The Ravens tried to sign LB Bobby Wagner, the former Seahawks star who was released by Seattle last month. On March 28, we heard that Baltimore had submitted an offer that it believed was “very competitive” vis-à-vis the proposal that Wagner received from the Rams, and Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported yesterday that the Ravens had offered a two-year, $18MM contract.
At first blush, that looks to be a far cry from the five-year, $50MM deal Wagner ultimately signed with Los Angeles. But we are still awaiting details on the structure of that agreement, and Florio hears that Wagner will get paid $17MM over the first two years of the deal, with “small guarantees” in the second year. If that’s the case, then the Ravens’ offer — the structure of which is also unknown — may well have been as competitive as the team thought. Perhaps Wagner, an LA native, simply wanted to stay home and play for the defending champions.
Baltimore, meanwhile, has now had near misses with Wagner and Za’Darius Smith in recent weeks, leaving the club with plenty of work still to do in the front seven.
Now for several more items out of Charm City:
- The Ravens’ 2021 fortunes were severely undermined by injury, including season-ending ACL tears suffered by running backs J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards before Week 1. Head coach John Harbaugh recently told reporters, including Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic, that both players are making progress, but that they will likely start this year’s training camp on the active/PUP list (Twitter link). Given how important Dobbins and Edwards are to Baltimore’s run-oriented attack, it makes sense that the team would play it safe with the top two members of its RB depth chart.
- The Ravens have hired Kerry Dixon as their assistant quarterbacks coach, per a team announcement. This will be Dixon’s first NFL gig. The former Baylor and Hampton quarterback spent the past 15 seasons as a collegiate assistant, and he served as Georgia Tech’s wide receivers coach from 2019-21. He will team with James Urban to get the most out of star passer Lamar Jackson, whose contract status remains one of the biggest storylines in Baltimore.
- Even if Smith had followed through on his commitment to the Ravens, Baltimore may have been eyeing an edge rusher with its first-round pick (No. 14 overall) in this year’s draft. With Smith out of the picture, GM Eric DeCosta may be even more inclined to enhance his pass rush, and polarizing prospect Kayvon Thibodeaux is on the team’s radar.
- Harbaugh, now the third-longest-tenured HC in the league, recently signed an extension that will keep him on the Ravens’ sidelines through the 2025 season.
Woof,
Not promising to hear almost a year later that they aren’t ready to go. Obviously the only thing that matters is the season but you’d hope that Edwards and Dobbins are both ready earlier to get that rust off.
It’s not almost a year later. They tore their ACLs in late August, so only 7.5 months ago.
I’m guessing he meant that they will start training camp on the PUP, which will be 11 months after they went down. 11 months is almost a year.
Well at least one person can use their noggin. Didn’t think it was that hard to put together but thanks for clarifying for the simpletons
You said, “Not promising to hear almost a year later that they aren’t ready to go,” which indicates you are hearing about it a year later in this moment. If you meant to indicate training camp as the period you find other than promising, consider using “won’t be ready to go,” which would indicate the future as opposed to now.
Perhaps instead of referring to others as “simpletons,” you should get a better grasp of the written language.
Hey bud, you can keep on “potato-ing”. It’s no skin off my back.
Luckily for Baltimore fans, you will be able to blame Lamar’s poor performance on injury’s again.
Ravens missed their starting left tackle, starting guard, missed their 1st 2nd & 3rd string running backs, missed their starting FB, missed their 1st round draft pick at wideout. Try running an offense with three 30 year old running backs and 2 starting o-lineman not playing. Ravens were devastated by injuries on both sides of the ball last year. Not all on Lamar.
Ravens lost 125 starts by guys who were the starter in 2021. It’s a weird thing to clown a guy who kind of played like everything was falling apart because…everything was falling apart. But you’ve got a clown shoes name so clown shoes responses must come standard.
Do the Rams have a different salary cap than the rest of the league or what? It seems like they just keep signing and extending anyone and everyone…I don’t understand!
Robbing Peter to pay Paul. McVay will retire when all the bills come due in a few years – leaving the next regime an empty roster with no money to re-build it.
Ravens need to change trend and trade up for an elite edge rusher.