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There’s something about Super Bowl Sunday that reinvigorates Baltimore Ravens’ 6-time Pro Bowl defensive end Calais Campbell because, for the second straight year, he announced his intentions to return for another season on a nationally televised broadcast.
Last year it was following the game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals on the set of Sky Sports. This time around it was prior to the matchup between the Kansas City Cheifs and Philadelphia Eagles on the set of NFL Network’s NFL GameDay former NFL coach Steve Mariucci, hall-of-fame quarterback Kurt Warner, and sports talk show host Rich Eisen.
.@CalaisCampbell signs off for the day by confirming that he will be back for a 16th NFL season and picking the @Eagles to win #SuperBowlLVII 👀
Thanks for joining us, Calais!
“I’m coming back baby,” Campbell said.
Unlike last year when he made the decision not to retire, the 16-year veteran and future Hall of Famer is under contract with the Ravens after signing a two-year deal worth $12.5 million last offseason.
He is one of the stalwart leaders on the team, the 2022 recipient of the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award, and is coming off his best season since joining the team in the 2020 offseason. Campbell recorded 5.5 sacks, 14 quarterback hits, and 36 total tackles including 4 for a loss, 2 pass deflections, and 2 forced fumbles in 14 games this past year per Pro Football Reference.
Calais Campbell notches the Ravens’ FIFTH sack of the day… and this time, Baltimore keeps the ball 😈
His decision to run it back for one more year will give him another chance to reach the century mark for career sacks as he currently sits at 99 in 227 career regular season games. It will also give him the chance to make one more run at a championship, a feat he nearly accomplished as a rookie with the Arizona Cardinals in 2008 but has eluded him since.
I really want to play in Super Bowl 58
Campbell Could Possibly Play Elsewhere in 2023
Even though he’s under contract for one more season, it doesn’t guarantee that he’ll be playing his 16th and possibly final season in the NFL with the Ravens. Per spotrac.com, Campbell’s cap hit for next season is slated to be $9,440,000 million.
While that is not a huge figure for such an impactful presence on and off the field, the uncertainty surrounding the contractual status of franchise quarterback Lamar Jackson could make the 36-year-old defender a luxury that can’t afford. If they have to apply either the exclusive or non-exclusive franchise tag tender to hang on to their star signal caller for at least another year, Campbell might have to take a pay cut or get cut.
The team could save $7 million by cutting him and will likely want lower that figure with either a restructuring or even another short-term extension for another year to spread it out. If they were to cut him, it would free up $7 million cap space while only incurring a dead cap charge of $2,440,000 million.
Even though losing Campbell would be a huge blow for a Ravens defense that was consistently playing at an elite level during the second half of the season, the team has younger and more quality depth on their defensive line than they did a year ago.
Both Justin Madubuike and Broderick Washington took significant strides in their third season last year, Travis Jones showed a lot of promise as a rookie, and Michael Pierce will be back from injury with two years left on his contract with an average annual salary of just $5,500,000 million.
Campell Thinks Jackson ‘Needs to Stay in Baltimore’
While his status with the team moving forward is somewhat up in the air, he doesn’t believe that of the former unanimous league MVP should be and said he “needs to stay in Baltimore”.
“He can’t go anywhere else; he should play his whole career in Baltimore,” Campbell said. “The man is a legend, he carries himself like a professional. He’s maturing and growing and I love playing for him. When we are on the football field, we know when Lamar Jackson is back there at quarterback we believe we can beat anybody. We can’t just put anybody back there and expect to be a great football team.”
As a season pro himself, he acknowledged that the business side of the game can force teams to make difficult decisions and say goodbye to their best players. However, he doesn’t have confidence that gambling on letting elite talent walk out the door or trading it away with hopes of finding a competent or hopefully comparable replacement is worth the risk.
“Somebody might say ‘give me five first-round picks or whatever’ but who do you replace him with? There’s no guarantee that one of these rookie quarterbacks will come in to be Lamar Jackson,” Campbell said. “You can go get a free agent and you really don’t know how they are going to fit and really there are not free agents that are a Lamar Jackson. So, whatever we need to do Eric DeCosta I love you let’s find a way to make this happen baby.”
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Ravens 6-time Pro Bowler Announces Intent to Play in 2023