Getty Ravens DL Brent Urban was one of two veterans that was re-signed on February, 15, 2023.
The Baltimore Ravens made their first roster moves since the 2022 season officially came to a close following Superbowl 57 by re-signing defensive end Brent Urban and cornerback Daryl Worley on Wednesday, 15, 2023.
We have re-signed DE Brent Urban and CB Daryl Worley.
Both veteran defenders provided quality depth at their respective positions last season and will do so again in 2023 if they make the final roster. They are also prime candidates to be brought back after final cuts as is customary at times with players of their status who were likely brought back on inexpensive veteran minimum contracts.
Run it back 😈
Urban returned to the Ravens for a second stint after being originally drafted by the team in 2014 in the fourth round out of Virginia. He primarily served as the backup to six-time Pro Bowler Calais Campbell who recently announced his intention to return for the 2023 season but his status with the team is somewhat uncertain given his cap hit for next season being $9.4 million, per spotrac.com. In 16 games, Urban recorded 21 total tackles including 2 for loss, 1 sack, 1 quarterback hit, and three pass deflections according to Pro Football Reference.
Brent Urban’s first sack of the year at CLE. What a wasted defensive effort. #RavensFlock #RavensFootball
Worley bounced between the active roster and the practice squad throughout the year and primarily played special teams in all but one of the nine games he appeared including the playoffs. In eight regular season games, he recorded 8 total tackles including 6 solos and 1 for loss, and 2 pass deflections per PFR. His lone start came in the season finale where he made 5 total tackles including 4 solos and both of his pass breakups.
WELCOME BACK Daryl Worley❗️❗️
Tune in on CBS
Ravens ‘Hit Home Run’ With New OC Hire
The team continues to receive high praise for the hiring of the former University of Georgia offensive coordinator, Todd Monken, to serve in the same role for them.
In the latest episode of the Ringer NFL Show’s ‘Extra Point Taken’ podcast, Ben Solak and Sheil Kapadia hopped on the hype train and expressed their excitement for what the hire means for the evolution of the offense and future of quarterback Lamar Jackson with the franchise.
“Monken is a really solid offensive coach who understands how to get passing concepts open down the field in the dropback game and in the play-action game,” Solak said. “(That’s) really important to the Ravens who their play-action game is a little bit different than other teams’ play-action passing games.
“Going under center and faking a hand off of the ball is the scariest sort of play-action look for the other 30 or 31 teams in the league but for a quarterback like Lamar, its scarier when he’s in shotgun and faking out the read”
He went as far as to say that “Monken is a home run” if he can come in and be the architect of their offensive evolution, citing that given his deep and diverse background in developing offenses quickly at the professional and collegiate level might help further convince Jackson to stay in Baltimore for the long haul.
“Moving on from a guy that Lamar likes, it’s really important that your offensive coordinator hire if Lamar plays on the tag for a year, its really important that the guy is good,” Solak said. “If it’s the worse offense that Lamar has ever played in, he’s going to be more likely to try to move again as opposed to if they have uproarious success passing the football, it’s good vibes.”
Even though Monken has four years of NFL experience as an offensive coordinator, the only year he got to actually call plays came in 2018 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Kapadia is excited by his history of calling plays for an offense that excels in pushing the ball down the field.
“They had 71 completions of 20-plus yards that year which was second in the NFL,” he said. “The Ravens have never had more than 54, they had 33 last year. I know Lamar was injured but 33 explosive passing plays, the Bucs under Monken had 71.”
In his return to the college football landscape at Georgia, he took the Bulldogs from the 49th-ranked scoring offense in 2019 to 38th in 2020 in his first year, 9th in 2021, and 4th in 2022.
“Everybody has complained about Greg Roman and this passing game for years and years and years and now you have a guy who you say alright this guy has a legit background in terms of building passing games, downfield passing games,” Kapadia said. “Get him some players and the kind of ceiling for that Ravens offense goes a little bit higher.”
Ravens OC Candidates Weren’t ‘Given Full Assurances’ That Jackson Would Be Back
While the excitement for the pairing of Monken and the two-time Pro Bowl quarterback is widespread, so is the continued speculation that Jackson could still be on the move this offseason.
According to a source per NFL Insider Jordan Schultz of The Score, Monken and the other candidates that interviewed for the Ravens’ vacant offensive coordinator positions “were not given full assurances that Lamar Jackson will be the [quarterback] next season.”
“Jackson is expected to receive the franchise tag this offseason, keeping him off the free-agent market after he played out the final year of his rookie contract,” Schultz wrote. “The two sides’ continued lack of progress toward a long-term deal could potentially open the door for teams around the league to tempt the Ravens with trade offers.”
Per his sources the organization wants Jackson to return for 2023 and beyond as head coach John Harbaugh and general manager Eric DeCosta stated numerous times in their season-ending but they are “currently unsure how the situation with its star quarterback will unfold in the coming weeks”.
“There’s no question about it. Lamar Jackson is our quarterback,” Harbaugh said on January 19, 2023. “Everything we’ve done in terms of building our offense and building our team … is based on this incredible young man and his talent.”
The deadline for teams to apply the franchise tag to impending unrestricted free agents is March 7, 2023. Some pundits have debated whether the team will use the non-exclusive or exclusive tender, their top priority remains to get him locked up before then so they have more cap space to continue building a better team around him once free agency opens up on March 15, 2023.