After much early debate and angst about Ozzie Newsome’s relative inactivity early during the offseason, things now appear to be falling nicely into place for the Ravens as the pieces come together and point towards a playoff run in 2006.

The biggest piece to Ozzie’s blueprint for 2006 is of course Steve McNair.  The town is abuzz with the promise and hope McNair brings, something that hasn’t escaped me as I proudly welcomed the arrival of my new number 9 jersey to my home yesterday.  The scene was not too unlike that in a Christmas Story when Ralphie voraciously awaits the arrival of his Ovaltine Secret Decoder.

And speaking of decoding, this week the team completed a major signing with the contract extension given to Ed Reed a playmaker gifted at reading or should I say decoding offensive tendencies. Ray Lewis has seemingly made peace with the local media and even the national media has begun to jump on the Ravens’ bandwagon with a handful of analysts ranking the hometown boys among the top 5 in the NFL.

Uh oh!

Can’t you feel the excitement that we felt last year at this time? Is it really possible? Will we be celebrating in the streets of Miami come February? Or is another disappointing season on the way?

Amidst all of the hype is the one nagging concern that is shared by all Ravens fans. What about the offensive line? Can this underachieving unit improve from 2005? Have the skills eroded? Can Flynn, Mulitalo, and Ogden produce like they did 6 years ago (has it really been that long?) when we were the World Champs? Will the turnstile that has become the right side of the line stabilize in 2006? Are they too old?

Many of these questions, barring injury, will be answered during the season to come. We can however take a gander around the league and help determine whether age is a factor in the decline in play of the offensive line. 

In looking at the depth charts from each AFC team, and assuming the likely changes that will occur before the 2006 season commences, we can see from the list below that the average age of the Ravens’ starting offensive line is 29.4 years., the third oldest unit in the conference.

However, they are only one year older than the mean age of the entire conference and are right in line with the teams in the AFC North. If age of the O-line is truly a meaningful variable than I suppose that Denver and Cincinnati are in trouble as well -- and Kansas City can fuggetaboutit.

Last year, Jamal Lewis struggled behind this line. Clearly that element has to change. We can surmise that with the observed improvement in off season conditioning, the experience gained by Jason Brown and Adam Terry, the addition of Mike Anderson, and Jamal Lewis’s troubles behind him; that the running game will improve in 2006.

It appeared to me that the pass protection improved dramatically after the debacle in Jacksonville last year, and was most evident in the nationally televised games against Green Bay and Minnesota. And despite the inviting target of a wretched performance by Kyle Boller in Denver, the line only allowed one sack in 40 passing attempts.

That trend must continue, or Steve McNair’s acquisition would be rendered meaningless if the line breaks down too often too early during the 2006 campaign.

Based on the numbers though, if the line fails it will be a result of talent and erosion in skill; and not because of they are a year longer in the tooth than the average line in the AFC.