With the Baltimore Ravens handing safety Chuck Clark a three-year contract extension, they’ve now locked up their entire starting secondary for the foreseeable future. With this era of football being pass-happy, that’s a huge benefit for Baltimore, both short- and long-term.
For the long-term, Clark’s extension means the Ravens have their entire starting secondary all wrapped up through the 2021 season. Outside of cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who is still on his rookie contract, the four other starting members of Baltimore’s secondary are inked through at least the 2022 season.
That gives the Ravens manageable salary cap expectations for a handful of seasons. Though Baltimore is set to have the highest cap hits at both safety and cornerback in 2020, according to Over The Cap, it gives them a proven group of young players that shouldn’t have a dramatic dropoff in play due to players leaving or getting too old. The average age of the Ravens’ starting secondary is just shy of 26 years old and if taking out Thomas — who is 30 years old — the group is nearly 25 years old on average.
For the short-term, Clark’s deal is a continuation of general manager Eric DeCosta taking care of potential holes before they open up. With extensions given to Tavon Young and Marcus Peters already as well, the Ravens enter the 2020 offseason with no dramatic needs in their secondary. While they would be foolish to completely ignore the unit and not add more depth, DeCosta isn’t forced into spending big money in free agency or having to use an early-round draft pick to find a starter. Instead, Baltimore can use its buying power on more pressing needs.
It’s rare that a team can lock up an entire group at the same time just due to the logistics of the salary cap and finding all that talent at about the same time. But the Ravens and general manager Eric DeCosta have done exactly that, which takes quite a lot of pressure off the team this offseason.
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