You can no longer say the Ravens haven’t come to terms with an outside free agent or added to their wide receiver room this offseason.
According to multiple reports, Baltimore has agreed to a one-year, $3.25 million deal with veteran Nelson Agholor, who visited with the team earlier this week. The deal includes incentives that could take his total compensation up to $6.25 million, according to The Score.
A 2015 first-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles — taken six spots before Baltimore drafted wide receiver Breshad Perriman — who didn’t live up to his original draft hype out of USC, Agholor will be joining his fourth team after spending the last two seasons in New England. The 6-foot, 198-pound receiver caught 31 passes for 362 yards and two touchdowns in 16 games last season, but most of that production came over the first month of the season before he sustained a hamstring injury and saw his role in the Patriots offense diminish down the stretch. For what it’s worth, Pro Football Focus graded Agholor 101st out of 113 qualified wide receivers last season, so expectations aren’t exactly high at this point for someone who’s been plagued by drops throughout his career.
Agholor will turn 30 in May and enjoyed his best season with Las Vegas in 2020, catching 48 passes for 896 yards and eight touchdowns. That breakout campaign prompted the Patriots to sign him to a two-year, $26 million contract, but he combined for just 68 receptions for 835 yards and five touchdowns over 31 games for New England.
Given the current impasse with Lamar Jackson and the need to maintain as much salary cap flexibility as possible in the event of the star quarterback signing an offer sheet with another team, the Ravens all but sat out the early waves of free agency and only re-signed a few of their own cheaper free agents. With an ability to line up outside or in the slot, Agholor does become the most experienced wide receiver on the roster and is only on a one-year deal, meaning it’s fine if there’s more to come.
Then again, we’re talking about the Ravens and the wide receiver position, meaning skepticism is certainly justified even as the healthy returns of former first-round pick Rashod Bateman and Pro Bowl return specialist Devin Duvernay should help in 2023.
“We definitely took on some water [last] year at that position,” general manager Eric DeCosta said in January. “We’ll continue to look at that via free agency and the draft. Our role is really to just find the best guys that fit our situation. We hear the fans. We hear you guys [in the media] with the questions certainly. Our goal is to build the very best team we can build.”
The Ravens will be counting on some familiarity helping Agholor in his new surroundings as quarterbacks coach Tee Martin was his wide receivers coach at USC and new wide receivers coach Greg Lewis worked with him during the 2016 season in Philadelphia.
