Ryan Grant Drama to Resurface?

If you thought the drama surrounding a potential “Crabtree versus Talib Round 3” was nauseating, you’re surely in store for a treat over the next handful of days, as the Baltimore Ravens visit the Indianapolis Colts for a few days of joint practices, followed by their “second” *cough 3rd* preseason game on Monday night. 

While the “Bob Irsay stole the Colts in the middle of the night” narrative is surely going to surface at some juncture, that’s not the drama I’m expecting… although it’s worth noting that Irsay did in fact secretly slide the Colts out of town via Mayflower in the middle of the night, leaving the city of Baltimore devastated, and team-less for the next 12 years. 

*snake emoji*

No, the drama I’m referring to will be surrounding Colts wide receiver Ryan Grant, and his absence from this Ravens roster. 

For those of you that pay attention to free agency in the NFL – which I’m assuming is everyone reading this – you’ll likely recall the Ravens having a wink-nod contract in place with former Skins receiver, Ryan Grant. Grant was… we’ll say serviceable. During his rookie deal in DC, he never broke 600 yards receiving, never put up more than four touchdowns, and was always buried on the depth chart, unable to surface as a starter. Because of those lackluster stats, it was a shock to both Ravens fans, and really the entire NFL fan base, when Baltimore reportedly agreed to a four-year, $29M contract with Grant at the onset of free agency back in March.

That sort of money is/was/will always be borderline insane for a guy whose best season barely surpasses Breshad Perriman‘s best season (Grant- 573 yards, 4 TDs vs Perriman- 499 yards, 3 TDs). 

Fortunately for the Ravens (and really, us fans), Grant failed his physical, thus voiding the deal. The Ravens immediately turned their attention to Michael Crabtree, and signed him fairly quickly. 

Unfortunately for the Ravens, the national media scrutiny hit them like a Big Ben back breaker by Bart Scott.

Yea, like that. 

The Ravens were instantly chastised for the voided deal, with many folks accusing the Ravens of faking an injury designation in order to backtrack on a deal that received so much flack, while also affording to sign the newly released Crabtree out of Oakland. 

Those of us with half a brain know all of that is patently false. The Ravens already had the cap space available to sign both wideouts, and really with only Chris Moore on the roster at the time (sorry, Perriman), the Ravens had a need for multiple receivers. Ozzie & Co. could have easily signed both and not batted an eye. As for the claim that they falsified an injury? While you can argue that Grant was able to pass a physical in Indy a week later (we’ll get t0 that note), did you know it’s possible for multiple doctors to have multiple diagnosis?? Two docs can actually look at an injury – old or new – and see it two different ways!

Here in Baltimore, with the Orioles team docs in mind, we know this all too well.

One more question to throw shade on the assumption that the Ravens fleeced Grant: wouldn’t his agent have filed a lawsuit against the Ravens by now? Wouldn’t the NFLPA stand up and say the Ravens screwed Grant by a) reneging on his deal, but also b) costing him a potentially larger contract with another team by costing him two weeks time to explore free agency, while the deal was in place with Baltimore?

Neither of these things happened. 

Instead, the Colts signed Grant a week later… to a one-year deal. Oakland had met with Grant as well, but wouldn’t offer up more than a single year either. 

Fast forward to today with the Ravens in Indy, and you can bet your sweet ass pads that this ugly fiasco resurfaces. I’d be willing to bet Grant will be poked about it but decline and say “I’ve moved on,” the Ravens will be asked about it but will suggest “we’re happy with our receiver corps and have no further comment,” and inevitably, it’ll come up… I’ll say four times during Monday night’s broadcast of the Ravens/Colts preseason game. 

Expect the media and fan reaction to mimic what we saw back in March when the deal/no deal incident occurred. Expect it to be ugly for the next handful of days, Ravens fans. Expect a ton of eyerolling on our end, and honestly? Expect a myriad of basement keyboard jockeys on the other end telling you how shady your team is, how you’ll finish last in the AFCN and deserve it, and probably randomly throw an unrelated white suit joke in there since that’s the kind of unoriginal feces throwing we deal with on a daily basis here in Baltimore.