The Baltimore Ravens are signing their first free agent of the offseason, agreeing to terms with guard Kevin Zeitler on a three-year deal. It’s a deal that makes a ton of sense, earning an “A” grade from Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar.
The Ravens’ offensive line struggled last season. While some of that can be attributed to left tackle Ronnie Stanley suffering a season-ending ankle injury, Baltimore didn’t address right guard after Marshal Yanda retired and it showed. The Ravens started three different players at right guard and though some were better than others, it was an obvious weakness that they needed to address this offseason.
In Zeitler, Baltimore gets an experienced, high-quality starter. Zeitler has been widely considered to be among the top guards throughout his nine-year career, earning no less than a 65.9 overall grade from Pro Football Focus. Perhaps even more importantly, Zeitler has been consistently available, missing just one game over the last six years.
As Farrar notes, Zeitler is the perfect schematic fit. The Ravens employ a gap-blocking scheme that saw at least one guard pull in the run game on a league-leading 245 snaps last season. The Giants ran a similar scheme in 2020, giving Zeitler some valuable experience that should allow him to get up to speed quickly in Baltimore. Zeitler was also rock-solid in pass protection, allowing just two sacks and 28 total pressures on 630 pass-blocking snaps last season.
As if the deal isn’t already great, the Ravens managed to get Zeitler at a relative steal of a price. The $7.3 million average cap hit doesn’t come close to being a top deal among guards, ranking 15th at the start of free agency, according to Over The Cap. Depending on how the deal is structured, Baltimore could see Zeitler count very little against their 2021 salary cap, allowing the Ravens to continue to be buyers in the coming weeks. Even better, Zeitler won’t count against the compensatory pick formula since he was cut by the New York Giants earlier this offseason.
Zeitler’s signing really is the perfect blend of everything for the Ravens. He’s a high-quality starter at an affordable price, which should go a long way to solidifying Baltimore’s offensive line.
