The waiting is over! Michael Oher will be in camp tomorrow and will meet with the media. In the end, he missed four workouts. He’ll be on the field Friday morning when the veterans all report for the first time.
These eleventh hour signings are all-too-common but are a bit of a necessary evil. There’s a lot of money at stake. It’s a real fistfight on the negotiating side and I never pick sides on these and the Ravens do their best to not get the media or anyone else involved.
Of course, agent Jimmy Sexton will be bandying the numbers at some point later tonight and we’ll report the signing bonus and salary. That’s just the way it works.
In the end, it always gets done. It will all around the league for the other 26 first-round “holdout” draft picks as well. Every hour over the next few days you’ll be hearing of more signings.
From Mike Duffy at the Ravens website:
“At approximately 9 p.m. tonight, Michael Oher and his agent, Jimmy Sexton, agreed to a five-year contract with the Ravens.
The Ravens are one of the first teams to have all of their draft picks signed this season.
Oher, who is currently in Memphis, plans to attend tomorrow afternoon’s administrative day, which includes weight lifting, meetings, and a session on the field. He is then expected to meet with the media late tomorrow afternoon.
The Ravens were optimistic that Oher would not hold out for long after missing four practices reserved for rookies, quarterbacks and selected veterans.
“We knew Michael wanted to be here,” stated head coach John Harbaugh. “He said that many times. Ozzie [Newsome] wanted him to be here, and his agent wanted him to be here too. The agent wanted to make sure he did the right thing by Michael, and we wanted that.
“A big congratulations to Pat (Moriarty, Ravens vice president of football operations) and Ozzie for working hard to get this done. I think we might be the first team to have all of our draft choices signed.”
Oher is slated to start at right tackle opposite left tackle Jared Gaither, forming the youngest group of offensive tackles in the NFL.”
