Ravens 2026 TE Assessment: They Extended The Wrong Guy

The tight end position was supposed to be one the Ravens had secured deep into the future.

The selection and rapid-development of move tight end Isaiah Likely to compliment former Pro Bowler Mark Andrews seemed to be a perfect set up. But they never once got going in the same game, they only produced when the other was hurt and the Ravens ultimately decided to give a hefty enough payday to Andrews at the end of his career rather than invest in the potential of the other.

That rarely works out.

Andrews is coming off what was an absolutely inept 2025 campaign, at 8.8 yards per completion. His average depth of target (8 yards) speaks to no burst. He dropped passes and has never once scored in the postseason. But he’s one of the GM’s favorites and they wanted to send a message to Likely in-season for not taking the offers they’d had on the table.

It seemed silly and spiteful at the time and will probably prove over time to look even more as such - HYPER. It’s clear whom former head coach John Harbaugh preferred; he snapped up Likely among a bunch of former Ravens. And not taking a tight end in the top three rounds of this draft probably doubled down on the Ravens’ problem.

Likely is ridiculously more athletic and dynamic than what remains here, and Lamar Jackson had the highest passer rating throwing to Likely of any player with at least 40 receptions from him. Andrews is an old 31, Likely has a vastly superior playoff pedigree and both players got nearly identical full guarantees on their new deals around $21M.

Make that make sense. You can’t.

They could have waited to see if Likely’s market was a little soft, but they couldn’t wait to throw money at Andrews in the final weeks of the season to slam that door shut. That’s smalltime stuff and it generally comes back to bite you. And recall, they were quite open to moving Andrews after he fell apart in a playoff game in Buffalo; they rest of the league wasn't much interested.

Key Contracts

Starter:

Andrews $10.7M cash ($7M cap): The Ravens will come to regret this contract extension, which includes $5M guaranteed in 2027. So you could effectively consider him back for that season (with a full 2027 salary of $9M). Good luck!

Back-up:

Durham Smythe $3M cash ($3M cap): He’s not really the back-up, but he’s the only other veteran here. This is an old-school all-blocking TE in the mold of Nick Boyle. He’s the only other guy in the room not on a rookie deal.

Others To Know:

Matthew Hibner: Hoe much can they get this potentially explosive draft picks on the field given his other weaknesses? Is he more of a special teams guy? Creating downfield matchups for him – sometimes in the slot – might be what rookie coordinator Declan Doyle has in store here.

Josh Cuevas: He can do a little bit of everything as a late-round pick. Scouts I spoke to wouldn’t be surprised at all if he sees more of the field than Hibner.

Prognosis For 2026 – Highly Questionable

No way in hell you will ever convince me this is close to as good of a tight end room as they had a year ago. Isaiah Likely is better than any of these and Charlie Kolar is a far more compete version of what they hope one of the rookie right ends will be. I would take Darren Waller at the few million he made last year over Andrews 1000 times over, and multiple GMs told me they think Waller is the better player and every metric would indicate that as well.

They’d better hope the rookie receivers develop quickly, because it may be a chore to get any pass-catching tight end fully versed in this offense besides Andrews, and, again, that is diminishing returns.

Prognosis Beyond 2026 – Meh

The Ravens have done a good job drafting and developing tight ends, and mid-round guys in particular. And if history holds here, the guy they took with the second pick in the 2026 draft at this position will end up being better than the one they took first.

The Andrews contract will end up blocking them more than it should. They don’t have a proven move tight end and even the kids they drafted don’t project to be guys you can look at as a feature guy to run your offense through. The decision not to take a more polished prospect at this position in the spring may come back to haunt general manager Eric DeCosta.

Projections

The leading receiver among Ravens 2026 tight ends might not be on the roster yet. This could be a serious problem. In the past this front office was quick to add some veteran wide receiver to try to diversify the attack. This time I believe it will be a veteran tight end, whether a signing or a trade by the midseason deadline.

Jackson has done a lot of damage with tight ends in his career and this was the 27th-ranked redzone offense a year ago in no small part due to tight ends not making a dent. The Ravens extended the wrong right end and Likely will thoroughly outperform all of these guys with the Giants this season. An I suspect Kolar puts up quite an interesting season with the Chargers as well.

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