Harbaughs kept Bredeson in family, but he's ready to roll with a Buckeye now

Ben Bredeson thought was done with all this. As a four-year starter on the offensive line at Michigan, he never beat Ohio State. And he figured he’d leave all that baggage behind when he got drafted in the NFL.

Yet when the Baltimore Ravens made him a fourth-round pick in late April, Bredeson joined a draft class that features not one — but two — Buckeyes. Including one that he’ll be blocking for — running back J.K. Dobbins — whenever the Ravens are able to get together on the practice field in preparation for the upcoming season.

"Listen, whenever we played them, I just heard the name, 'J.K. Dobbins,' going over the loudspeaker over-and-over again,” Bredeson said on a conference call Tuesday. “So, I'm happy that I'll be blocking for him now, because he's done enough damage against me."

Linebacker Malik Harrison is the other rookie rival in Baltimore’s draft class, so the 6-foot-5, 315-pound Bredeson likely will have his share of run-ins with him as well.

But for now, the former All-Big Ten guard is focused on the opportunity at hand, joining a Super Bowl contender and arguably the NFL’s best offense led by quarterback Lamar Jackson, the reigning league MVP.

“He's a remarkable player, and I'm beyond excited to start working with him,” said Bredeson, who didn't allow a sack as a senior, according to Pro Football Focus. “It'll be something different for me — having a guy that's so athletic and so skilled back there. It's going to be exciting and I really can't wait to start playing with him."

There’s an opportunity to do just that. The Ravens’ perennial All-Pro guard, Marshal Yanda, retired this offseason, so both Bredeson and fellow rookie Tyre Phillips – a third-round pick out of Mississippi State — will get thrown into some heated competition along the offensive line. Bradley Bozeman returns as the starting left guard, while Ben Power and soon-to-be-signed free agent D.J. Fluker would seem to be the front-runners on the right side.

“We play this game to win games and get on the field, and I'm going to do whatever I can to help the O-line and to help the team,” Bredeson, a two-time captain at Michigan who started 46 of the 50 games he played. “So, whether that's starting or in a backup role, this team is trying to win a championship, and I'm going to do whatever I can to help push that goal forward."

For now, that means a lot of studying. Bredeson got his hands on the Ravens’ playbook last week and says he already has "a good grasp of it.” But that’s something his head coach John Harbaugh was told to expect by his brother, Jim, who just so happens to be Michigan’s head coach. Suffice to say, there weren’t a lot of holes in the Ravens’ scouting report on Bredeson.

“I can read the text message my dad (Jack) gave me, too,” John Harbaugh told reporters on a post-draft conference call. “I remember it started out with, 'You're going to love this guy.' Jim said the same thing, 'Leader by example and vocal, no nonsense, all football all the time, really motivated, very competitive guy.’

“He has a photographic memory, too. Did you know that? So, a really smart guy. They said he's everything you want in a football player and a person, so that went a long way. And those are the kind of guys that (Ravens GM) Eric DeCosta likes to draft — smart, tough guys that are going to come to the building and be all-in all the time, and Ben is that kind of guy."

As for the kind of guy he’s playing for now, Bredeson says it’s a pretty familiar feeling, not surprisingly.

“Each of them has their own tweaks to how they run their own program, but you can definitely see a lot of glaring similarities between the two,” he said of the Harbaugh brothers. “The way the playbook is set up, the way the program is being run, their mannerisms; a lot of them are the same. It's comforting for me knowing that I'm still in the Harbaugh family."

john.niyo@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @JohnNiyo