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Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson and center Tyler Linderbaum.

There is so much good and different about the Baltimore Ravens 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.

It didn’t cripple the Ravens, though, and the main reason why is 2-time NFL MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson. 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.

For all the talent the Ravens have brought in via the draft and the open market, there is still 1 hole that hasn’t been filled that could very well be Jackson’s biggest roadblock to winning his 1st Super Bowl.

According to Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon, that “obstacle” is the absence of 3-time Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum, who left Baltimore for a 3-year, $81 million free-agent contract with the Las Vegas Raiders.

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 history.

“The 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,” Gagnon wrote. “On top of that, he’s lost a Pro Bowl center in Tyler Linderbaum.”

Tyler Linderbaum NFL’s Biggest Free-Agency Winner

The Brinks Truck full of cash that the Raiders threw at Linderbaum led Gagnon to call him the NFL’s “Biggest Winner” in the 2026 free-agent cycle.

“Linderbaum reset the center market with an AAV that is 50 percent higher than former leader Creed Humphrey ($18 million), while the $10-million-per-year guard club saw its membership rise by 30 percent,” Gagnon wrote in March. “Teams are really starting to value interior offensive linemen more heavily.”

Tyler Linderbaum’s Contract Shocked Experts

There was little doubt the market was going to be robust for Linderbaum — few realized how desperate teams were going to be to land an interior offensive lineman like him in his prime.

Just minutes after the NFL’s official tampering period opened on Monday, Linderbaum had his record-setting deal.

“ESPN 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,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter wrote on his official X account. “Before today, Cowboys guard Tyler Smith was the NFL’s highest-paid interior offensive lineman, with a deal that averaged $24 million per year. Tyler Linderbaum’s deal averages $27 million per year.”

The Ravens actually made the wrong kind of franchise history by losing Linderbaum to the Raiders.

“With center Tyler Linderbaum going to Raiders, this marks just the second time in the Ravens’ 31-year history that they have failed to keep a multiple Pro Bowl first-round pick past his rookie deal,” ESPN’s Jamison Hensley wrote on X on Monday. “The other time this occurred was 2019 with C.J. Mosley.”