Did anything happen yesterday?
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) April 10, 2023
Oh, yeah. The Ravens made one of the biggest off-season additions in the NFL, signing Odell Beckham Jr. to a one-year deal worth up to $18 million.
This is by far the biggest swing of Eric DeCosta’s tenure as GM, and to pull it off on the day before his shared birthday with Steve Bisciotti is the kind of stone-cold move we’ve come to expect from EDC.
We believed pic.twitter.com/RFZu26q1D1
— Hugh (@HburnsJr4) April 10, 2023
I’m very curious to see the cap gymnastics that the Ravens pulled off to give OBJ $15 million fully-guaranteed, with the remaining $3M obtainable through incentives.
From last night: Our full story on the #Ravens swooping in and signing WR Odell Beckham Jr before he made his visit to the #Jets. He gets a 1-year deal worth $15M guaranteed that can reach $18M max. https://t.co/LPUhfSzd69
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 10, 2023
But those concerns can wait for another day, as OBJ is a Raven, words that must sound like the sweetest guitar lick ever played to Baltimore’s WR-hungry fan base.
Yesterday OBJ told me that he “was feeling more love from the Ravens” even though he was set to visit the Jets Monday. Odell always follows his heart. Today is no different. pic.twitter.com/4ey9EjvxqW
— JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) April 9, 2023
Odell was definitely feeling the love – from Lamar Jackson, from Steve Bisciotti, even from his former OC Todd Monken – and offering him by far the best deal on the market must have helped, too.
Buzzing 📲 pic.twitter.com/UDVQOSlWKs
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) April 10, 2023
It’s hard to describe how meaningful this move is for the Ravens.
Lamar Jackson now has the best group of targets in his career, and it’s clear that he is planning to stay in Baltimore in 2023, if not longer. He’s long expressed a desire to play with OBJ and he’s not about to walk away from that opportunity.
Knowing a bit about the ins and outs of the Odell talks with teams the last few weeks, I can’t imagine he signed with Baltimore without at least a good feeling LJ would be under center throwing to him.
— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) April 9, 2023
There are Lamar extension implications, too. If all goes well this year, both OBJ and Lamar could decide to stick around in Baltimore long-term.
Paying up for the best wideout on the market is practically an exorcism for the WR curse that has plagued the Ravens since the departure of Anquan Boldin. The Castle doesn’t give much, if any, credence to the Twitter critics – hate to break it to you – but that doesn’t mean they weren’t feeling the internal pressure to get that particular monkey off their back.
You can tell the social media team is excited that they don’t have to deal with the “sign a WR” comment anymore.
The Raven has landed 😈 @obj pic.twitter.com/ZcVKh4oBtu
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) April 10, 2023
The Ravens are also now free to do whatever they want with the 22nd overall pick, as they prefer. That was always the case, but the pressure to draft a WR would have hit a peak on draft night. Cornerback is probably the safest bet, still, but a Nolan Smith BPA pick or trade back is also very much on the table.
In short, this is the best possible move for the Ravens right now. Super Bowl season loading…
3 Responses
I doubt this increases LJ odds of staying. He made his bed.
IH – I would agree. Lamar has publicly asked for a trade. He’s publically stated $133M for 3 years is not enough for his services. The market seems to disagree – but we are all entitled to our own opinions. Not sure the fan base will overlook either all the drama , the lack of Lamar playoff wins, or Lamar’s ‘me first’ mindset. Very doubtful the Ravens are going raise what they want to pay Lamar – beyond either the $33.2M or $133M. (At this point, I have to assume the $133M offer is off the table). I could be wrong. And let’s be honest- while OBJ is very good (when healthy) at catching footballs – Lamar is not exactly legendary for ability to consistently throw an accurate pass either downfield or to anyone not named Mark Andrews. In a separate column – Tony noted this signing could be interpreted as a desperate move by the Ravens. Maybe. One if you look at the projected Ravens offense next year – w/o looking at the QB position – not sure that the best move for the Ravens isn’t to jettison Lamar, bring in a journeyman QB for a year and give Eric and Ozzie another 12 months to figure this out – to include the future of coach John. Even with Lamar – this is not a SB team. (One could argue it’s not even an AFC North Division winning team). Time to regroup. Personal opinion – In think the Ravens, with the OBJ signing, have made the decision to move on from Lamar. I know – which is counter to what seems to be the popular opinion is that the organization is using OBJ to keep Lamar a Raven. We’ll see. When is the draft? 🙂
Super Bowl season??? Oh god, I don’t know if I can take another letdown lol