One Free Agent Ravens Must Re-Sign

With the legal tampering period nearly upon us and the start of the new league year just days away, the Baltimore Ravens have a lot of work to do in order fortify their roster to make a run at a Super Bowl in 2026.

Part of the annual team-building process is having to let good and sometimes even elite homegrown players walk in free agency to sign elsewhere because they have to allocate resources elsewhere to address weaknesses or further bolster key strengths.

While the future of three-time Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum has dominated headlines all offseason thus far, another one of the Ravens' nearly two dozen pending free agents that they can least afford to lose is star punter Jordan Stout, and there's no reason why general manager Eric DeCosta shouldn't be able to retain him.

Stout deserves to be handsomely rewarded for breakout

Heading into the final year of his rookie contract last season, the 2022 fourth-rounder was bluntly told by Ravens senior special teams coach Randy Brown that he was officially on notice after an uneven start to his NFL career: "If you do poorly, we're going to cut you. If you do OK, we'll re-sign you."

Through his first three seasons in the league, Stout exhibited glimpses of dominance but struggled with consistency. Not only did the former Penn State Nittany Lion step his game up in 2025, but he took it to the stratosphere of the elite with his incredible breakout campaign. It resulted in him receiving his first career Pro Bowl nod and being named First Team All Pro, a feat not even his mentor and predecessor, franchise legend Sam Koch, achieved during his 16-year career.

Stout was a field-flipping weapon for the Ravens during what was a tumultuous 2025 season, where they didn't have a lot of aspects of the game where they were consistently dominant. He helped them win the battle for field position each week with how he was able to consistently pin opposing offenses inside their own 20-yard line.

Among all punters last season, Stout ranked second in net yards per punt (44.9), seventh in percentage of punts downed inside the opposing 20-yard line, ninth in total punts downed inside the opposing 20-yard line (24) and had the third-longest punt of the season (74). He had an historic outing in the Ravens Week 12 win over the New York Jets by setting a new career-high and tying a franchise record with his aforementioned season-best boot. He also averaged 61.5 yards per punt, tied the sixth-highest mark in a single game in NFL history that included a 67-yarder to pin the New York offense at its five-yard line in the fourth quarter.

A punter stat graphic!!!!!@JORDANSTOUT92 pic.twitter.com/stsQYaA2d1
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) November 23, 2025

The value of having an elite punter should not be overlooked, as it was the Ravens' saving grace in many games during Koch's time with the team for nearly two decades. As dominant as the Seattle Seahawks' defense was against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 60 last month, First Team All Pro punter Michael Dickson put on an absolute masterclass. He pinned the Patriots offense back inside their own 20-yard line on three of his seven punts, and he averaged 47.9 yards per punt in the game.

Playing complementary football means being able to bail out the offense for sputtering or stalling out and setting the defense up for success by giving the opposing team longer to travel to get into scoring position. Stout can help the Ravens do both for the foreseeable future.

Dickson is currently the highest-paid punter in the league with an average annual salary of $4.05 million. While Stout shouldn't leapfrog him after just one year of excellence, he still deserves to be paid on par with the top players at his position. The average annual salary of the top five punters is about $3.74 million, and that is more than a reasonable price to pay for what could be a scale-tipping advantage in high-leverage games in the regular season and playoffs.

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