I will have the amazing opportunity tomorrow to be able to talk to Ben Powers, Baltimore Ravens offensive guard. Powers does not have any awards yet in the NFL or viral highlights yet (no one does at offensive line), but has been a key offensive lineman for the best running game in the National Football League when healthy. Below is about Powers’ career at Oklahoma, his success, Mo Gaba drafting him and his play in the NFL!
College Career: Oklahoma
Powers played really well in college. Oklahoma had a 35-6 record with Powers on the team. They won the Sugar Bowl in his freshman season with the team. He was a very talented player. According to PFF, he had a 98.8 Pass Blocking Efficiency going into his junior year which was the best for any Big 12 offensive guards. By the way, the Big 12 is one of the most successful conferences ever in college football. Because of this kind of success, he made the 2018 All American team the season after he had the best pass blocking season for a Big 12 offensive guard. He had a very successful college career at Oklahoma which put him in great shape for a decent draft pick going into the 2019 draft!
Mo Gaba drafting Ben Powers
Mo Gaba became a fan favorite in Baltimore. He was a very big Baltimore Orioles and Baltimore Ravens fan. Sadly, he had to go through cancer multiple times and was blind due to a cancer he had in his eye. He unfortunately passed away in 2020 at the age of 14. Mo was a big time sports fan and was very big in sports broadcasting. He would call in on a lot of radio shows and actually hosted a radio show for 1 night. After he died in July of 2021, the Ravens YouTube channel posted a video on him titled: The Gift of Gaba: The Story of Mo Gaba. In the video was a bunch of different people talking about Mo and his story. The day of the 4th round in the 2019 NFL draft, Mo had to opportunity to say the Ravens 4th round draft pick in Brail. He was the first person to ever read a draft pick that way. That pick, the Ravens selected Ben Powers. So, in the video when they were talking about how Mo made that draft pick, Powers said that when Mo said his name, it was like he was the #1 pick. That is how much it meant to him. Powers was also very nice to Mo always and would see him time to time. Powers is a very nice person off the field and that is as important as being a good football player!
Profesional Career: Baltimore Ravens
Powers has had a pretty good NFL career so far. In his rookie season in 2019, he only played 1 game and it was the final game of the regular season once the Ravens already clinched the #1 seed in the AFC. 2019 was more of a development year for Powers to get reps in practice and be ready for upcoming seasons. In the Ravens final 7 games of the season, 6 of them Powers played 100% of the offensive snaps. In that time, the Ravens had 1,595 rushing yards! That’s around 228 rushing yards per game! That is easily the #1 rushing game in football. In 2021, Powers played 8 games where he played 100% of the offensive snaps, the Ravens got 1,139 rushing yards. That is 142 rushing yards per game! While this success might not be all because of him, it is weird that the Ravens started to have success running the ball once Powers got his playing time. He also was apart of an injured offensive line that had basically no backups. He needed to play almost all of the minutes and was a key piece in a great running game that didn’t have their top 3 runners because of injury in this stretch. Is this a coincidence? “I don’t think so” as Kevin McCallister would say. In college, Powers proved he can be an amazing pass blocker. In the NFL, he proved he can be a great run blocker. That is the definition of a good offensive lineman. He has been one of they key blockers for the most electrifying runner in football for back to back seasons! Pretty darn successful!
Powers had a very good college career, an emotional story in the draft and has played really well in the NFL. He has been one of the key blockers for the best running game in football when healthy. His success can only continue from here. I am very excited to talk to him tomorrow and continue to see his growth and continued success that he will have throughout his career!
Chase Coburn
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chase@chasessportsnews.com
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