Guard · Baltimore Ravens

Olaivavega Ioane

Rookie

Baltimore just made a bet on Olaivavega Ioane that the Ravens almost never make

The Baltimore Ravens don't do this often. Taking a guard in the first round, at pick 14 — they've done it exactly once before in franchise history. They just did it again with Olaivavega Ioane.

Ioane arrives as a player the Ravens believed in enough to move on early, before the board could take him. That kind of conviction from a front office that almost never spends a top pick on an offensive lineman says something about what they saw.

First-round offensive linemen carry a specific kind of weight. The expectation isn't a highlight; it's a foundation. The player who holds the pocket together, game after game, for whoever is running the offense. That's the job Baltimore just handed Ioane.

What happens next is the whole story. The draft pick is the beginning of the sentence, not the period.

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