Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry will sleep well Thursday night, as the Ravens made a big investment in their trenches with the selection of guard Vega Ioane with the 14th pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Ioane has long been the most popular mock draft projection for the Ravens for good reason. As General Manager Eric DeCosta said before the draft, he's "straight from central casting."
Ioane is a 6-foot-4, 326-pound monster who the Ravens can plug into the offensive line as an instant starter and massive upgrade. Jackson was sacked 36 times last season, and the Ravens are serious about re-establishing their dominance in the trenches.
Ioane relishes punishing defenders. He has the power to toss linemen out of the club and the temperament to make sure they don't come back.
"When I'm on the field, nobody is going to stand in front of me and survive," he said. "I'm out there trying to move people off the ball, make them not get to my quarterback."
In a draft class that many pundits said didn't have many blue-chip prospects, the Ravens got a guard they can count on to excel for a very long time. The Ravens could have drafted EDGE Rueben Bain Jr., who slipped down the board and was selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the next pick. The pick was immediately called the "safest" of the first round because it made the most sense and Ioane is such a clean prospect.
It's the highest Baltimore has ever selected a guard, but the Ravens have excelled when they've eschewed traditional positional value to take the best player. Multiple draft analysts feel he's the best guard prospect since the Colts' Quenton Nelson, who was drafted sixth overall in 2018 and has gone to eight Pro Bowls.
The Ravens lost Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum in free agency but signed veteran guard John Simpson to man one guard spot, and now used a first-round pick on Ioane to lock down the other. Two towering guards in the middle of Baltimore's offensive line, with Ronnie Stanley and Roger Rosengarten at the tackle spots, set the Ravens offense up to be better up front despite Linderbaum's exit.
In the ground game, the All-American paved the way in power downhill running, gap schemes, and zone running. Ioane didn't give up a sack or get flagged for a penalty over the past two seasons.
Ioane is excited to play with Jackson and Henry and said he has to "earn my keep."
"With the pass game, I'm coming in with the mentality that I'm not trying to get beat," Ioane said. "Nobody's going to touch my quarterback. It's as simple as that."
Ioane said he had a "good feeling" the Ravens would take him after he took a top-30 visit to the Under Armour Performance Center about two weeks ago. He noticed all the mock drafts projecting him to Baltimore.
"A lot of good people, a lot of good staff members in there," Ioane said. "It was more of a family environment than a work environment and that's exactly what I look for. I had a good feeling because everybody was saying stuff."
The youngest of nine children, Ioane said he had 40 family members with him and about 80 total people at his draft party in Washington. Now he's part of the Ravens' family and feels at home in the AFC North.
"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."
