This NFL offseason, Steven Ruiz will be offering his thoughts and grading every major deal that goes down, including contract extensions, trades and free-agent signings.
The Jaguars’ purge of defensive talent continued on Sunday when the team agreed to send DE Calais Campbell to Baltimore for a fifth-round pick.
If it wasn’t obvious before, it is now: Jacksonville is firmly in rebuild mode. Campbell follows Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye as the latest star from the 2017 playoff team to leave town. Disgruntled pass-rusher Yannick Ngakoue has requested a trade and could be next. Meanwhile, the Ravens add another star to their defense and one who fills a major need.
So, who got the better end of the swap? Let’s grade the deal…
Let’s start with Baltimore, which clearly wins this trade from an on-field perspective. Campbell will turn 34 before the start of the 2020 season, but he’s coming off another stellar campaign that saw him finish fifth among interior rushers in ESPN’s Pass Rush Win Rate metric. He also earned a 90.3 overall grade from Pro Football Focus and 90.6 grade against the run.
Campbell fills two holes for the Ravens defense, which had trouble getting pressure on the quarterback with a standard four-man rush. And as the playoff loss to Tennessee showed, that was far from Baltimore’s biggest issue defensively. As good as the Ravens defense was against the pass, the run defense was among the worst in the league. That will change with Campbell joining the roster. He’s been one of the best run defenders of the last decade. Even if Campbell has lost a few MPH off of his pass-rushing fastball, he’ll help to improve the unit as a whole.
On top of that, the Ravens acquiring Campbell via trade will not affect the team’s compensatory draft pick formula. Smart teams have started to swap late-round picks for productive vets, allowing them to add talent without sacrificing draft capital. It’s almost become a secondary form of free agency for more creative teams like Baltimore, New England and Philadelphia.
This is how good teams stay good.
(The Ravens have reportedly agree to a two-year deal with Campbell worth $27 million and $20 million guaranteed. I will grade that deal separately once the structure of the contract is revealed.)
Ravens grade: A+
It doesn’t look so great from Jacksonville’s perspective. The Jaguars parted ways with their best player and have only a Day 3 pick and an extra $15 million in cap space to show for it.
That extra space is good to have, sure, but I don’t know if the Jaguars need that spending money right now. It’s not like this team should be buyers in free agency considering where they are in their rebuild.
That the Jaguars weren’t willing to be patient and play the comp pick game with Campbell is a bad sign. Does this mean the front office is planning on spending big in free agency over the next two years, which would cancel out Campbell signing elsewhere in the comp pick formula? This team should know from experience that spending big in free agency isn’t the best team-building strategy. GM Dave Caldwell’s frivolous spending (along with his poor performance in the draft) is a big reason why the Jaguars are in their current predicament.
There’s just no way to spin this as a win for the Jaguars. They gave up an asset for short-term cap relief that the team didn’t necessarily need. And did so for a pick they likely would have received had they just waited a year and let Campbell hit free agency.
Think about this: The pick the Ravens sent to Jacksonville was acquired when the Vikings traded for their backup kicker last August. Minnesota ended up cutting that kicker a few weeks later. The point is, teams get desperate the closer we get to the start of the season. Campbell’s trade value was only going to go up between now and September.
If the team was insistent on trading Campbell, a little patience could have paid off in a big way.
Jaguars grade: F
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