Bain dominated during Miami’s run to the College Football Playoff championship game, quieting concerns about his arm length.

The decision to take Ioane, DeCosta said afterward, was not easy. But in doing so, the Ravens doubled down on their investment in quarterback Lamar Jackson and running back Derrick Henry. Jackson was sacked on a career-high 10.7% of his drop-backs last season and pressured on 42.4% of them, according to PFF, his first-ever season over 40%. Henry’s average yards before contact fell from 2.4 to 1.6, a sharp decline, as his rushing average fell from 5.9 yards to 5.2.

The 6-foot-4, 326-pound Ioane is a self-described “mauler” who should help the Ravens hold up against the AFC North’s infusion of talented defensive tackles. Over the past year, the Cleveland Browns drafted Mason Graham in the first round, the Pittsburgh Steelers took Derrick Harmon in the first, and the Cincinnati Bengals traded for star Dexter Lawrence.

“When I’m on the field, nobody is going to stand in front of me and survive,” Ioane said. “That’s my biggest mentality. I’m out there trying to move people off the ball, make them not get to my quarterback. That’s always been my mentality. But it’s a switch for me that I’ve been working on for a while, and it’s doing pretty well.”

The Ravens were also linked during the predraft process to Utah’s Spencer Fano and Miami’s Francis Mauigoa, standout tackles who some experts consider better fits inside. Both were picked inside the top 10, and DeCosta said he grew a “little concerned” that Ioane might not make it to No. 14, either.

The Ravens weren’t necessarily committed to staying there: DeCosta said a trade-back proposal fell apart after their would-be partner decided it would stick and pick. At that point, he said, “it was easy for us to turn the card in.”

Ioane joins Ben Grubbs, the No. 29 overall selection in the 2007 draft, as the only guards the Ravens have drafted in the first round in franchise history. But DeCosta said Ioane reminded him of another Day 1 pick during his visit to team headquarters: defensive lineman Haloti Ngata, a Ring of Honor member in Baltimore.

“Even though he’s a younger person, even the way that he carried himself with a quiet confidence stood out,” DeCosta said of Ioane. “So in the end, as you’re trying to split all these guys up, because these guys are all really good players ... these interviews and these visits, they end up really kind of becoming the nuance of how you kind of split hairs with these guys.”

Those differences will be scrutinized in the coming years. One pick after Ioane’s selection, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took Bain, who DeCosta said “would’ve made a great Raven.” One pick after that, the New York Jets took Sadiq, another prospect connected to Baltimore in recent weeks.

But Ioane’s fit was tough to beat. He fits the image that Minter wants the Ravens to project: “a line-of-scrimmage-dominant team.” He fits what should be a diverse Ravens run game — powerful enough to displace linemen in gap schemes, quick enough to cut them off in zone schemes. And he fits the Ravens’ organizational ethos, a by-any-means resilience that too often abandoned the team in its final year under coach John Harbaugh.

“That’s exactly what I want. I want to go nowhere else where it’s soft football,” Ioane said. “Football is meant to be physical and all those types of things. That’s exactly where I think I can fit in.”