Ravens Confident They Can Land Top-Tier Wide Receiver in Free Agency
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — There are questions about whether the Ravens can land a top-tier wide receiver in free agency because of their run-oriented offense.
Coach John Harbaugh scoffed at the notion a player might not want to sign in Baltimore because of limited opportunities to catch the ball.
The Ravens carried the ball a league-high 555 times but were last with 406 passing attempts this past season.
"I’m not going to even worry about convincing anybody to do something," Harbaugh said. "I’m not going to beg anybody to be here. I’m not a college coach and I don’t have to recruit anybody. ‘You want to win? You want to win? You want to be a part of a great organization, and you want to be a part of a team, and you want to love coming to work every single day, and you’re a football player and you love football?
"You want to play in the AFC North – come here. If you don’t … If you’re all about stats, and numbers, and your stat line, and how many balls you catch, necessarily, and that’s all you care for – then there’s a lot of other teams you can go play for, and we’ll be looking forward to lining up against you.’”
There are several dynamic wide receivers that are unrestricted free agents, including Allen Robinson, A.J. Green. T.Y. Hilton and Sammy Watkins.
Baltimore general manager Eric DeCosta will have to balance a salary-cap that could be lower this season because of COVID-19.
"We do have a tough salary cap situation this year across the league, as you guys know, because of the pandemic," Harbaugh said. "The salary cap is unpredictable and it’s probably going to drop right now. So, I think the guys that negotiate those, for all these contracts for all these players across the league, that’s going to be a real question mark – how that’s going to play out.
"So, it’s not my area. I don’t focus on that as much as Eric does. Certainly, Eric will be all over that, but it will be interesting for all of us to see how contracts play out for players around the league with the salary cap drop this year.”
