First-round pick Marquise Brown agrees to deal with Ravens

A day after celebrating his 22nd birthday, Ravens first-round pick Marquise Brown received a special present in the form of his first NFL contract.
The speedy wide receiver agreed in principle to a four-year deal Wednesday that’s projected to be worth a total of $11.787 million with a $6.592 million signing bonus. The Ravens will also have a fifth-year option for the 2023 season.
That leaves only third-round wide receiver Miles Boykin unsigned from their 2019 draft class.
Brown’s signing comes two weeks earlier than when 2018 first-round tight end Hayden Hurst signed his rookie deal last year, but the Ravens are still waiting to see this year’s top pick on the practice field. The Oklahoma product is still working his way back to full strength from Lisfranc surgery in February and isn’t expected to begin practicing until the start of training camp late next month. The procedure sidelined Brown from pre-draft workouts, but the Ravens were comfortable with the long-term prognosis of his foot to make him only the fourth wide receiver selected in the first round in team history.
“He’s been rehabbing and training, trying to learn the offense,” head coach John Harbaugh said at the start of organized team activities last month. “Other than that, that’s all I’ve seen. We haven’t seen much, but he has a great attitude. He’s always in good spirits, just a good dude.”
The 5-foot-9, 170-pound receiver caught a total of 132 passes for 2,413 yards and 17 touchdowns in his two seasons with the Sooners and is expected to provide second-year quarterback Lamar Jackson a dangerous home-run hitter in the passing game.
General manager Eric DeCosta and the front office will now turn their attention toward Boykin, the only one of Baltimore’s eight draft picks who’s yet to sign his rookie contract. That’s not an unusual development as third-round picks do have a little more wiggle room to negotiate within the current rookie slotting structure, but that didn’t prevent the Ravens from signing third-round outside linebacker Jaylon Ferguson last week.
Boykin has also been sidelined from spring workouts with a hamstring injury, leaving his status before training camp unclear.