Three Moves I Would Still Make If I Was the Ravens GM

Who doesn’t like playing keyboard general manager?

It’s quite fun, the transactions you suggest never count on your permanent record and it’s easy to trumpet the things you would have nailed after the fact and forget all of your idiotic suggestions … Then again that’s the way a lot of NFL executives who make the big bucks – with plenty of help from the PR staffs – try to spin their record and sell their record, isn’t it?

The things sticking most in my craw about this Ravens operation haven’t wavered much throughout this offseason. Certainly not the top two. And I will concede that with item No. 3 on this checklist, I have wavered about it and kind of played both sides of it at various times. but with exhibition games upon us in a week, I’m entitled to revisit it, and I have.

Give Lamar His Bag Already

This should have been done before the draft last year. Like before the 2025 draft if this general manager was on the ball. Letting Lamar Jackson play out 2026 on a max-restructured contract in what amounts to a lame duck year would be nothing short of malpractice. Period. Simple as that.

Everyone who has discussed the matter with me in depth on “The Daily Flock” whether it be longtime NFLPA negotiating guru Mark Levin or longtime NFL general manager Marty Hurney or NFL analyst Brian Baldinger have all essentially said as much one way of the other. It doesn’t happen like this once with a Patrick Mahomes or a Josh Allen, yet it happens all the time with Jackson here.

I really don’t care what’s holding DeCosta and his billionaire boss back anymore,and Ravens fans shouldn’t, either. Whatever he wants, Steve Bisciotti can afford and whatever is on the other side of this 2026 season, that doesn’t include Lamar Jackson, is a losing proposition for the Ravens.

He is the franchise, and with him able to hold an $85M cap hit and a no trade and a no tag provision over their heads – after they made him scratch and claw and demand a trade and endure collusion – just to get what he was worth last time, shame on them. The onus is on them and the extreme risk is on their side and they are running out of time, if they in fact haven't already run out of it with the QB no longer willing to negotiate.

Add A Veteran Tight End

I am all aboard the Darren Waller reunion express. Have been all spring and summer. Would be money well spent and not a lot of money at that.

If they are worried about his age and health issues in the past, okay (but then why give Mark Andrews $13M a year when you didn’t have to?). Then make an interesting trade. Surprise me.

They are a move TE short, and these rookies are going to need time and outside of Waller, man, there ain’t much out there on the street that I can find.

Sign A Veteran Kicker

Watching Tyler Loop pull two kicks left from right around where he missed in Pittsburgh to end the season last year at the College Park practice over the weekend has stuck with me. Can’t fully shake it.

Do I believe Tyler Loop is going to be the man for the job and grow and learn from a rookie year that was far more good than bad? Yeah, and I was impressed with how he handled the situation in the media in the spring. And believe in kicking guru Randy Brown.

But if we are ginning up stuff like – make this 44-yard kick under fake conditions so the guys don’t have to do 50 push-ups, then let’s go ahead with some actual pressure and sign a vet on the cheap who has made kicks in the playoffs and ramp up the situation. It’s more to be a camp body than anything else, but the profile is real enough that we get to see what it brings out in Loop.

Graham Gano, Brandon McMannus, Matt Prater, Daniel Carlson. Will any of them bite in a situation like this – that ain’t great for them, let’s be real – for a small guarantee? Like Prater on a vet-min signing with $250K to sign? Maybe you find a guy with a lesser resume happy to come here for nothing guaranteed at all.

Bit should it be worth that to Biscotti to carry a guy for a month to push Loop and create a little bit of tension? Not saying it’s mandatory at all, but for a team this early in camp, with expectations this high and a roster most believe is legit, if we are talking about moves to be immediately, this has me thinking.

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