Eric DeCosta on Tyler Linderbaum: ‘We Strongly Hope to Have Him Back’
General Manager Eric DeCosta reiterated that the goal is to re-sign pending free agent Tyler Linderbaum, but he added that a deal for the three-time Pro Bowl center might not be imminent.
“We got some work to do on Tyler Linderbaum’s contract,” DeCosta said on “The Inner Circle Podcast.” “We strongly hope to have him back. He’s a great player for us and a great leader.”
Linderbaum, who said last month that he “absolutely” would like to stay with the Ravens, is expected to be one of the league’s most coveted players if he hits the open market when the legal free agency tampering period begins on March 9.
“I love my job, but if I could switch jobs for just the next couple of months, I would want to be Tyler Linderbaum’s agent, because everybody that I’ve talked to seems to be in on Tyler Linderbaum,” NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah said during his pre-NFL Scouting Combine conference call with the media on Thursday. “It sounds like he’s going to have a robust market, so congratulations to him and his family.”
Linderbaum’s next contract could reset the market for centers. The Kansas City Chiefs’ Creed Humphrey, who signed a four-year deal worth $72 million ($18 million per year) in 2024, is the league’s highest-paid player at the position.
Pro Football Focus’ contract projection for Linderbaum is four years, $80 million ($20 million per year) with $53 million guaranteed, while Spotrac’s projection is four years, $70.9 million ($17.7 million per year).
Regarding the offensive line as a whole, DeCosta praised tackles Ronnie Stanley and Roger Rosengarten but said “we’ve got to augment the guard position, which is something that we can do.”
“We’ve got some good young guys that we really believe in this year they’re going to make a big, big jump this year for us,” DeCosta said. “Emery Jones is a guy we drafted last year in the third round [that] we feel really strongly about as being a guy that’s going to come in and win a spot for us at the guard spot.”
As for the defense, DeCosta said: “We’ve got to do a better job of getting after the quarterback for sure. I think we’ve got some young guys who can do that. I think losing Nnamdi Madubuike was a big blow for us this year. Terrible that we lost him early in the season like we did. But I think we’ve got some other guys on defense we’re excited about. Travis Jones. We’ve got some young outside linebackers we feel strongly about. We got Roquan [Smith]. And then our secondary has a lot of good players with Kyle Hamilton, Nate Wiggins, of course Marlon Humphrey’s a great player for us, too.
“I think there’s a strong nucleus coming back. I’m really, really excited to see [Head Coach] Jesse Minter’s influence on our defense. That’s his specialty, as a defensive coach. I think that’ll make a big impact.”
DeCosta added that having a nearly all-new coaching staff is a positive.
“I think sometimes change can be good,” DeCosta said. “With change comes innovation and new ways of doing things, new ways of practicing, a new scheme, and all these different things. That’s going to give us an advantage, I think, this year. When you do the same thing every year and you’re playing the Bengals twice a year, Steelers twice a year, and the Browns, these guys know us like the back of their hands.”