OWINGS MILLS — Ravens left tackle Ronnie Stanley has dealt with nagging injuries throughout much of the season and has missed four games.
The Ravens are going to need him this week against the Jacksonville Jaguars and linebacker Josh Allen, who is tied for the third in the NFL with 13 1/2 sacks.
Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken said Stanley is getting healthier each week.
“I think that the knee is going to continue to strengthen,” Monken said. “He thought he worked awfully hard last week to get to that point that it’s only going to continue to get stronger just like he said. Certainly, you need that. With all these teams that you play, and then you get in the playoffs – we’ve gotten a bunch of them from the [Cincinnati] Bengals to the [Pittsburgh] Steelers to the [Cleveland] Browns to the [Los Angeles] Chargers to where you’re like, ‘Who’s lining up at left [defensive] end [on] our left side?’
“It’s a real challenge for anybody’s left tackle, and it’s a real credit to Ronnie in terms of how hard he worked to keep strengthening that and how hard he’s working this week.”
Pat Mekari has played left tackle when Stanley is sidelined and has played well protecting quarterback Lamar Jackson’s blind side.
Stanley is a former First-Team All-Pro (2019), and the Ravens have relied on his experience. Stanley has been sidelined for 33 games between 2020 and 2022 with an ankle injury.
He was back in the lineup last week against the Los Angeles Rams and the Ravens decided to go with a rotation on the offensive line.
Mekari subbed for Stanley for 14 of the 72 offensive snaps. Daniel Faalele stepped in for starting right tackle Morgan Moses for eight snaps. The goal was to keep Stanley and Moses fresh for the fourth quarter and the strategy worked as the Ravens won the game, 37-31, in overtime.
Stanley was the fourth-best offensive player with a 75.1 grade from Pro Football Focus, which ranks players based on how well they run and pass block.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh was pleased with Stanley’s performance.
“I thought Ronnie had a good game, and I think he’s going to build off that. He looked really good,” Harbaugh said. “We had a tough job with those guys [on the Los Angeles Rams’ defense]. We did a pretty good job of neutralizing No. 99 [Aaron Donald]. He had his plays. He made some plays, but we got him blocked a number of times, too, so I was proud of that for the guys.
“When you do that, and you send so much attention to the one player, then you have other guys in one-on-one battles, and they have to win. They did a pretty good job of that throughout the course of the game, too, overall. It was definitely a winning job.”