Osemele thanks Ravens after critiquing their commitment

After officially signing his five-year, $58.5 million contract to join the Oakland Raiders on Thursday, Kelechi Osemele took time to thank the Ravens and the place he called home for the last four years.
But that message came after the 2012 second-round pick complimented the Raiders’ commitment to their offensive line and appeared to question his former team’s.
“They have a really up-and-coming young team [in Oakland]. That was sold to me a lot,” Osemele said in a conference call with the Bay Area media. “Going through the roster, I kind of saw what everybody was saying and the emphasis on building the offensive line, coming from a place where [that’s] not really appreciated, you know? Coming to a team where offensive line play is a focus and it matters and they want to build that up, that was a big factor.”
Head coach John Harbaugh said last month that the Ravens made an “aggressive” offer to Osemele, but it soon became clear that they weren’t going to come close to the record-setting contract Oakland handed to the fifth-year guard. It’s true that Baltimore hasn’t spent as much on its offensive line as the Raiders, but that doesn’t mean a sufficient commitment hasn’t been made to the group.
In the last two years, the Ravens have signed five-time Pro Bowl guard Marshal Yanda and left tackle Eugene Monroe to long-term contracts and acquired starting center Jeremy Zuttah from Tampa Bay in exchange for a fifth-round pick and promptly signed him to an extension. General manager Ozzie Newsome would have loved to have kept Osemele, but you just can’t pay everyone when there’s the reality of the salary cap.
Let’s see how much Oakland will be able to spend on its offensive line in the future when young quarterback Derek Carr is no longer playing on a cheap rookie contract.
Perhaps there are some lingering hard feelings about not getting the money he wanted with the Ravens, but Osemele made these comments speaking to Raiders reporters and was more likely focused on complimenting his new team rather than going out of his way to take a shot at his old one. The comment definitely wasn’t a good look, but remembering the context is also important.
Not long after making those remarks on Thursday evening, Osemele posted the following message on Instragram:
“I want to take this time to thank the city of Baltimore, the Ravens organization, the Bisciotti family, my Ravens teammates as well as all of the Ravens fans for all the support they gave my teammates and me while I was in the great city of Baltimore. I was blessed to experience the pinnacle achievement in the NFL when we won the Super Bowl my rookie year and have been chasing that high ever since. I can never thank the Ravens enough for taking a chance on a kid out of Iowa State that critics said was too soft to play in the NFL because he was raised in a house full of women. I hope I was able to prove them wrong through my hard work and determination on the field and wish the Ravens and the city of Baltimore nothing but the best in the future! Thanks for all the memories!!!”