Fifth-year option decisions will reveal how Ravens truly feel about Bateman, Oweh
Luke Jones, Baltimore Positive
If Bateman were more like the first three wide receivers — Ja’Marr Chase, Jaylen Waddle, and DeVonta Smith — drafted in 2021, we’d be discussing the structure of a lucrative long-term contract right now while viewing the $14.345 million option for 2025 as a relative bargain in a booming receiver market. If Oweh’s career sack total (13) were closer to those of fellow 2021 first-round picks Jaelan Phillips (22), Kwity Paye (18 1/2), or even Gregory Rousseau (17), there’d be little debating a $13.251 million salary for a fifth season.
In other words, it’s complicated, especially considering the increasing lucrative salaries at these premium positions overall and Baltimore’s projected roster needs for 2025. It was easier to decline the fifth-year option for Patrick Queen a year ago because of the $100 million extension signed by Roquan Smith months earlier and the understanding that the Ravens couldn’t pump more money into the off-ball linebacker position.
Considering their seemingly annual needs at both wide receiver and outside linebacker, the Ravens would embrace a fixed cost for the right player, but DeCosta doesn’t have a crystal ball revealing whether this will finally be that big year for Bateman or Oweh. There’s also the reality of guaranteeing more than $27.5 million in combined salary for a 2025 season in which Jackson’s salary cap number alone is set to rise above $43 million.
The Ravens treasure their Day 3 draft picks. But what if they’re worth more as trade chips?
Jonas Shaffer, The Baltimore Banner
The trickle-down effects of college football’s NIL and extended-eligibility era could have profound consequences on the top, bottom and middle of the Ravens’ draft board. With just 58 underclassmen declaring early, the fewest since the NFL’s rookie wage scale was implemented in 2011, this year’s draft is not only missing potential stars at positions of need in Baltimore. Its value could also be weakest where the Ravens are positioned the strongest.
See Also1 pending free agent the Ravens could target from each AFC teamMichigan football helped make 'Ravens defense' hot commodity. It's spreading elsewhere.Baltimore Ravens: Ein entscheidender Faktor für den Super BowlRavens News 3/6: Tag RamificationsSenior Bowl Executive Director Jim Nagy, a former NFL scout, told reporters in January that the wave of underclassmen returning to school had “wiped out” the all-star game’s board of players projected to be taken in the fifth round and later. Of the Ravens’ nine picks in the 2024 draft, which kicks off April 25, just five are in the first four rounds. The team’s remaining draft capital — one fifth-rounder, one sixth-rounder and two seventh-rounders — could turn into anything: a handful of Day 3 fliers? Fodder for a trade package? A 2025 selection in a pick swap?
Somehow, somewhere, the Ravens will need to find value. In the 2022 and 2023 drafts, the NFL’s first two since since NIL rules changed prospects’ stay-or-go incentives, DeCosta took four players in the fifth round or later: running back Tyler Badie, cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly, and offensive linemen Sala Aumavae-Laulu and Andrew Vorhees. None has played a snap for the Ravens. The team’s three late-round picks in 2021 — cornerback Shaun Wade, outside linebacker Daelin Hayes and fullback Ben Mason — combined for 24 career snaps. Of those seven picks, only Aumavae-Laulu and Vorhees remain under contract in Baltimore.
2024 NFL Draft: Day 2 fits for all 32 NFL teams
Dalton Wasserman, PFF
BALTIMORE RAVENS: G MASON MCCORMICK, SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
The Ravens lost starting left guard John Simpson in free agency, and they could replace him in the draft with a very similar player in Mason McCormick. McCormick is athletic, durable and nasty. He is arguably the premier pulling guard in this class, which is a plus when considering Baltimore’s gap-heavy scheme. If McCormick refines his footwork, he could start sooner than later.
2024 NFL Draft: Day 3 fits for all 32 NFL teams
Gordon McGuinness, PFF
BALTIMORE RAVENS: T CHRISTIAN JONES, TEXAS
Jones is coming off his best college season as a pass protector, earning a 78.1 PFF pass-blocking grade. He allowed just three quarterback pressures, none of which were sacks, from 105 pass-blocking snaps on true pass sets last year.
Ravens would be wise to target Ed Reed’s cousin, Trey Taylor, in NFL draft
Mike Preston, The Baltimore Sun
They are cousins by marriage, but Taylor always called Reed “unc,” and Reed calls Taylor his nephew. Reed’s diagnosis of the Ravens organization was as thorough as his film study when he played in Baltimore from 2002 through 2012.
But Taylor fits the profile of a Ravens “hybrid” safety. At 6 feet and 206 pounds, he can play near the line of scrimmage and in the deep third of the field. He had 71 tackles last season and earned first-team All-Mountain West honors. He also recorded six career interceptions.
It’s one of the things he said he discussed with Ravens coach John Harbaugh and first-year defensive coordinator Zach Orr during his visit.
“That’s what they were saying, they would be excited about me playing underneath, but they like how I can also convert to being somebody that plays deep,” Taylor said.
The Ravens need safety help, too. They lost Geno Stone to the Cincinnati Bengals in free agency, and while they return starters Kyle Hamilton and Marcus Williams, Williams missed seven games last season with various injuries and played much of the year with one arm because he declined to have surgery for a torn pectoral muscle.
There is a lot to like about Taylor. He started for three years at Air Force and finished with 205 career tackles. Various draft reports have said he has good intuition reading plays. He also received the 2023 Jim Thorpe Award, which is given annually to the best defensive back in college.
2024 NFL draft: Latest news, questions for all 32 team picks
Jordan Reid, ESPN
What we’re hearing about the Ravens’ draft: Wide receiver and offensive tackle are the two positions that dominate conversations when speaking with sources close to the Ravens. Baltimore hasn’t been shy about helping quarterback Lamar Jackson with first-round receivers, and that trend could continue. And after trading Morgan Moses to the Jets, Baltimore could also target someone like Jordan Morgan (Arizona) or Tyler Guyton to join Patrick Mekari, Daniel Faalele and Josh Jones in the OL mix.
But here’s something that could throw a wrench in either option: I’ve heard that trading back from No. 30 to land extra draft capital might be in play.
