Baltimore Ravens: Who Receives the Next Big Contract?
By Joe Serpico
The Baltimore Ravens gave Justin Tucker a nice contract for a kicker. Which player is next to get paid?
It’s a good time to be searching for a new contract if you are one of the top players in the NFL.
Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker signed a four-year, $16.8 million deal less than a half hour before Friday’s 4 p.m. deadline for players under the franchise tag to agree to a long-term contract. It gave Tucker the most guaranteed money of any kicker in NFL history ($10.8 million) and just short of the total money that New England Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski received.
Now that Tucker’s deal is out of the way, who is next to get a raise?
The Ravens could have as many as 31 players to reach free agency next offseason. That list does include many of the players that won’t make the team as training camp participants, but there are some crucial players that could hit the market.
Two names stick out that deserve a contract extension and they both play in the trenches. They are defensive tackle Brandon Williams and offensive tackle Ricky Wagner.
Williams is coming off a year in which he was deserving of a Pro Bowl trip. As we discussed in Episode 8 of our podcast, BMore Wired, he is the anchor on the defense that allows everyone else to make plays. Many wondered how the Ravens would fare without Haloti Ngata, and Williams has been a menace since taking over that role.
Wagner is the unsung hero of the offensive line. He doesn’t do anything spectacular, but he does his job well and has been a pleasant surprise since being drafted in the fifth round by the Ravens in 2013. So much so, the Ravens planned to place first-round pick Ronnie Stanley at guard instead of tackle before releasing Eugene Monroe.
An honorable mention must go to fullback Kyle Juszczyk. Fullbacks do not typically get long-term deals, but “Juice” is a weapon out of the backfield that many teams would love to have. The Ravens would be wise to keep him around in era of football that rarely features a fullback of his caliber.
In fact, the entire 2013 draft class is up for free agency next year, which includes Williams, Juszczyk and Wagner. Those players were drafted in rounds 3, 4 and 5, in that order, but first-round pick Matt Elam and second-rounder Arthur Brown will need to have career years to impress the organization enough to earn a new deal.
There are a few other names that could get an extension as the season goes along. Kamar Aiken, Zach Orr and Ryan Mallett can all earn some money with a solid season. Will Davis and Jerraud Powers might find a permanent role on this team with Baltimore’s struggles in the secondary. Lawrence Guy and Kapron Lewis-Moore have a shot to stick around as reserves.
If it has to come down to one person, the clear choice is Williams. The Ravens defense is not as efficient without a dominating nose tackle and Williams is just that. He doesn’t necessarily stuff the stat sheet, but he sets up everything else going on with the defense.
Does he deserve the same kind of deal that Muhammad Wilkerson or Fletcher Cox received this offseason? Let’s hope those are not his demands, but his importance to the franchise cannot be mistaken. He deserves a contract that puts him in the top 10 of nose tackles.
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Wagner and Juszczyk could be the first deals to get done, but Williams is going to attract the highest dollar amount. These are the types of players that the Ravens have to hold on to if they want to get back to being a contender in the AFC North.