INDIANAPOLIS — The Ravens have offered center Tyler Linderbaum a “market-setting” contract extension, general manager Eric DeCosta said Tuesday.
Linderbaum, 25, is due to become a free agent when the NFL’s new year opens on March 11. But Baltimore hopes to keep the three-time Pro Bowl selection off the market.
“He’s proven to be the best center in the league,” DeCosta said at the NFL scouting combine. “Hopefully we can get something done with him between now and the start of the new league year.”
He added that the two sides have been in conversation since the end of the season.
Re-signing him would also mean committing around $20 million per year to the former first-round pick out of Iowa. Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro center Creed Humphrey is currently the highest-paid player at the position at $18 million per year after he signed a four-year, $72 million extension in August 2024, and Linderbaum’s offer would exceed that.
The lynchpin of the offensive line, his return would also be a boost, if not a necessity, for a group that struggled last season — particularly at guard — with quarterback Lamar Jackson getting sacked 36 times in 12 games for the highest sack rate of his eight-year career.
“We’ve always been a team that has valued the importance of ‘the trenches’ and being up front, which is one of the reasons we want to bring Tyler back if we can,” DeCosta said.
Linderbaum’s return would certainly help. Though he wasn’t as good this past season — he allowed two sacks and 26 pressures — as he has been in the past, he still was selected to his third straight Pro Bowl.
He was also at the center of a line that helped pave the way for the league’s second-best rushing attack (2,662 yards), which was also tops in yards per carry (5.9). He is just the third offensive lineman in team history to nab at least three Pro Bowl selections, joining Pro Football Hall of Famer Jonathan Ogden and Marshal Yanda.
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