Ravens Miss Deadline on Signing Terrell Suggs

Okay, no need to panic about the Baltimore Ravens missing the Tuesday deadline to ink franchise tagged Terrell Suggs to a deal. No need to worry, right?

Or is there?

Ravens’ GM Ozzie Newsome says they’ll have a deal in place, and Suggs has said he wants to be in Baltimore, but what about when other big time players come up for renegotiation? It’s a question Newsome himself subconsciously entertained:

“We view him like Ed Reed, Todd Heap, Ray Lewis and Jonathan Ogden,” Newsome said. “He is one of those guys that we want to keep a Raven.”

Exactly. And that’s the exact reason why more than a ‘serious’ offer should have been floated his way.

And then Suggs himself is questioning how serious he is about a deal.

“At this point, I don’t know,” Suggs said five months ago. “I love my teammates, and I want to be there for them. Before I make a decision, I’ll talk to a lot of people. I’ll confide in Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, see what they think I should do and what is best for everybody.”

He didn’t sign the offer, so apparently there’s a lot of thinking going on.

It’s clear that money is on players’ minds more than ever, with revelations about pending strikes and money woes from the mouths of owners, they have to look out for their long term interests. Perhaps if Newsome wasn’t so good at spying defensive talent, there wouldn’t be a question of balancing the books between several sure-fire Hall-of-Fame players on the current payroll.