With Eric DeCosta and John Harbaugh answering questions at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday, I’ve offered a dozen Ravens thoughts, each in 50 words or less:
1. DeCosta and Harbaugh broke their silence on the Justin Tucker accusations and deferred to the completion of the NFL’s investigation before the organization would make any decisions on the seven-time Pro Bowl kicker’s future. When Tucker wasn’t released shortly after the initial Baltimore Banner story, this was the apparent approach.
2. “Zero tolerance” sounds good when commenting on situations other than your own, but what does it mean and how exactly do you apply it? Accusations can warrant nuance as long as organizations continue to take them as seriously as possible — regardless of whom the accused might be.
3. After downplaying the need to bring in competition at the season-ending press conference, neither DeCosta nor Harbaugh shied away from confirming ongoing kicker evaluations. The Ravens have drafted three punters, but they’ve never selected a kicker. Strong finish or not, Tucker is coming off the worst season of his career.
4. The biggest headline beyond the Tucker discussion was strong optimism about re-signing Ronnie Stanley. DeCosta said, “You never want to say 100%, but I feel good that we’ll have a good, healthy debate, a good process. … I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to get a deal done.”
5. The Ravens have talked about Roger Rosengarten as a left tackle option, which should be taken with a grain of salt considering Stanley’s free-agent status. Still, you’d really like Rosengarten to be a viable fill-in option at least with Patrick Mekari also scheduled to hit free agency.
6. Asked about the future of Mark Andrews, DeCosta was effusive with praise while never confirming he’d remain a Raven for 2025, noting how they’d “figure out all of the roster machinations over the coming weeks.” That sounded like an open invitation for other teams to talk trade.
7. If you’re going to deal Andrews, extending Isaiah Likely becomes a significant priority as you’d only expect that price to increase over the final year of his rookie deal. Likely caught 21 passes for 322 yards and five touchdowns when Andrews was sidelined over the final six games of 2023.
8. There’s been little talk about Odafe Oweh, who’s set to make $13.25 million on his fifth-year option and is coming off a career-best 10-sack season. Is Baltimore ready to commit or content to let 2025 play out? It’s interesting to note that Oweh’s snap share declined after Week 10.
9. You don’t want to go crazy guaranteeing money to a 31-year-old running back, but an extension that adds another year or two and lowers the $12.895 million cap number for Derrick Henry sounds like an easy call. Both sides know this is the ideal fit.
10. With OverTheCap.com projecting the Ravens to have just $12.8 million in cap space, DeCosta downplayed the likelihood of being a big free-agent spender. Some pundits have mentioned signing a safety, but that didn’t go so well with Marcus Williams, Earl Thomas, and Tony Jefferson over the last decade.
11. Harbaugh praised the in-season growth of Andrew Vorhees in practice and pointed to how well he played filling in for Mekari in Week 18. Drafting a guard relatively early is definitely on the table, but the Ravens haven’t given up on Vorhees as a possible starter either.
12. The NFLPA released its annual team report cards with the Ravens grading 13th out of 32 teams after finishing 15th last year. Other than the most extreme marks, I don’t take much from these grades without well-defined standards in place. Unless something’s really terrible or extraordinary, it’s statistical noise.
