The Baltimore Ravens have historically loved pouncing on the opportunity to bring in discarded veteran players in free agency that were released by their former teams as salary cap casualties.
By doing so, they are often able to address one of their top needs ahead of the upcoming NFL Draft without impacting the compensatory pick formula, in the same way, signing an unrestricted free agent that just hit the open market on an expired contract would.
According to Philadelphia Eagles veteran cornerback Darius Slay, he was almost the latest addition to the list of proven players that were swiftly signed following their release. In a recent episode of his ‘Big Play Slay’ podcast, the five-time Pro Bowler fresh off a Superbowl appearance revealed that he was almost a Raven.
How close was Darius Slay to becoming a @Ravens?
“I was this close,” Slay said with two fingers less than an inch apart. “But I wanted to be an Eagle and stayed an Eagle because I knew me and [Eagles general manager] Howie (Roseman) were going to figure something out.”
He said that the Ravens were the first team that called home following his reported release and offered him just the kind of deal that he was looking for but he wanted to give the Eagles’ front office a chance to match.
“I said ‘Hey if the Eagles do that, Ima stay an Eagle’ so it was nice,” Slay said. “I almost was a Raven. I almost was a different bird.”
He wound up re-signing with the Eagles just hours after his initial release was reported on a two-year extension worth $42 million to keep him under contract through the 2025 season with an average annual salary of $14 million.
Given that cornerback was and remains one of the team’s top needs this offseason, attempting to address it with one of the premiere players at the position was a valiant effort.
In recent years, they were able to bring back veteran nose tackle Michael Pierce and sign veteran right guard Kevin Zeitler on affordable contracts after they were released by their former teams.
Pierce was released by the Minnesota Vikings last offseason and signed a three-year deal worth $16.5 million to return to where his career began and Zeitler signed a three-year deal worth $22.5 million to join the team in the 2021 offseason after being released by the New York Giants.
Ravens fans have already been extremely vocal on social media to express their displeasure for the team’s seemingly annual willingness to pay top dollar or near market rate to upgrade their defense and secondary in particular. They’d rather see allocate more resources to address wide receiver, arguably their biggest need what feels like every offseason.
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While they are well within their right to be understandably frustrated, putting the situation into context should ease some of unrest. The Ravens offense under former playcaller Greg Roman was as unappealing to veteran wide receivers as any in the league given his propencity for running the ball and featuring the tight in position more heavily in the passing game.
Now that Roman is gone and the team hired Todd Monken to replace him, the biggest deterrent for veterans at the position this year is most likely the uncertainty at quarterback even though the new offense will be more balanced and put an emphasis on getting skill players the ball in space more often.
With Jackson recently making his trade request public and still not signed to a long-term deal, established wide receivers that either signed elsewhere and those that remain on the open market were and are likely still disuaded from considering joining the team until a resolution of some kind comes to pass.
Ravens Can Afford to Bring Marcus Peters Back
The wide belief among reporters and analysts that closely cover the team heading into free agency was that they wouldn’t be able to retain three time Pro Bowl corner Marcus Peters because of cap restraints as a result of applying the nonexclusive franchise tag to quarterback Lamar Jackson.
However, the news that Slay was nearly had for the price tag of $14 million annually suggests that the Ravens could certainly find a way to keep Peters in Baltimore for the foreseeable future given that he is projected to garner an annual average salary of just $9.8 million according to spotrac.com.
In the same way that Slay has great reverence for the Eagles organization, Peters has gone on the record numerous times about how much he loves being with the Ravens and would like to finish his career with the team.
“I’m going to just say this. I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else. I feel comfortable being here,” Peters told Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic on May 16, 2022.
At the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine, general manager Eric DeCosta spoke glowingly of the nine-year veteran and how the two sides would stay in contact throughout the free agency process.
“He’s a guy that I hold in very, very high regard,” DeCosta said on March 1, 2023. “I’ve had a few conversations with Marcus’ agent, who is a good friend, and Marcus is a great friend. He and I have communicated. That will be ongoing, but that’s a guy that when you talk about ‘true Ravens,’ guys who have done a lot for your team, for me, for the Ravens over the past four years – Marcus is on that list.”
Bringing back Peters who just turned 30 years old and two years younger Slay who just turned 32 likely be considerably cheaper given the bit of a down season he’s coming off of in 2022. It would also keep one of the key pieces in the secondary and core locker room figures with the team that just veteran Calais Campbell for good after he officially signed with the Atlanta Falcons on March 29, 2023.
Ravens Could Wait Until the Draft to Address the Position
Fortuenatley for the team, this year incoming class is deep at several of their positions of need and most notably at cornerback where at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine, head coach John Harbaugh said that he beleives the crop is “loaded”.
“In my opinion, 10 cornerbacks that could go in the first two rounds; it’s loaded,” he said on March 1, 2023. “They’re all great players, they’re all potential starters, first-year starters. It’s a great crew.”
Some of the most popular prospects that have been projected to land with the Ravens in recent mock drafts include South Carolina’s Cam Smith, Maryland’s Deonte Banks, and Penn State’s Joey Porter Jr.
Of the trio, Banks and Smith are the most likely of the bunch to still be on the board when the Ravens are on the clock at No. 22 overall. Porter Jr. is receiving top 20 buzz and some analyst view him as the second best corner in the draft behind or in front of projected top 15 picks Devin Witherspoon of Illinois and Christian Gonzalez of Oregon.
DeCosta could trade back further in the first or out of it entirely and take the likes of Emmanuel Forbes of Mississippi State or Kelee Ringo of Georgia early in the second round. If he chooses to wait until the third or fourth round, Banks’ college teammate Jakorian Bennett or DJ Turner of Michigian could be an promising options after both prospects turned heads with impressive testing numbers at the Combine.
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Ravens Nearly Signed 5-Time Pro Bowler to Replace Marcus Peters: Report