While the Ravens have struggled to lure a free-agent upgrade at wide receiver to Baltimore, one of their own has officially departed as veteran Willie Snead signed a one-year deal with the Las Vegas Raiders on Friday.
The slot receiver had appeared unlikely to return after a three-year run with the Ravens, a sentiment only strengthened by his comments on Twitter last month that many took as a dig at coordinator Greg Roman and the Baltimore offense. The 28-year-old Snead caught 33 passes for 432 yards and three touchdowns in 13 games last season after posting 31 receptions for 339 yards and five touchdowns in 16 games in 2019.
Having signed with the Ravens in 2018, Snead was a steady presence at the position as the Ravens transitioned from the end of the Joe Flacco era to the arrival of the dynamic Lamar Jackson. The shift in style from a conventional NFL passing game to a run-heavy attack resulted in Snead having his receiving targets drop from 95 in 2018 to a combined 94 over the last two seasons. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound receiver remained a valuable contributor with his blocking ability in addition to his mostly reliable hands from the slot, but the selections of wide receivers Devin Duvernay and James Proche — who both work best as slot options — in last year’s draft made it apparent that the Ravens would be moving in a younger direction.
Pro Football Focus graded Snead 66th among 127 qualified wide receivers last season with only Marquise Brown grading higher than Snead among Baltimore wide receivers.
Though expected, Snead’s departure highlights the difficulty general manager Eric DeCosta and the Ravens have faced trying to land a veteran receiver as even complementary free agents are now coming off the board. With unsuccessful attempts at signing Pittsburgh’s JuJu Smith-Schuster and Indianapolis’ T.Y. Hilton over the last week, Baltimore has been trying to coax a free agent into playing in an offense that’s statistically unfriendly to receivers while appearing unwilling to pay premium dollars — or overpay — in what’s been a depressed market because of the lower salary cap. The limited market has prompted several wide receivers to sign one-year deals in hopes of trying free agency again next season, but a low-volume passing offense simply isn’t going to be an attractive destination for a pillow contract unless the Ravens beat competing offers by a wide margin, something they didn’t really do with Smith-Schuster or Hilton before they re-signed with their original teams.
Some have interpreted the conundrum as an indictment of Jackson, who is only a year removed from leading the NFL in touchdown passes and winning the league MVP in his first full season as a starter. While much of that criticism is unfair, Snead’s comments immediately after the season-ending playoff loss at Buffalo on Jan. 16 garnered attention as the 24-year-old Jackson struggled in his fourth career postseason game, throwing a backbreaking interception returned for a touchdown late in the third quarter and leaving the game with a concussion on the next series.
“He is an elite runner, an elite passer, but there are steps he can take — better strides that he can take — and he knows that,” Snead said after the 17-3 loss to the Bills. “That’s the competitor in him to want to get better each and every offseason to fix the little things that his game needs improvement on and continue to get better as a passer. I think if he knuckles down on that part of his game and really reaches his full potential in that area, then the sky is the limit for Lamar.
“It’s just a matter of time, so it’s really on him. I think this game is going to be a wake-up call for him, hopefully, this offseason. We’ll see what he does next year.”
Though free agent Sammy Watkins remained unsigned as of Friday afternoon after visiting with team officials earlier this week, the Ravens are reaching a point where exploring a trade or simply waiting until next month’s draft might be their best options in trying to upgrade at the position. Run-heavy Baltimore ranked 18th in passing yards per attempt, 17th in Football Outsiders’ passing efficiency metric, and 32nd in passing yards per game last season while PFF graded the Ravens’ wide receivers among the five lowest-graded position units in the NFL in 2020.
