Why Tyler Linderbaum poses an ‘irrational’ threat to the Ravens

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Seven years ago, in his first offseason as Ravens general manager, Eric DeCosta had a market to hold off. Inside linebacker C.J. Mosley, a four-time Pro Bowl pick, was at the end of his rookie deal. He wanted to return. The Ravens wanted him to return.

But an even greater force at play was beyond their control: free agency.

“I certainly hope that C.J. is back,” DeCosta told reporters in January 2019, two months before the Ravens decided against designating the 26-year-old with the franchise tag. “I believe in my heart that he will be.” He added: “We’re in the business of keeping our good football players.”

Just not by overpaying for them. Long before Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum’s pending free agency became a defining storyline of the Ravens’ 2026 offseason, there was Mosley and his own open-market stress test.

Under former general manager Ozzie Newsome, DeCosta’s mentor, the Ravens’ roster-building approach had abided by a simple mantra: right player, right price. Under DeCosta, the Ravens valued Mosley highly. The New York Jets just happened to value him more. Their five-year, $85 million deal was the richest ever for an off-ball linebacker, worth nearly $5 million more per year than perennial All-Pro Luke Kuechly’s contract.

“Unfortunately for us, the market is irrational at times and we can’t be held responsible for what other teams want to pay,” DeCosta told the Associated Press after Mosley’s exit. “All we can do is try to negotiate in good faith with agents and the players.”

That, more than any team or agent or contractual sticking point, is perhaps what looms largest over the Ravens’ negotiations with Linderbaum, another free-agent star at a non-premium position. Irrational markets do not tend to deliver right-player, right-price arrangements to general managers. Scarcity, external pressures and compressed timelines drive free-agent values up. How else do you explain an unexceptional left tackle signing a four-year contract worth $20.5 million annually last year?

If DeCosta cannot keep Linderbaum from reaching free agency next week with what he called a “market-setting offer,” the ensuing bidding war will test DeCosta’s values as the Ravens’ personnel chief. How much irrationality will he tolerate to re-sign a player he once committed to keeping? How far off budget will he stray to fortify an offensive line he needs to upgrade?

The market will not be kind to DeCosta. Sports Illustrated, citing speculation at last week’s NFL scouting combine, reported Monday that Linderbaum was “shooting for $25 million per year in free agency” — $7 million per year more than the market-setting deal that Kansas City Chiefs star Creed Humphrey, widely considered the NFL’s best center, signed in August 2024.

Linderbaum’s next contract should easily eclipse that. The Tennessee Titans, who have an NFL-high $81.5 million in “effective” salary cap space, according to Over The Cap, need a center. So do the Los Angeles Chargers ($80.2 million). And the Las Vegas Raiders ($73.6 million). And the Washington Commanders ($65.6 million). And a handful of other teams with money to burn.

Only one general manager, however, has publicly declared his intent to sign Linderbaum. When the Ravens announced in April that they’d declined his fifth-year option, wary of the $23.6 million price tag in 2026, DeCosta said in a statement that it was “our intention for him to remain a Raven long term.”

Last month, in a podcast interview, DeCosta called Linderbaum the NFL’s best center and reiterated his interest in re-signing him. “I think we’ve always been a team that has valued the importance of … the trenches and being up front, which is one of the reasons why we want to bring Tyler back, if we can,” he said.

If the market for Linderbaum is indeed irrational, the rationale for keeping him in Baltimore is common sense. His weaknesses in pass protection are perhaps overstated; two years ago, before the arrival of since-departed offensive line coach George Warhop, Linderbaum graded out as one of Pro Football Focus’ top pass-blocking centers. In 2025, he finished behind only Humphrey among centers in ESPN’s pass block win rate, which measures how often linemen sustain their blocks for 2.5 seconds or longer. According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, a large share of the sacks and pressures he allowed came on drop-backs of at least four seconds.

Losing Linderbaum could mean a complete revamping of the Ravens’ interior line, the weakest part of an underwhelming, under-fire unit. DeCosta said before last season that “the best is yet to come” with the Ravens’ offensive line; instead, all five starters either stagnated or regressed. Quarterback Lamar Jackson was under constant duress, and running back Derrick Henry struggled to find open running lanes. Linderbaum’s run blocking was one of the Ravens’ few reliable strengths up front.

“It’s an O-line-, D-line-driven league,” Ravens coach Jesse Minter said at the combine last week. “Just look at the Super Bowl winners of the last couple of years; I think that’s really where you start. How have these teams won that final game? Two years ago, it was the Eagles’ O-line, D-line. … This year, Seattle, same deal. So I think that’s an area that you’re always looking to get better [at]. I think there are some good pieces there, and so it’ll be about coaching them up, developing them more, and then adding some pieces to help us get to that level.”

So much of the Ravens’ offseason has already seemed premised on Linderbaum’s return. New offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford, over his two years as the Atlanta Falcons’ run game coordinator, leaned heavily into outside-zone runs — exactly the kind of concept Linderbaum excels at.

New offensive coordinator Declan Doyle is expected to feature Jackson in fewer designed runs and in more under-center formations — a reasonable trade-off for an offense that can reliably execute up front without the gravitational pull of its dual-threat quarterback.

And if the Ravens re-sign pending restricted free agent Keaton Mitchell and keep Justice Hill, they’d have one of the NFL’s deepest, most expensive running back rooms — an investment contingent on the line clearing far more holes for Henry and Co. than it did in 2025.

“I think we’ve always been a team that has valued the importance of the trenches and being up front,” DeCosta said at the combine last week.

Over the next week, Linderbaum’s value to the Ravens will come into focus. So will DeCosta’s offseason priorities. Not every big-name departure is for the worse; with the money the Ravens saved in 2019 by not retaining Mosley, they had the means to sign running back Mark Ingram and safety Earl Thomas in free agency. Both became key pieces of a team that finished 14-2 that season, powered by the NFL’s best offense and a top-five defense.

“We’re in the business of having the best football players we can,” DeCosta said at their introductory news conference seven years ago. And not all business is good business. Now, as the supply-and-demand dynamics of Linderbaum’s market become clearer, the Ravens must decide what they value most.