With the new league year upon us, the Ravens have gotten under the $255.4 million salary cap while opening up another hole on their offensive line.
General manager Eric DeCosta has traded veteran right tackle Morgan Moses to the New York Jets and released oft-injured outside linebacker Tyus Bowser, two moves that saved $11 million on the salary cap. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, Baltimore agreed to swap Moses and a fourth-round pick (134th overall) for a superior fourth-round choice (112th overall) and a sixth-round selection (218th) in next month’s draft.
The 33-year-old Moses is entering the final season of a three-year, $15 million contract and was still playing at a very solid level in 2023, but a shoulder injury forced him to miss his first games since 2014 and prompted the Ravens to rotate him and Daniel Faalele at right tackle over the final month of the regular season. Despite Moses missing three contests, Pro Football Focus still graded him 10th out of 81 qualified offensive tackles. He also ranked 20th among offensive tackles in ESPN’s pass block win rate metric.
The departure means the Ravens currently have three openings on their starting offensive line with left guard John Simpson also on his way to the Jets and Pro Bowl right guard Kevin Zeitler hitting free agency. The top internal options to replace Moses are the versatile Patrick Mekari and Faalele, but offensive tackle figures to be one of the top positions DeCosta targets in the draft.
While replacing Moses will be challenging, Tuesday provided a resolution on the future of left tackle Ronnie Stanley as the sides reportedly agreed to a reworked deal that will reduce his $26.17 million cap hit — the second highest on the team — and ensure his return for the 2024 season, according to ESPN. As of Tuesday afternoon, it was unclear how much of a pay cut Stanley will take, but he was scheduled to make $15 million in new money, which included a $4 million roster bonus.
Stanley will turn 30 in a few days and played in more games (15 including the playoffs) last season than he had since his 2019 All-Pro campaign, but he was hampered by a Week 1 knee injury and struggled at various points, prompting Baltimore to rotate him with Mekari down the stretch. For what it’s worth, PFF graded Stanley 37th out of 81 qualified offensive tackles, the lowest mark of his career.
“Particularly as you get older, it gets tougher and tougher for guys to stay healthy,” said DeCosta about Stanley’s status in early February. “Unfortunately, Ronnie — no fault of his own — has had a series of injuries that have hurt him [and] hurt his performance — the ankle and then a series of knee injuries. That’s definitely been a factor. I love Ronnie; he’s still a talented player. I think this is going to be a big offseason for him getting himself healthy, getting himself strong again coming back in good football shape. We’ll make all those personnel decisions over the coming weeks [with] what we decide to do.”
Bowser being released was considered a foregone conclusion as the Ravens weren’t going to commit $5.5 million in base salary to someone who missed all of 2023 with a mysterious injury and had played in just nine games over the last two years. The 2017 second-round pick out of Houston will turn 29 later this spring and provided valuable versatility replacing former Pro Bowl outside linebacker Matthew Judon a few years ago, but an Achilles tendon injury suffered in the 2021 season finale proved to be the beginning of the end for his time in Baltimore. Bowser was entering the final season of a four-year, $22 million contract.
He registered seven sacks and 59 tackles in 2021, his lone season as a full-time starter.
