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The losses have already started to come for the Baltimore Ravens during the 2024 offseason.
The team was expected to take some hits this offseason as have more than twenty players that can reach free agency and limited cap space to bring them back.
On the first day of the legal tampering period, the team lost one of their more notable free agents to a division rival.
According to Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz, Geno Stone has agreed to a deal with the Cincinnati Bengals.
The deal is worth $15 million over two years.
Stone’s Breakout Season
It took a little while for Stone’s career to really get going after the Ravens selected him in the seventh round of the 2020 draft.
He played in just two games as a rookie before the Ravens let him go near the end of the season.
He briefly joined the Texans before the season ended, but they didn’t extend him a qualifying offer to hold onto him, so the Ravens ended up bringing him back on a one-year deal for the 2021 season.
Stone became a rotational piece for the Ravens during that 2021 season and recorded 21 tackles and the first interception of his career.
In 2022, the Ravens re-signed him for another year. His role grew during his third year in the league and he made 38 tackles while starting seven games for Baltimore.
In 2023, he reached a whole new level while playing on yet another one-year contract. His playing time took a huge jump up to 82% of the Ravens’ defensive snaps and the team was rewarded in that extra playing time.
Stone set career highs with 68 total tackles and 9 passes defended. More impressively, he tied for the league lead in interceptions with 7.
He was a big part of a Ravens defense that was the league’s best throughout the 2023 regular season.
Unfortunately, bringing him back again just didn’t make much sense for the Ravens this time around.
Why the Ravens Couldn’t Re-Sign Him
Stone certainly played well enough last season to earn the deal that he got from the Bengals, but it wouldn’t have made much sense for the Ravens to give him that same deal.
They already have a ton of talent at safety and are heavily invested in the position.
Marcus Williams will occupy one starting spot at the position and is set to carry a cap hit of $18.7 million for the 2024 season.
They also just drafted Kyle Hamilton in the first round of the 2022 draft. In his second year in the league, Hamilton earned a First Team All-Pro nod and he will hold the other starting spot for the Ravens next season.
The Ravens certainly would have liked to remain unbelievably deep at safety in 2024, but it didn’t make sense for them given their free agent situation.
The team currently doesn’t have a ton of cap space as they haven’t really made moves to clear any this offseason and they have a bunch of other positions they’ll need to address as they lose other free agents.
They have already started suffering losses across their starting lineup and will need money for replacements.
With those other needs, it just didn’t make sense to pay $7.5 million per year for somebody that would have been a backup on their team and now they’ll be stuck playing against twice a year for the next couple of years.
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