OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens weren’t ready to publicly anoint first-round pick Ronnie Stanley as their starting left tackle moments after making him their earliest selection since the 2000 draft.
But you rarely take an offensive lineman that high without any other intention, especially when your incumbent left tackle has started just 17 games over the last two seasons.
“I think it’ll pan out the way it pans out,” said head coach John Harbaugh, who left open the possibility of Stanley playing left guard like Jonathan Ogden did as a rookie in 1996. “Good coaches, we love competition. I say we throw them all in there and let them compete and may the best man win, and we’ll see who that is.”
The question remains whether incumbent left tackle Eugene Monroe will be a part of that competition as it’s no secret that the Ravens have been disappointed with his inability to stay on the field over the last two seasons after they gave him a five-year, $37.5 million contract in 2014. The organization has also distanced itself from his offseason campaigning for medical marijuana use in the NFL.
Asked if Monroe still factored into the Ravens’ plans for the 2016 season, general manager Ozzie Newsome would only comment on his current status recovering from December shoulder surgery and not about what would happen when he’s cleared to play.
“Right now, Eugene is still under medical care,” said Newsome, who has offered tepid endorsements of Monroe throughout the offseason. “He’s still working with the trainers on a daily basis. Up until he becomes a healthy football player, he’s like [Terrell] Suggs and Steve Smith and Joe [Flacco] and those guys. They’re under medical care right now.”
With Monroe scheduled to make $6.5 million in base salary and to carry an $8.7 million salary cap figure in 2016, the Ravens would save $2.1 million in cap space by cutting him now and leaving $6.6 million in dead money for 2016 or they could designate him as a post-June 1 release to save $6.5 million on this year’s cap and push $4.4 million in dead money to next season.
Should they release Monroe, the Ravens would probably be in the market for more tackle depth because that would still leave James Hurst as the primary backup to Stanley and starting right tackle Rick Wagner, who will become an unrestricted free agent after the 2016 season. It was Hurst who was pushed into quarterback Joe Flacco’s left knee, resulting in his season-ending injury last November.
