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The Ravens drafted Washington offensive tackle Roger Rosengarten in the second round Friday night, finding a potential rookie starter with the No. 62 overall pick.
The 6-foot-5, 308-pound Rosengarten was a two-year starter at right tackle for the Huskies and didn’t allow a sack over the past two seasons, according to Pro Football Focus. He was considered a potential dark-horse first-round prospect entering the draft.
After taking Clemson cornerback Nate Wiggins with the No. 30 overall pick Thursday night, Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said he was confident the team would find immediate-impact offensive linemen on Day 2 of the draft. Rosengarten, who grew up playing left tackle and switched to the right side to protect quarterback Michael Penix Jr.’s blind side, is expected to compete with Daniel Faalele for the starting job.
“He was a player that we had kind of had our sights on today,” DeCosta said Friday night. “He was one of our top players in the entire [second] round today, and I think [we are] fortunate that we got him when we did.”
Rosengarten met with the Ravens at the Senior Bowl, where he stood out, and again at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. He said Ravens coaches were so impressed that they cut their combine meeting short by a few minutes.
He recalled being told, “Hey, man, you check all the boxes.”
“He was just so on point,” coach John Harbaugh recalled. “He was on point, he knew his technique, he knew his assignments, he was very self-aware with the things he needed to get better at, and he just seemed like a motivated guy. He seemed like a Raven.”
But he also might’ve been a phone call away from becoming a Chief. DeCosta indicated Friday night that another team drafting behind the Ravens had engaged them in trade talks, only to drop out, trade for another pick behind the Ravens and take a tackle.
That team was likely Kansas City, which picked BYU offensive tackle Kingsley Suamataia with the No. 63 overall pick, one slot after the Ravens drafted Rosengarten.
“There’s a theory that they were [planning on] drafting Roger,” DeCosta said. “We got lucky that we didn’t go back a few spots, because we might have missed out on the guy that we wanted. You know, you’d think that you go back two spots, [there’s] a pretty good chance to get your guy, but there’s a chance we might have been disappointed.”
Rosengarten has short arms for the position (26th percentile among offensive tackles), but he can win early in pass sets with his aggressive approach. Rosengarten’s mobility (4.92-second 40-yard dash) served him well in Washington’s zone-based running schemes, which the Ravens started to embrace more last year under coordinator Todd Monken.
Rosengarten, who weighed 308 pounds at the combine, said he felt comfortable playing around 305 to 315 pounds. “I just want to feel strong and especially mobile, feel athletic on the edge and get out in space,” he said. Growing up, Rosengarten said, he looked up to six-time Pro Bowler Joe Staley, the longtime San Francisco 49ers left tackle whose playing weight was also around 300 pounds.
“I’m my own biggest critic,” Rosengarten said. “It’s unbelievable to say it, but I think there’s a lot in my game that I need to critique and get better at. So when it comes back to game film, I wish I could give you one strong answer, but I got a whole lot to work on. ... My game isn’t perfect. I feel like I have certain strengths in certain areas and certain weaknesses in areas.”
“He’s a young player,” Harbaugh said. “You guys will see him; I mean, he’s young. He’s going to get stronger, [and] we’ll get him in the weight room. He’s a very gifted athlete. He’s played some left tackle. He played left tackle at the Senior Bowl. [He has] very good feet, body mechanics, change of direction, agility. He’s just got to get physically stronger, as a lot of guys do, and so, he will. He’ll fill out and get stronger. We have a great strength program, and he’ll see quick results, I think.”
Offensive line was a focus for team officials entering the draft. The Ravens lost three of their five starters, with guards John Simpson and Kevin Zeitler leaving in free agency and right tackle Morgan Moses traded to the New York Jets. That left just two starters in place for 2024: Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum and left tackle Ronnie Stanley, who’s struggled with injuries.
The Ravens’ deal for running back Derrick Henry last month reaffirmed their commitment to the running game, but DeCosta acknowledged that rebuilding their line was “the mission in the coming weeks.”
“I think we’re on our way,” he said last month. “We have a good plan. We’re fortunate that this draft class is pretty good from that standpoint. I don’t want to call it historically strong, but it looks like a very strong crop of offensive linemen. I say this every year, but as a wise man once said, ‘We don’t play games until September. We’ll be ready.’”
Patrick Mekari filled in for both Stanley and Moses when they were injured last season and could be in the mix at right tackle, but his season-long durability is a concern. Harbaugh said Rosengarten could also play guard, if needed.
“We’re just going to roll the offensive line out there,” Harbaugh said, “and let them compete.”
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Jonas Shaffer is a Ravens beat writer for The Baltimore Banner. He previously covered the Ravens for The Baltimore Sun. Shaffer graduated from the University of Maryland and grew up in Silver Spring.
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