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At the onset of the offseason, the Baltimore Ravens vowed to ‘build up’ their wide receiver room. The first pre-draft step was officially signing veteran speedster Nelson Agholor to a one-year deal on March 29, 2023.
General manager Eric DeCosta doesn’t appear to be done trying to make another move at the roster’s most significant deficiency. The team has been rumored to be in the mix for veteran wideout Odell Beckham Jr. and according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, they not only met with the three-time Pro Bowler but they offered him a contract.
“The Baltimore Ravens have met with Odell Beckham Jr. and presented him their own offer,” Schefter said. “We’ll see which Odell Beckham Jr. finds more interesting but it certainly sounds like it’s the Jets, it’s the Ravens, maybe the Rams still have an interest but at this point and time would be the obvious landing spots for Odell Beckham Jr. in what has been one of the longest free agent recruitments we have ever seen.”
While the Ravens don’t have the available cap space to get into a bidding war with Beckham Jr.’s other top suitors for his services, what they do have is the most glaring position of need and the fewest mouths to feed of the bunch.
The New York Jets already have a loaded receiver room with 2022 rookie of the year, Garrett Wilson, and former first-rounder Corey Davis still on their roster, and they signed Mecole Hardman and Allen Lazard in free agency. The Los Angles Rams still funnel their passing game through Cooper Kupp and are in rebuild mode, not the championship contender he won a Super Bowl title as a member of in 2021.
With the Ravens, he’d instantly be one of the top targets for a unanimous league MVP-winning quarterback in Lamar Jackson and would be reunited with first-year offensive coordinator Todd Monken who was his play caller with the Cleveland Browns in 2019.
Beckham Seeking 1-Year Deal With Hefty Price Tag: Report
Much like the ongoing contract negotiations for the quarterback, he’d hopefully be playing for if he came to Baltimore, there isn’t much clarity on exactly how much the nine-year veteran desires in compensation. He did offer insight on what isn’t enough in a tweet on March 18, 2023, when in which he clarified that he never stated that he wanted $20 million annually but that $4 million “AINT enough”.
According to Schefter’s ESPN colleague, Rich Cimini, the former first-rounder is looking to sign with a team on a one-year contract worth $15 million which he believes is “pricey for a 30-year-old receiver coming off his second ACL surgery”.
Cimini thinks a contract offer “in the $10 million to $12 million range” would be the “more likely” price tag for a player with his injury concerns despite his talent. However, he did also add that a potential deal could include “a chance to earn more with incentives” which would most likely be tied to games played, minimum production benchmarks, and perhaps even team success like playoff bonuses.
An incentive-laden deal with a low base salary and cap hit for this upcoming season is probably along the lines of what the Ravens’ offer to Beckham Jr. looked like and it will remain to be seen if that is enough to convince him to sign on the dotted line when it’s all said and done.
Given that he’s waited this long to sign with a team despite having interest from numerous suitors, Beckham might be willing to wait until after the 2023 NFL Draft to sign with a team that missed out on their top receiver prospects.
The only issue with that gamble as it pertains to the Ravens, in particular, is that they are higher on this year’s receiver class than most teams and pundits. If they end up taking more than one, there’s a chance they might no longer be interested or have the cap room to make it happen with Jackson’s and the entire rookie class’ salary cap hits on the books.
Ex-Raven Defends Decision to Join Middling NFC Team
Releasing veteran defensive end Calais Campbell to get under the salary cap was an unfortunate yet necessary move that the Ravens had to make before the start of the new league year. However, they did so with the hope that they might be able to bring him back at a lower financial figure at a later date.
That hope was extinguished when the six-time Pro Bowler signed a one-year contract to join the Atlanta Falcons for the 2023 season. The fact that he wound up signing elsewhere wasn’t much of a surprise to those in the football world. It was a player almost solely motivated to win a championship by his own admission signing with a team that hasn’t made the postseason since 2017 that left many scratching their head.
While the vast majority of football media aren’t high on the Falcons, Campbell was convinced to sign on the dotted line because he believes that the team is much closer to contending than they’re currently being given credit for.
“I really liked his vision for the team,” Campbell said of his new head coach Arthur Smith on Monday. “I really thought he had a great game plan for where the team is at right now and where it’s going, and I really feel like that’s gonna surprise a lot of people this year. This team’s gonna be a very competitive, tough team that’ll win a lot of ball games.”
As far as his specific role on the defensive side of the ball, the 36-year-old shared that he will be moving back outside to rush the passer and defend the run on the edge of Atlanta’s defensive alignment. He played almost exclusively on the inside at five-technique during his three years in Baltimore.
“One of the other things I liked about it a lot was because they said my role would be playing true D-end, playing on the edge on first and second down, which was very appealing,” Campbell explained. “That Cam Jordan kind of role.”
This won’t be his first rodeo when it comes to betting on an underrated team to defy the odds and shatter expectations. In his first year with the Jacksonville Jaguars back in 2017, he was a starting member of the ferocious ‘Sacksonville’ defense and helped lead the team to the doorstep of the Super Bowl before they narrowly fell to the New England Patriots in the AFC title game.
“I feel like this team definitely has (that),” Campbell said. “I feel like if (Desmond) Ridder continues to develop and be who I think he can be, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re playing late in January and potentially February.”
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