The Baltimore Ravens will enter the 2021 NFL season with a new-look offensive line that features plenty of great talent. New players at the position include guards Kevin Zeitler and Ben Cleveland as well as tackle Alejandro Villanueva. However, it’s a lineman who was with the team last year that could arguably be the biggest key to the unit’s success.
Bradley Bozeman has played left guard for Baltimore over the last few seasons at a decently high level. However, he will be moving back to center in 2021 as he takes over for a multiple players including Matt Skura and Patrick Mekari.
When Bozeman was asked about how much he’s practiced his snaps, he said that he’s focused on that part of his game “a lot”.
“A ton – we just continued to practice. [Offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris] ‘Coach D,’ he’s kept us … Since I’ve been here, we’ve always stayed after and snapped. We’ve always stayed up on our snaps. We’ve always just made sure that everyone was ready for that opportunity when it became available. And no matter who it was, whoever went down, whatever person had to step in, those snaps were always ready. So, continued that tread over the offseason. Got back here and continued to do even more snaps and just trying to get that muscle memory and all that good stuff going. We’re just working away and trying to get it right.”
Many remember the horrid snapping issues that the Ravens had during the 2020 season. There were multiple snaps that went awry from both Skura and Mekari, including one in Baltimore’s Divisional Round loss to the Buffalo Bills that caused quarterback Lamar Jackson to suffer a concussion after chasing it down.
Bozeman played the center position extremely well at the University of Alabama. Hopefully he can transition from guard back to his natural position at the NFL level while continuing to be a big piece of the Ravens’ offensive line.
