Hello and Happy Friday, Ravens Flock. This week was the first week of NFL Free Agency so fans got to enjoy some new faces on their teams. Unfortunately for Ravens fans, this wasn’t the case.
The Ravens have very little cap space with the Lamar Jackson situation unresolved, so these last couple of days have been used to retain some of their own players.
Free-agent RB Justice Hill is resigning with the Ravens, a two-year $4.5 million deal with a max value up to $5 million, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 15, 2023
The Ravens are re-signing long snapper Nick Moore to a two-year, $2.5 million deal. Moore was non tendered as an RFA yesterday. He had interest elsewhere, but he wanted to stay in Baltimore.
— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) March 16, 2023
I can confirm that the Ravens are bringing back another player who they non-tendered yesterday. Stone is a nice keep for the Ravens, especially after they traded Chuck Clark. https://t.co/3RHW9PqnAG
— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) March 16, 2023
These moves aren’t needle movers, but Hill and Stone are great depth. And these moves don’t prevent them from taking a running back or safety late in the draft.
Along with Lamar’s contract, last year’s moves (signing Marcus Williams, trading for and re-signing Roquan Smith, for example) are weighing heavily on the cap.
So no, there haven’t been many moves, but the market has much depth at receiver and corner.
Still, that didn’t mean the cycle didn’t take me and many Ravens fans through the loop.
Early in the day on Wednesday, we heard that Eagles cornerback Darius Slay was being released. Slay would have been an awesome addition to the DB room and might have given the Ravens the best secondary in the league.
Then this happened:
Today could be a big day for us 🫣
— marlonhumphrey.eth (@marlon_humphrey) March 15, 2023
👀👀👀👀👀👀
— Darius Slay (@bigplay24slay) March 15, 2023
So this might seem like a crazy coincidence that these two tweets were tweeted minutes after each other, but Slay retweeted Marlo’s Tweet.
Could it be happening? Could the Ravens bring in two legit number one Corners? Think of the possibilities this would give the Ravens!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaand it’s gone:
Eagles never officially released CB Darius Slay today and now one source said that the Pro-Bowl CB is “expected to stay with the Eagles. It’s not final, but that’s the way it is looking right now.” A new deal could be in the works.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 16, 2023
It seems like Slay only announced he was leaving to get what he wanted from the Eagles. Ravens fans’ emotions got played with.
Truly a sad moment.
Enough about Free Agency, from this point until the end of Draft season, Fridays will be for Mock Drafts from me. So let’s explore the one form this week.
Shoutout to PFF for their Mock Draft Machine being so great. Jordan Addison fits the Ravens like a glove. He adds a vertical speed threat, and while his 40 time wasn’t great, his game speed holds up. The only concern is his weight, but that shouldn’t be much of a problem. Addison is awesome, and being from Maryland EDC could fulfill his wish to be a Raven.
As for Karl Brooks in the third, he was one of the best performers at the Senior Bowl but didn’t receive an invite to the Combine. He is a 6-3, 300-pound Defensive Tackle/ Edge hybrid that plays like a grizzly bear. He reminds me of Akiem Hicks.
Jakorian Bennett was one of the standouts at the combine as he ran a 4.30 flat 40. Bennett is an athletic older corner prospect with a ton of untapped potential.
The other two picks are just adding some beef to the defensive line, as Mojo Ojomo is a great Nose Tackle and Caleb Chandler is a decent Guard prospect to help the Ravens try to replace Ben Powers.
Thank you for reading and (broken record:) hopefully, we will have some kind of clarity on the Lamar Jackson contract situation by next week.
2 Responses
I never had any interest in Slay. I don’t believe with our FOs silly stigma of trying to keep LJ, I don’t see us making any FA moves. The greedy punk that promised us a superbowl on draft night and never delivered has somehow been given way too much leeway to affect roster building on this team. He can’t even complete his outside the hash throws, offense always has to have training wheels on it or you have to give him a run play because he’s too pathetic at deep throws to make them with any consistency. I doubt we could trade the bum for a big Mac and a coke. Because he’s that pathetic! Ever notice how nobody else wants him? Because he’s that pathetic. Can we just drop the bum off on the nearest street corner and forget the disaster that is Lamar Jackson? The franchise would be better off!
M Viviano confirms Slay to the Ravens was done. The Eagles announced at 11 am that they were releasing him but never did. Reports are once they found out about Slay and Ravens they tried to trade him here but we balked. Then they gave him new deal