Final cuts are coming, but that doesn’t necessarily mean all the major roster decisions have been made already. With teams having until 4:00 p.m. ET on Saturday to get their rosters down to 53 players, the next few hours will see front offices and coaches making their final cases to keep some players and to cast others aside.
One of the bigger issues affecting the Ravens would seem to be the identity of their third quarterback. The team has spoken quite openly about retaining three signal-callers this season after historically only going with two. That means the team faces a choice between second-year player Trace McSorley and undrafted rookie Tyler Huntley to sit behind Lamar Jackson and Robert Griffin III.
McSorley and Huntley are similar athletes, effectively running the same 40-yard dash times (4.56 at Huntley’s pro day and 4.57 for McSorley at the 2019 NFL Scouting Combine). Though McSorley made the 53-man roster last year, he was hardly featured during his first season, playing in a single game in 2019. In that game, he had a single rushing attempt for one yard. McSorley stuck on the roster behind Lamar Jackson and Robert Griffin because, as Harbaugh alluded to earlier this offseason, they didn’t think he would stick on the practice squad and would be poached by another team.
Huntley has seriously turned some heads with his play during Ravens training camp. His senior season with Utah in 2019 was the best year of his college career, completing 73.1% of his passes for 3,092 yards while tossing 19 touchdowns to just four interceptions. He also scored 16 rushing touchdowns in his four seasons with the Utes. Huntley was named to the first-team All-Pac-12 over former Oregon quarterback and first-round pick Justin Herbert last season.
Huntley has taken advantage of an increased workload with Lamar Jackson missing time over the last few days and seems to have impressed onlookers with his play. Jamison Hensley of ESPN suggested the final call could be as close as a coin flip.
With both players eligible for the practice squad, it is likely that they will both be around in the future. But if the Ravens have pre-existing doubts that they’d be able to keep McSorley on the practice squad, then they may feel justified in keeping him on the 53-man roster. We’ve given Huntley a 50% shot of making the team in our look at all of the Ravens UDFAs ahead of cut day but have him on the final 53-man roster prediction.
Either way, both young players will be anxious to avoid a call from The Turk on Saturday afternoon.
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