![\"Lamar](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2177108545-e1780083005506.jpg\")
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Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson and center Tyler Linderbaum. <\/p>\n
There is so much good and different about the Baltimore Ravens<\/a> in 2026, including a new head coach in Jesse Minter, that it almost gets lost that they just underwent a free-agent exodus that would have crippled most teams.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t cripple the Ravens, though, and the main reason why is 2-time NFL MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson<\/a>. In him, the Ravens have a player that draft picks are always excited to play with and free agents are always ready to team up with.<\/p>\n For all the talent the Ravens have brought in via the draft and the open market, there is still 1 hole that hasn\u2019t been filled that could very well be Jackson\u2019s biggest roadblock to winning his 1st Super Bowl.<\/p>\n According to Bleacher Report\u2019s Brad Gagnon<\/a>, that \u201cobstacle\u201d is the absence of 3-time Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum<\/a>, who left Baltimore for a 3-year, $81 million free-agent contract with the Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>.<\/p>\n That things seemed to get contentious between the Ravens and Linderbaum only emphasized how important he was to both Jackson and the franchise, and the reason the Raiders made him the highest-paid interior offensive lineman in NFL<\/a> history.<\/p>\n \u201cThe John Harbaugh era is over, leaving Jackson to adjust to a new system that is being introduced by 30-year-old incoming offensive coordinator Declan Doyle,\u201d Gagnon wrote. \u201cOn top of that, he\u2019s lost a Pro Bowl center in Tyler Linderbaum.\u201d<\/p>\n Tyler Linderbaum NFL\u2019s Biggest Free-Agency Winner<\/p>\n The Brinks Truck full of cash that the Raiders threw at Linderbaum led Gagnon to call him the NFL\u2019s \u201cBiggest Winner\u201d in the 2026 free-agent cycle.<\/p>\n \u201cLinderbaum reset the center market with an AAV that is 50 percent higher than former leader\u00a0Creed Humphrey<\/a> ($18 million), while the $10-million-per-year guard club saw its membership rise by 30 percent,\u201d Gagnon wrote in March. \u201cTeams are really starting to value interior offensive linemen more heavily.\u201d<\/p>\n Tyler Linderbaum\u2019s Contract Shocked Experts<\/p>\n There was little doubt the market was going to be robust for Linderbaum \u2014 few realized how desperate teams were going to be to land an interior offensive lineman like him in his prime.<\/p>\n Just minutes after the NFL\u2019s official tampering period opened on Monday, Linderbaum had his record-setting deal.<\/p>\n \u201cESPN Sources: former Ravens free-agent center Tyler Linderbaum reached agreement today on a record deal with the Raiders, who are awarding him with a three-year, $81 million deal that includes $60 million guaranteed and makes him the highest paid interior offensive lineman in NFL history,\u201d\u00a0ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter wrote<\/a>\u00a0on his official X account. \u201cBefore today,\u00a0Cowboys<\/a>\u00a0guard\u00a0Tyler Smith<\/a>\u00a0was the NFL\u2019s highest-paid interior offensive lineman, with a deal that averaged $24 million per year. Tyler Linderbaum\u2019s deal averages $27 million per year.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ravens actually made the wrong kind of franchise history by losing Linderbaum to the Raiders.<\/p>\n \u201cWith center Tyler Linderbaum going to Raiders,\u00a0this marks just the second time in the Ravens\u2019 31-year history that they have failed to keep a multiple Pro Bowl first-round pick past his rookie deal,\u201d\u00a0ESPN\u2019s Jamison Hensley<\/a>\u00a0wrote on X on Monday. \u201cThe other time this occurred was 2019 with\u00a0C.J. Mosley<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tTony Adame<\/a> covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Commanders, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles and Denver Broncos. A veteran sports writer and editor since 2004, his work has been featured at Stadium Talk, Yardbarker, NW Florida Daily News and Pensacola News Journal. More about Tony Adame<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson and center Tyler Linderbaum. There is so much good and different about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":904683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2052],"tags":[184,117,2282,7,6,169],"class_list":["post-904682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-ravens","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-baltimoreravens","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-ravens"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116659704738626989","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}