When the Ravens traded Marquise Brown to Arizona, they acquired a first-round pick which that positioned them to draft Tyler Linderbaum.
Brown will be the Cardinals' top receiver when the Ravens face them on Sunday. But in Linderbaum, the Ravens found an anchor for their offensive line who has quickly become one of the NFL's top centers. A starter from Day 1, Linderbaum was named to the All-Rookie Team last season and has built on that this year season, adjusting seamlessly to a new system under first-year Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken.
Former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez took note of how Linderbaum is communicating in the middle of Baltimore's offensive line, working out the protections to help his fellow linemen and quarterback Lamar Jackson.
Linderbaum said the biggest difference from his rookie season is that fewer things are new.
"The more you're around this league, the more you learn and you build off that," Linderbaum said. "Plus, I'm around a lot of guys on this offensive line that are really good. I'm still learning from them, and I'm getting bigger and stronger as I work on my technique. I'm still working very hard to get better."
Jackson didn't get sacked once last week by Detroit. He only took one sack the week before that in London. That's no coincidence, as the Ravens' offensive line has gotten healthier and had all five starters the past two weeks. Linderbaum, who missed two games in Cincinnati and versus the Colts, has held up his end of the bargain and more.
"We didn't have Ronnie for a few games early, but now that we're stacking games with the whole unit together, it's huge," Linderbaum said. "There's chemistry to offensive line play, working next to each other. The more games we can do that, the better we're going to be."
Linderbaum said the Ravens are eager to produce another efficient, high-scoring game in Arizona to keep the momentum going.
"The first five games, we were putting some good stuff out there, but we were putting some bad stuff out there," Linderbaum said. "It's a matter of putting four quarters together. Even last week there was some stuff we need to clean up. This is another opportunity on Sunday to put a clean game out there, be as efficient as possible."
John Harbaugh on Preparing for Two Quarterbacks
Kyler Murray, who has not played since injuring his knee last season, was a full practice participant Wednesday and was removed from the injury report Thursday, indicating that there are no more limitations on his surgically repaired knee.
Arizona Head Coach Jonathan Gannon answered, "We'll see" when asked if Murray will play against the Ravens.
Head Coach John Harbaugh smiled when asked how the Ravens were dealing with the possibility of facing either Murray or Joshua Dobbs, who has been Arizona's starter.
"We'll see," Harbaugh said. "We'll be ready for whichever quarterback is playing.
"Joshua Dobbs has been in our division, seen him a lot. Very talented arm strength, can get out of the pocket and really run and cover ground. He's got a bunch of yards both scrambling and quarterback option stuff. He's definitely at the top of our list in terms of defending their offense."
Cardinals Run Game Is a Strength
Despite being 1-6, the Cardinals are ranked sixth in the NFL in rushing, averaging 139.0 yards per game.
Arizona's leading rusher, James Conner, is on injured reserve with a knee injury, but their rushing attack has been led recently by Emari Demercado, who had 58 yards against the Seahawks in Week 7. Dobbs is second on the team in rushing (232 yards) averaging 5.7 yards per carry. Harbaugh expects the Cardinals to test Baltimore's run defense.
"A team that wants to run the ball is going to run the ball," Harbaugh said. "They're going to call runs, and we're going to have to stop it. If we don't stop it, they're going to keep running it."
