Under general manager Eric DeCosta, the Baltimore Ravens have been aggressive in retaining their own players. To the point where they’ve signed several players a full year before they’d hit free agency. With two star players set to hit free agency on the horizon, Baltimore once again isn’t messing around.
According to The Baltimore Sun’s Jonas Shaffer, Eric DeCosta told reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine the Ravens have already had talks with representatives for both cornerback Marlon Humphrey and left tackle Ronnie Stanley about long-term extensions.
We already speculated that Humphrey and Stanley would be targeted for early extensions given DeCosta’s philosophy about keeping the Ravens’ homegrown talent. DeCosta has worked to sign guys early, including nine players who would have hit free agency this offseason. It makes sense that the Ravens would want to be proactive with those two players as both will likely help reset the market at cornerback and offensive tackle when they finally sign their next deals.
Baltimore has already picked up Stanley’s fifth-year option, which will keep him in Baltimore through the 2020 season. At the combine, DeCosta said the Ravens picking up Humphrey’s fifth-year option was just a formality, locking him up through the 2021 season.
While DeCosta said the team is in discussions, I wouldn’t expect any deals to be imminent. With free agency set to start in the middle of March and a new CBA currently being worked on, contract values are likely going to jump up quite a bit this offseason. It would be wise for Humphrey and Stanley’s agents to at least wait that out in order to figure out their respective values. But it does show DeCosta’s drive to keep two key players from 2019’s 14-2 season.
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