Ravens have to tackle Hall of Fame-size void

The team’s best young lineman, Jason Brown, has shifted from left guard to center. Right tackle Marshall Yanda is sliding inside to right guard. Former right guard Ben Grubbs is switching sides. Chris Chester’s apparent lack of toughness has taken him out of the starting equation — for now.

But the seismic change inevitably will occur on the island at left tackle, where the trouble usually starts or stops for quarterbacks as they operate in the pocket. And how second-year man Jared Gaither progresses as Jonathan Ogden’s replacement could dictate much about what happens to the Ravens’ offense in 2008.

The Ravens aren’t “Waiting For Godot,” who never arrives in the Samuel Beckett play. Sometime soon, the Ravens no longer will be Waiting For J.O., since Ogden will make his retirement announcement, and the countdown to his first-ballot entry into the Hall of Fame will commence.

Essentially, the Ravens already have moved on. When offensive coordinator Cam Cameron said on Wednesday that four-year veteran Adam Terry, who is nursing a surgically repaired left ankle, was going back to right tackle, the light shined on Gaither brightest of all.

“[Gaither] is without question the most improved guy on offense, in my opinion,” Cameron said. “We’re going to learn a lot about him, and if someone else shows up over there, we’ll learn a lot about him, as well.”

“It’s a blessing, the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Gaither, whom the Ravens selected as a fifth-round, supplemental draft pick out of Maryland a year ago. “To fight for a position one of the greats has played, it’s a blessing to be in the same sentence or category as [Ogden]. Nobody is going to replace J.O. I’m just going to try my best to do a great job as Jared Gaither.”

Give the big kid points for humility. Then again, he’s stating the obvious. The only similarity between Ogden and Gaither is each is listed at 6-foot-9 and 350 pounds.

When Ogden arrived as the No. 4 overall pick from UCLA in the spring of 1996, he was a polished blocker with ridiculous physical gifts, not to mention maturity and intelligence beyond his 21 years of age. He was a franchise anchor in waiting.

Former Ravens center Steve Everitt, after first playing alongside Ogden — a left guard as a rookie — in mini camp, admitted he was jealous of the long arms and graceful footwork that defined J.O. from the day he arrived.

After moving to the island in 1997, all Ogden did was make the Pro Bowl the next 11 seasons by routinely swallowing up opposing pass rushers without double-team help. No lineman who ever played for the Ravens has been able to block multiple defenders on a play as efficiently as Ogden, who made it all look deceptively easy.

Gaither is a massive athlete with lots of strength and intriguing potential, but he is a step above raw. Last season, he appeared in six games and started two, following an uneven preseason. He lacked explosiveness, looked stiff and too upright at times, had understandable difficulty adapting to the breakneck speed of the professional game. He played as a fifth-round pick in the supplemental draft should be expected to play.

For now, Gaither has drawn the critical assignment of protecting the quarterback’s blind side. For now, he has drawn the unenviable assignment of following in Ogden’s huge footsteps.

“Somebody has got to fill J.O.’s shoes,” said Terry, who, if the Gaither experiment fails, might migrate back to the island after a so-so, injury-plagued audition there last year.

While Ogden was out with a sore toe for most of the season’s first half, Terry filled in.

“You can’t do the things J.O. does,” Terry added. “You can’t teach his size, his speed, how fluid he is, how he looks like a corner in pass protection because his feet move so well. He’s the total package.”

Gary Lambrecht writes about the NFL, Major League Baseball and college sports. He can be reached at glambrecht@baltimoreexaminer.com