Baltimore Beatdown
According to ESPN’s Benjamin Solak, the Baltimore Ravens’ offseason has been a good one, but not worthy of the Top 10 in the NFL.
By all accounts, the Baltimore Ravens’ offseason has been a successful one.
They managed to re-sign left tackle Ronnie Stanley, fullback Patrick Ricard, wide receiver Tylan Wallace and offensive lineman Ben Cleveland. They somehow managed to add outside talent, too, in DeAndre Hopkins, Chidobe Awuzie, Jake Hummel and backup quarterback Cooper Rush.
For a team on the cusp and cap-strapped, the Ravens’ offseason has been arguably one of the best. But for ESPN’s Benjamin Solak, he’s not as high on the moves, or believes other franchise’s have been more successful, ranking the Ravens No. 12.
“I loved: The Stanley extension. It was a very quiet free agency period overall for Baltimore — not a lot of money to spend, not a lot of starters with contracts expiring,” Solak wrote. “The most important item on the agenda was retaining Stanley, who bounced back from worrisome 2023 play with an excellent 2024 season. The Ravens signed Stanley before the legal tampering period began, securing his services for $20 million per year before a cash-rich team such as the Patriots could offer 125% of that. So long as Stanley stays healthy, he’s a set-it-and-forget-it blindside protector.”
Solak’s critique of the Ravens was adding Rush as their backup quarterback.
“I didn’t love: The Cooper Rush deal,” Solak wrote. “It’s not usually a big deal if the QB2 is very different stylistically than the QB1, but it feels meaningful in this case. No NFL offensive scheme is nearly as heliocentric as the Ravens’, and putting an immobile quarterback behind Jackson dramatically changes the playbook. Rush is a solid backup, and it’s not like a mobile QB2 could imitate Jackson. Nevertheless, this was weird to me.”
It’s been public knowledge the Ravens have wanted to upgrade their backup quarterback spot for awhile. The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec wrote about it back in 2023.
“It’s well-documented that the Ravens liked Mayfield coming out of the draft,” Zrebiec wrote. “He has a good relationship with [Lamar] Jackson and he’s close with [former Oklahoma teammate] tight end Mark Andrews. ...When the Ravens faced Mayfield and the Carolina Panthers in 2022, [Owner Steve] Bisciotti jogged to the Panthers’ side of the field to hug Mayfield in pregame warmups. I’m not sure I’ve seen that before with a player that hadn’t already played for the Ravens and had a previous relationship with the owner.”
Since Lamar Jackson became the starter, the Ravens have gone through a carousel of backups, including Tyler Huntley, Josh Johnson, Anthony Brown and Robert Griffin III. But the Ravens have wanted to upgrade such a position and have now done so, landing Rush.
Signing players with similar skillsets to Jackson has not proved fruitful. Nobody is like Jackson. And putting in players similar to Jackson to run plays with lower effectiveness hasn’t yielded positive results. So, adding Rush — a proven backup quarterback —...
