The Ravens Most Likely Trade Deadline Moves: Who Has To Go Now

The Baltimore Ravens are not who they pretend to be.

They are not a Super Bowl contender, or anything close to it, and haven’t carried that sort of talent since their loss in the 2023 AFC Championship Game. They are not an ascending team. They do not have a roster anyone that in the NFL envies, or wants takes seriously, or would ever want to duplicate. And the saddest part of all is that they employ next to nothing that actual contending teams want anything to do with ahead of next Tuesday’s trade deadline.

The truth is, checked-out billionaire owner Steve Bisciotti picked the wrong people to re-empower, he failed to see an obvious window of contention closing, he ran an unnecessarily bloated $370M payroll with the bulk of it tied to aged and injured and descending players who were paid too much for too long by general manager Eric DeCosta – who should have been fired with head coach John Harbaugh and can’t return to oversee the impending rebuild in 2027.

The dirty secret is DeCosta’s horribly flawed teams are exposed whenever they don’t have a should-be three-time MVP quarterback he inherited from mentor Ozzie Newsome, Lamar Jackson. They are 7-14 when he doesn’t start and Jackson has quite possibly played his last snap in Baltimore because DeCosta has been unable to convince why he should resign with this failing operation.

This will be a second-straight losing season, and, like the Orioles, it’s not the injuries, it’s because the front office is woefully inept and painfully stubborn and fueled by a hubris that has no backing in reality. Their “culture” that they can’t stop hyping because they think it helps them sell tickets is that a guy who went 0-16 as the Browns GM oversees their building on a daily basis (Sashi Brown), with an egomaniacal failed negotiator and evaluator under him.

Their brand? Biggest chokers in the NFL.

Here’s what the entire NFL knows (and like Marvin Lewis explained to me so well on “The Daily Flock”) and what Bisciotti must accept: When you go from a potential Hall of Fame coach on a veteran staff to an inside job process to hire a novice head coach, and you refuse to stack that staff with any former NFL head coaches, you are rebuilding. When you hire guys with an inherently steep learning curve throughout literally that entire staff, and keep 20 percent of your opening roster as guys who have never played a snap in the – you are rebuilding.

When those coaches get overmatched and overrun and outclassed in the second half of literally almost every game you play, and they can’t execute basic football fundamentals to try to have at least one QB on your current roster healthy enough to host a prime time game Thursday – you are rebuild. When another season is over at Halloween – you are rebuilding.

You can pay as many bad football players like they are All-Pros up and down your roster – and you are – but you are still a rebuilding football team with a GM who has accomplished nothing (it was Ozzie!), and coaches who have accomplished even less. You have no winning culture and haven’t for years and it’s going to take you a long time to establish one … and that will be almost exclusively with players who aren’t starting for you now.

You didn’t listen to me when I told you it was an absolute must to wipe out DeCosta and Brown and get a new football operations staff (one that’s hungry and determined, and infinitely less entitled) when you fired all the coaches. Best heed the path espoused here and get ahead of some of the massive roster gutting that’s on the horizon, whether you want to admit it or not. Stop compounding your mistakes.

We wrote back in the spring that this team would be desperately trying to peddle their highest-paid corner and left tackle and alleged starting receiver at the deadline to rebuild for the future (from way back on April 13 when we just got started here). Get it done.

The Blueprint: Football Trades and Salary Dumps

The Ravens have the ability to make, maybe, three football trades given how brutal their contracts are, and they should he executing a minimum of three salary dumps (and probably more). With guys like Joe Fagnano or Snoop Huntley or Jacoby Brissett or Tyson Bagent playing out the string, it’s silly not to also find out literally all you can about all those draft selections you insisted on using yet again, and all those rookies who absolutely had to make this team.

Football Trades:

Nov 1, 2026; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry (22) celebrates after scoring a touchdown during the first quarter against the Buffalo Bills at New Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Derrick Henry: Why make him play out the final year of his deal, at age 32, already asked to lead the league in rushes on a team going nowhere when he doesn’t fit with this OL or any QB here except for Jackson? He could get you a midround/midround-is pick in return and after lighting your 2028 second-round pick on fire for Cam Jurgens (what a desperate trade no true “steward” of a franchise ever would for a concussed player) you better can back whatever you can.

Next-man Up: Adam Randall/Rasheen Ali/Make a smart waiver or practice squad singing for once before you all hopefully get fired

Ronnie Stanley: He’s not a good left tackle anymore, but he has a resume and while no one besides DeCosta would give him a real contract a few years back because of the extreme medicals; as a half-season rental with a pedigree, someone will bite. The state of OL play is brutal around the NFL (but trust me it’s as bad as it gets in Baltimore) and landing a new left tackle should have been up there with getting Jackson extended as top priorities last year. They always talk up Carson Vinson – he needs a runway before the draft to see what he can do.

Next-man Up: Vinson

Calais Campbell: Even his overwhelmingly special leadership skills couldn’t make a dent in the Ravens’ culture of extreme failure. Give him a chance at age 40 to finally get a ring. Let him pick the team if he wants. He deserves everything and anything. On a pitch count in a functioning defense he has something to offer and there is a reason he is always in demand. The King of the Ring loves to talk about all the trades he wasn’t ballsy enough to execute (like landing Campbell and Henry years before he did). A lot of smart evaluators I know really liked late-round pick Rayshaun Benny - of course these guys probably have no idea what he is, but get him off the practice squad and on the field.

Next-man Up: Benny

Rashod Bateman: It’s not a salary dump because he’s only due like $3.5M for the rest of the year. One of DeCosta’s favorites – and another brutal draft miss – he has never clicked with Lamar, he is a blocker/deep threat decoy, and he is set to make $13M next year (non-guaranteed) and even DeCosta wouldn’t sign off on that (probably). You want a real culture? Get the guys the GM plays favorites with out now.

Next-man Up: Devontez Walker

Salary Dumps

Dec 31, 2023; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta speaks with tight end Mark Andrews on the sidelines before the game against the Miami Dolphins at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

Mark Andrews: They may have to package a pick with him, and, honestly, the horribly contract basically means he is getting $35M between last Dec and the end of 2027. They’re stuck with this, but another guy who should go to send a message to the team about mistakes of the pass and made men not being so made anymore. Shoulda been benched weeks ago.

Next-Men Up: Matthew Hibner and Josh Cuevas must out-snap Andrews by a wide margin the rest of the way

Roquan Smith: This contract is, honestly, probably the single most egregious overpay in the NFL for two years running at $20M a year for an inside LB who doesn’t impact a football game. The amount of salary they would have to eat to move him (absorb $5M to shed $5M, maybe?) means this is probably impossible, too. But having a guy with a cap hit $14M higher than anyone else at his position in the league on your bench is awkward, too.

Next-Men Up: Trenton Simpson/Teddye Buchanan. Ain’t no way Smith is back; making no attempt to lower his cap # always told you that. This is a massive need for 2027 and if Minter can fix this defense – that’s a big if – having someone wearing the dot who has already been here a while and played in the system would be ideal. Bench him now so both get a look; we wrote in May that he needed to he on the sidelines in dime (but what do we know?).

Marlon Humphrey: No one wants to pay him $7.5M for the rest of the season. Maybe they would pay him $3M if you ate the rest? Or took a weird, smaller contract off their hands? No one has been more of a made man with DeCosta than the guy the GM boasted would play like a $19M corner this season. Oh well, at least they have other options if they get real and really start addressing their locker room/culture issue with the poster guy for addition by subtraction. (We tried to tell them).

Next-Man Up: TJ Tampa. Allegedly the whole league has been trying to steal him from the Ravens for years. So how about you play him instead of a guy who has been failing for years?

John Simpson: Unreal how they nickel and dime Lamar but Marlon and Roquan each make $40M more here than they should have and Simpson gets $10M at the onset of free agency for heaven knows why. This is another dude you’d be lucky to get a seventh-round pick for but take it if it’s there.

Next-Man Up: Emery Jones once Vega Ioane is back from injury

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