The Ravens finished Monday night’s overtime loss without Tyre Phillips, and they will be without their starting left guard going forward. Baltimore placed Phillips on IR Tuesday.
A knee injury led to Phillips being carted off Monday, and he will join some high-profile teammates on IR. The Ravens are already down J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards and Rashod Bateman on offense. It remains to be seen if Phillips’ injury will allow him to make a return in his second season.
A third-round pick out of Mississippi State last year, Phillips started eight games for the Ravens as a rookie. The 331-pound blocker won the team’s left guard job to start this season, playing opposite free agent acquisition Kevin Zeitler. Ben Powers replaced Phillips in the Ravens’ lineup Monday, but the team also has third-round rookie Ben Cleveland on its active roster. The Ravens traded guard Ben Bredeson to the Giants just before the season.
Additionally, the Ravens waived Trenton Cannon on Tuesday. The team brought in the ex-Jets and Panthers special-teamer and used him as a ball-carrier Monday night. Cannon received two carries, playing behind Ty’Son Williams and Latavius Murray. The Ravens, however, have higher-profile backs Le’Veon Bell and Devonta Freeman on their practice squad.
I’m not sure exactly what happened but at some point in the last couple of years the Ravens’ offensive line seems to have gone from team strength to “throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks”. Obviously Yanda retiring was a huge loss, and don’t get me wrong, Ronnie Stanley is a stud. But outside of Stanley it seems to me that they haven’t been developing their young offensive linemen very well (at least the interior lineman, Stanley and Orlando Brown worked out well), and the veterans they’ve been plugging in have been mediocre at best. If they’re going to invest a lot of money in Lamar, they’d better also figure out their offensive line, and soon.