ExtremeRavens Posted March 18 Posted March 18 The Ravens, with little wiggle room under their salary cap and relatively little uncertainty around their roster, were never going to be among the most aggressive spenders at the start of NFL free agency last week. Nonetheless, the moves they have made, from re-signing left tackle Ronnie Stanley to adding backup quarterback Cooper Rush, tell us plenty about how they view their team. Here are five things we learned from the Ravens’ first week in free agency: They weren’t going to let a void at left tackle upend their Super Bowl ambitions A year ago, the Ravens took an aggressive, youth-forward tack in reconstructing their offensive line. Out with battle-tested veterans Kevin Zeitler and Morgan Moses, in with Roger Rosengarten, Daniel Faalele and Andrew Vorhees. At the same time, Stanley took a significant pay cut, setting himself up for a “prove it” season that could make or break his NFL future. In that context, it was easy to assume the Ravens were already thinking about what might come next at the most important spot on their line. For his part, Stanley, five years removed from his last healthy season, checked every box in 2024. He showed up in good shape, hardly missed any practice time, solidified himself as the wise elder in the unit and, most importantly, proved he could still do a very good job keeping the league’s best edge rushers away from Lamar Jackson’s blindside. As the 2025 free-agent market took shape and it became apparent there would be nowhere near enough quality tackles to go around, Stanley’s name suddenly shot to the top of those ubiquitous top 50 and top 100 lists. If the Ravens could not re-sign him, they faced the prospect of shifting Rosengarten to the left side and/or needing to hit on a starting tackle with the No. 27 or No. 59 pick in this year’s draft. Not ideal for a team that must protect Jackson to reach its lofty goals. Who could have guessed at this time last year that Stanley, gifted but oft-injured, would be the key to the Ravens’ 2025 offseason? But general manager Eric DeCosta and coach John Harbaugh recognized that he was, and by the time they spoke at the NFL scouting combine last month, they made it clear he was a priority. Other suitors lurked, likely to offer more money if Stanley reached the open market, but a reunion made enough sense for both sides that they reached a three-year, $60 million accommodation two days before the legal tampering window opened. “I think it was a good balance that could help the team and something I’m still happy with,” Stanley said. The deal looked better and better for the Ravens as lesser blockers signed lucrative contracts with other teams. The injury worry will always be there with Stanley, whose legs have been a minefield since he badly injured his ankle in 2020. But with a team good enough to win it all this season, the Ravens could not let the premium spot on their line become a potential Achilles heel. A Mark Andrews trade is possible but less likely, and that’s good for the Ravens short-term The Ravens paid Andrews’ $4 million roster bonus over the weekend, a date some viewed as a soft deadline for any possible deal involving the three-time Pro Bowl tight end. That’s not necessarily the case. The draft still looms, and we know it was the trigger for major deals involving tackle Orlando Brown Jr. and wide receiver Marquise Brown in 2021 and 2022, respectively. The Ravens received first-round draft picks in both those trades. They almost certainly would not in exchange for Andrews. But it’s still a time when teams get aggressive about swapping future value for current help. Ravens tight end Mark Andrews, right, caught 11 touchdown passes in the team’s final 12 regular-season games this past season. While he might not put up eye-popping stats in 2025, the Ravens view him as a positive contributor offensively. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff file) DeCosta has sent mixed signals regarding Andrews. At the team’s end-of-season news conference, he said he was glad Andrews and Isaiah Likely are both under contract for 2025, meaning he could put off an inevitable choice at tight end. At the scouting combine, however, DeCosta spoke of Andrews in almost elegiac terms, noting that he’ll surely be in the Ravens’ Ring of Honor one day. Did that mean he was no longer thinking of Andrews as a factor for the 2025 team? Not exactly. DeCosta quickly added: “I know he’s going to have an amazing season. We’ll figure out all of the roster machinations over the coming weeks, but I can tell you, there’s no bigger fan of Mark Andrews than me.” But that did not stop some observers from surmising the Ravens were open for business on the franchise’s career touchdowns leader. And they probably were for the right compensation, perhaps a Day 2 pick in this year’s draft. They have Likely, waiting to thrive in a bigger role as one of Jackson’s primary targets. They signed wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who could sop up red-zone targets. Andrews might not even mind going to a team more eager to extend his deal. But the Ravens are not going to dump him just to clear cap space. They don’t need to, given their aggressive embrace of void years as a means of delaying budget pressure. And Andrews is still too good a player as he approaches his 30th birthday. Remember that before his crushing fumble and drop in the playoff loss to Buffalo, Andrews had caught 11 touchdown passes in the team’s last 12 regular-season games. The Ravens aim to go the distance in 2025, and he would help them do it. They could still move him, but it became less likely with that $4 million payment (money they can no longer save against the salary cap) over the weekend. That’s best for this team, this season. The DeAndre Hopkins signing demonstrated Lamar Jackson’s powerful sway DeCosta was asked at the combine about Jackson’s input on roster moves. In his answer, he referred to the franchise quarterback as a “stakeholder.” In effect, he acknowledged the reality that no one — not DeCosta, not Harbaugh, not owner Steve Bisciotti — is more central to the Ravens’ identity than Jackson. Over the next half-decade or more, they’ll go as far as No. 8 takes them. So of course they’ll tailor their roster planning to his wants and needs. Fellow players recognize this more clearly than anyone. Coming to Baltimore means negotiating with DeCosta and playing for Harbaugh. But really, it means boarding Jackson’s ship. For a twilight star such as Hopkins, that’s an attractive prospect. The five-time Pro Bowl pass catcher said as much when he spoke to reporters last week, calling the chance to pair up with Jackson “a big part of my decision.” Hopkins watched his offseason workout partner and former teammate Derrick Henry run wild last year, taking full advantage of Jackson’s tractor-beam effect on defenses to post the second-best season of his career at age 30. Lamar Jackson’s presence makes the Ravens a popular free-agent destination. (Kim Hairston/Staff) He might not gulp from the Jackson fountain of youth to quite that degree. But Hopkins, who will turn 33 in June, is a master tactician near the goal line, and he surely perceives the upside in working with a quarterback who led the league’s most efficient red-zone offense in 2024. If he could not stay in Kansas City, the Ravens were his next best bet as he seeks a valedictory Super Bowl ring. This parade of graying superstars, willing to work for modest cost in exchange for partnering with a unique offensive force, will not end with Henry and Hopkins. More than any player in team history, even Ray Lewis, Jackson creates a gravitational pull, both on the field and in the offseason. The Ravens are living in the age of Lamar. The Ravens finally invested seriously in a backup quarterback In an ideal world, the Ravens would use late draft picks to find Jackson’s No. 2. They tried with Devin Leary last year, but he did not progress quickly enough for them to feel confident he could take over backup duty from Josh Johnson. So they signed Rush to a two-year, $6.2 million deal worth up to $12.2 million — not a bank-breaker but a significant investment given how much money they have to build out the rest of their roster. By comparison, they signed Johnson for one year, $1.38 million last year. Why now? Perhaps the Ravens felt they got away with something, losing Jackson to zero injury time in 2023 or 2024. What if he misses a few games in 2025, and the Ravens need to win one of those for playoff positioning? Rush isn’t a starter, but he did win nine times in 14 starts over seven seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. He isn’t a running threat but throws well enough that the Ravens’ high-powered offense could at least function with him at the wheel. He’s anyone’s definition of a fine backup, something the Ravens have not always had in the Jackson era. The counterargument is that if Jackson goes down for a significant stretch, the Ravens would be toast anyway as we saw in 2021 and 2022. So why spend money on a backup who couldn’t lead them to the Super Bowl? The Ravens hope this debate remains an abstract one, with Rush anchored to the sideline as an unused insurance policy while Jackson does his thing. The Ravens saved their most shocking move for a backup guard Raise your hand if you foresaw another year of Ben Cleveland in Baltimore. We’ll wait. After starting just seven times in four seasons and barely registering in a wide-open guard competition last summer, the 2021 third-round pick seemed almost certain to be in someone else’s training camp come July. The Ravens seemed even less likely to feel any pangs for the 6-foot-6, 360-pound Cleveland after he was arrested in Georgia on suspicion of driving under the influence last month. But wonders never cease, and competent NFL linemen don’t come cheap. So the least probable headline became reality last Saturday when they re-signed Cleveland for a one-year, league-minimum deal. It actually makes sense viewed through Ravens logic. They don’t see Cleveland as a starting candidate, but they know all there is to know about him and feel comfortable throwing him into the breach if an injury arises. He understands their needs on special teams — hello, blocked field goal against Washington — and for a sixth lineman in heavy sets. He’ll serve a necessary function and allow the Ravens to spend money and draft picks addressing other needs. We view Cleveland as a disappointment because we know the Ravens expected more when they picked him 94th overall out of Georgia. But let’s switch sports and think about it in light of Earl Weaver’s old gospel — focus on how a player can help you rather than dwelling on how he can’t. Cleveland might never start another game at guard for the Ravens, but he’s a cheap, usable part on a roster that needs those. Have a news tip? Contact Childs Walker at daviwalker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6893 and x.com/ChildsWalker. View the full article Quote
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