Ravens Eyeing Significant Role For Rookie QB
- Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley is currently slotted in as the Ravens‘ third quarterback behind Lamar Jackson and Robert Griffin III, but the team may have bigger plans for the rookie. Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic writes that the team is envisioning him playing a similar role to Taysom Hill on the Saints. McSorley is expected to take a few reps at quarterbacks, get a handful of carries, contribute on special teams, and perhaps make a few cameos at safety.
- Zrebiec also believes the Ravens will make a push to sign defensive lineman Ezekiel Ansah. The organization already met with the free agent several weeks ago, and it was rumored that the 29-year-old would wait to sign a contract until he wasn’t attached to a compensatory pick. Ansah appeared in just seven games for the Lions last year before his shoulder took him out of action. However, Ansah has shown serious potential in the past with two 12+ sack seasons. As recently as 2017, Ansah profiled as one of the best edge rushers in the game.
[SOURCE LINK]
Minor NFL Transactions: 5/6/19
We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Baltimore Ravens
- Signed: DE Aaron Adeoye, CB Terrell Bonds, OT Darrell Williams
- Waived: DB Robertson Daniel, S Evan Worthington, OL C.J. Toogood
Chicago Bears
- Signed: OL Tommy Doles, DE Jalen Dalton
- Cut: DB Adarius Pickett, DE Lawrence Marshall
Cleveland Browns
- Signed: CB Jhavonte Dean, RB Travon Gray, LB Willie Harvey
Green Bay Packers
- Claimed: WR Jawill Davis
- Signed: WR Darrius Shepherd, CB Chandon Sullivan
- Released: RB Lavon Coleman
Kansas City Chiefs
- Reserve/non-football injury list: DE Tim Ward
Los Angeles Rams
- Signed: LB Bryce Hager
Minnesota Vikings
- Signed: CB Terrance Alexander, DE Stacy Keely, DB Isaiah Wharton
New England Patriots
- WR Xavier Ubosi
New Orleans Saints
- Signed: DT Kenny Bigelow Jr., RB Devine Ozigbo, CB Jordan Wyatt
New York Giants
- Signed: G Austin Droogsma
New York Jets
- Waived: QB Brandon Silvers
Oakland Raiders
- Signed: P A.J. Cole, DT Ronald Ollie
- Waived: P Drew Kaser, OL Jamar McGloster
San Francisco 49ers
- Claimed: OL Willie Beavers,
- Signed: LB LaRoy Reynolds, RB Austin Walter
- Waived: RB Matthew Dayes, DL Ryan Delaire
NFL Draft Pick Signings: 5/4/19
We’ll keep track the latest late-round draft pick signings here:
- The Ravens announced the signing of sixth round quarterback Trace McSorley. After signing three picks yesterday, the Ravens have now locked up all their Day 3 picks, and are just waiting on their first three picks to sign. McSorley set records at Penn State, but was widely viewed as being too small and inconsistent with his accuracy to be a top rated passer. The Ravens took a flier with the 197th pick, and they might experiment with him. McSorley played safety in high school, and he was by far the fastest quarterback at the combine. Ravens coach John Harbaugh has mentioned the possibility of using him on special teams and as a gadget player, and it sounds like McSorley could play a similar role with Baltimore as Taysom Hill does with the Saints. He should be fun to watch no matter where the Ravens end up using him.
NFL Draft Pick Signings: 5/3/19
We’ll keep track the latest late-round draft pick signings here:
- The Ravens announced the signings of running back Justice Hill (fourth round), guard Ben Powers (fourth round), cornerback Iman Marshall (fourth round), and defensive tackle Daylon Mack (fifth round). With that, the Ravens have just four stragglers left to go.
- The Giants inked defensive back Julian Love (fourth round), tackle George Asafo-Adjei (seventh round), and defensive tackle Chris Slayton (seventh round).
- The Packers, as of this writing, have four draft picks under contract – sixth-round cornerback Dexter Williams and seventh-round linebacker Ty Summers signed their deals, following the lead of the club’s first round picks.
Ravens Sign Gerald Willis, 16 Other UDFAs
Stationed on ESPN’s “best available” graphic for hours on Day 3 of the draft, Gerald Willis found a home in Baltimore. The Ravens made the defensive lineman part of their UDFA contingent. Here is the rest of the team’s 17-man group:
- Otaro Alaka, LB (Texas A&M)
- Marcus Applefield, T (Virginia)
- E.J. Ejiya, LB (North Texas)
- Cole Herdman, TE (Purdue)
- Markus Jones, LB (Angelo State)
- Patrick Mekari, G (Cal)
- Sean Modster, WR (Boise State)
- Kalil Morris, DT (Kent State)
- Mike Onuoha, LB (Texas A&M-Commerce)
- Matthew Orzech, LS (Azusa Pacific)
- Charles Scarff, TE (Delaware)
- Jaylen Smith, WR (Louisville)
- Silas Stewart, LB (Incarnate Word)
- C.J. Toogood, C (Elon)
- Antoine Wesley, WR (Texas Tech)
- Gerald Willis, DT (Miami)
- Evan Worthington, S (Colorado)
Rated as the No. 76 overall prospect on Mel Kiper Jr.’s big board, Willis earned second-team All-American honors by finishing with 18 tackles for loss and four sacks last season. However, character issues likely led to his slide. Florida dismissed the talented defender earlier in his career, and some Miami coaches were skeptical of his NFL future.
The Ravens are continuing their rookie-heavy approach to staffing their wide receiver spots, this trio following Marquise Brown and third-round pick Miles Boykin. Smith, who had his best college season (a 60-catch, 980-yard, seven-touchdown 2017) when playing with Lamar Jackson, will rejoin the developing passer. Wesley’s 1,410 receiving yards ranked third in Division I-FBS last season.
Ravens DT Michael Pierce Signs RFA Tender
Ravens defensive tackle Michael Pierce has signed his second-round restricted free agent tender, according to Field Yates of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Pierce will now earn $3.095MM for the 2019 season.
The deadline has already passed for NFL teams to sign restricted free agents to offer sheets, so Pierce didn’t have the ability to leave Baltimore. A rival club would have had to sacrifice a second-round pick in order to land Pierce, and while he’s an excellent player, the relatively low positional value for run-stuffing defensive tackles made such a scenario unlikely.
Pierce, 26, has appeared in 46 games for the Ravens since going undrafted in the 2016 draft. The 6’0″, 340-pounder played behind stalwart Brandon Williams on Baltimore’s interior defensive line last season, managing four tackles for loss on 389 total snaps. Pro Football Focus graded Pierce as the fifth-best defensive tackle in the league, and also ranked him 11th among interior defenders in run-stop percentage.
With Pierce now under contract, the only restricted free agents yet to sign their tenders are Jets wide receiver Robby Anderson, Rams linebacker Cory Littleton, and Rams cornerback Troy Hill.
Ravens Notes: Johnson, Willis
- The Ravens were attempting to sign Arizona defensive tackle P.J. Johnson to an undrafted free agent deal when he was selected by the Lions with the 229th overall pick, according to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “It was kind of funny,” Johnson said. “I tried to be as polite as possible,” Johnson said, “but get off fast: ‘Excuse me, but the Lions are calling. I’ve got to go.’ ” Baltimore did not have a selection after No. 197, so the club would have had to trade back up (using 2020 capital) in order to land Johnson.
- Miami defensive tackle Gerald Willis surprisingly went undrafted before reportedly inking a UDFA deal with the Ravens, and his fall was likely caused by a few off-field issues, as Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic writes. Willis allegedly got into an altercation with Skyler Mornhinweg (son of ex-Ravens offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg) before being dismissed at Florida, while some former Miami coaches also bad-mouthed Willis, per Zrebiec. The current Hurricanes staff, however, praised Willis.
Vikings Send No. 93 Pick To Ravens
More Vikings trade action. The Ravens enticed Rick Spielman to trade down, for the fourth time in Round 3.
While the Vikings just acquired a seventh-round pick for a one-spot Jets move, the Ravens will send them two choices — sixth-rounders, at 191 and 193 — for the right to climb nine spots in the third round. The Ravens used the pick to take Notre Dame wide receiver Miles Boykin.
Minnesota began its Round 3 odyssey at No. 81, then moved to 88, 92, 93 and now 102. At this rate, the Vikings will be busy on Day 3.
Boykin will follow Marquise Brown to Baltimore, with the Ravens using the draft to augment their aerial weaponry corps this year. With a developmental quarterback in Lamar Jackson, this strategy makes sense. At 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, Boykin does offer a complementary skill set to the former Oklahoma deep threat.
Ravens Notes: Second Round, Brown, Burns
The Ravens will have a pair of third-rounders this evening, but the team currently doesn’t own a second-round pick. It sounds like it’s going to stay that way, as general manager Eric DeCosta said it’s unlikely the team moves up.
“We look at today as an awesome opportunity for this team to get better,” DeCosta said (via the team’s Twitter). “We’ve got two picks at this time, you never know if we’re going to have more than two picks. We’ve got a bunch of picks tomorrow afternoon.
“There’s a possibility that we can trade up into the second round. Probably unlikely that we would do that based on what we’d have to give up to do it.”
The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec tweets that he wouldn’t be surprised if the Ravens end up making a trade to move up in the third round, where they’re currently armed with picks No. 85 and No. 102. The front office has already pulled off one deal during the draft, as the Ravens acquired No. 25, No. 127, and No. 197 from the Eagles in exchange for No. 22.
Let’s check out some more notes out of Baltimore…
- Even though the team doesn’t have a second, that doesn’t seem to be concerning DeCosta. The general manager told ESPN’s Jamison Hensley that he’s excited about the depth in the third and fourth rounds (Twitter link). “I think this is a really, really good draft in the third and fourth round,” GM Eric DeCosta said. “We see great opportunity for us over the next couple of days.” Baltimore has three fourth-rounders at their disposal.
- Zrebiec writes that the Ravens would have loved to add a pass rusher last night. However, once Brian Burns was taken by the Panthers at No. 16, the front office felt like none of the remaining outside linebackers had first-round grades. That led them to wideout Marquise Brown, although DeCosta took a risk of missing out on his target by moving down a few slots. “We were nervous to be honest. I was a little bit nervous that Philly might take (Brown), but it’s a calculated risk,” DeCosta said. “We had some other players that were there that we liked. You know we like to make trades. It made sense to gamble, to roll the dice a little bit, so we did.”
- The Ravens final decision ultimately came down to Brown or Florida right tackle Jawaan Taylor, according to Zrebiec. If the team had opted for the offensive lineman, they would have moved him to offensive guard. Taylor wasn’t taken during the first-round of the draft.
- As Zrebiec writes, the Ravens front office doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to first-round receivers, as Travis Taylor (2000), Mark Clayton (2005) and Breshad Perriman (2015) all disappointed. Predictably, DeCosta said the team’s history didn’t deter him from selecting a wideout with his first draft pick as general manager. “In my mind, this is one of the more electric players in college football this year, so we spent a lot of time looking at him and watching him,” DeCosta said.
Eagles Acquire No. 22 Pick From Ravens
The Eagles have acquired the No. 22 pick from the Ravens, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link). Baltimore will pick up No. 25, No. 127, and No. 197, tweets Field Yates of ESPN.com.
Philadelphia will use the selection to draft Washington State Andre Dillard. Given that the offensive-line needy Texans were sitting at No. 23, the Eagles made the move up the board to find a left tackle of the future.
Dillard, whom many observers ranked as the best pass-blocking tackle in the draft, will now become the long-term replacement for blinside protector Jason Peters. Until Peters hangs up his cleats, Dillard will slide in either as a swing tackle or guard.