Welcome to my new column. I first have to thank John Harbaugh. His "I could care less what Ryan Mink thinks" comment (with a grin) last week was the inspiration. So here goes nothing. Harbs won't care, but I'm hoping you will!
On Thursday night, I stayed up past 1 a.m. writing about the Ravens' possible reasons for not going after a top-flight wide receiver in free agency. Before noon on Friday, that column was trashed.
If the reports are true, the Ravens made a major play for wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, only for him to stiff-arm their best offer to return to Pittsburgh for less money. The Ravens reportedly offered Smith-Schuster a one-year deal for $9 million with $3.5 million more in incentives, while the Steelers offered a flat one-year, $8 million deal.
So here's what all this should tell us:
The Ravens are willing to spend big money to upgrade at wide receiver – at least this year.
The big question mark this offseason, and in past offseasons, was just how much the Ravens were willing to invest in free agency on a wide receiver. For a long time, they've been bargain shoppers at the position, finding some hits and misses mostly with veterans nearing the end of their careers.
In an offense that's so run-heavy, there was reason to believe that Baltimore just didn't value the position enough to heavily invest outside of the draft. That was seemingly Eric DeCosta's strategy – build the wide receiver corps through the draft and let them grow with Lamar Jackson. After all, he used his first pick as general manager on wide receiver Marquise "Hollywood" Brown.
That still may be DeCosta's overriding philosophy. It's one thing to offer a wide receiver a large multi-year contract versus a one-year deal. A one-year deal signals a desire for immediate short-term help, not so much a philosophical change. A depressed wide receiver market offering short-term bargains may have been what pushed the Ravens to jump.
Still, the point remains that the Ravens were, and possibly still are, willing to spend money to upgrade Jackson's wide receiver unit this season. For those fans who said the Ravens weren't willing to help him enough, that take is as old as my column from last night.
This seems more about returning to Pittsburgh than not coming to Baltimore.
Baltimore pundits have been questioning whether the Ravens would have trouble recruiting free-agent wide receivers because of their run-heavy system, and this news seems to fit into that narrative.
On the surface, it makes sense. The Ravens threw the ball the fewest times in the NFL last year – by a wide margin. On a one-year deal, Smith-Schuster (or any wide receiver) probably doesn't want to see their stats drop for fear that it will impact their value next offseason, which figures to offer a better chance at a bigger payday in a post-COVID salary cap.
The problem with that narrative in this case is that Smith-Schuster also reportedly turned down more money from the Kansas City Chiefs, who have gunslinging Patrick Mahomes under center and threw the ball the third-most times in the league last season.
It seems this was more about Smith-Schuster wanting to stay in Pittsburgh than not wanting to play in Baltimore. A Twitter exchange between Smith-Schuster and Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey seemed to confirm that.
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March 20, 2021 at 07:58PM
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What Mink Thinks: What the JuJu Smith-Schuster Reports Tell Us - BaltimoreRavens.com
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