The Baltimore Ravens lost C.J. Mosley to the New York Jets. Here are three things to think about in the aftermath of that:
1. There is no way the Ravens should have given that kind of a pay day to Mosley:
The Baltimore Ravens were wise not to waste their resources in the Mosley sweepstakes. The Ravens had one of the most coveted linebackers on the open market and he went to a team with an ungodly amount of cap space to spend. The Ravens, who entered free agency with a less than $30 million in cap space couldn’t have competed with Mosley’s $85 million deal. The Jets overpaid Mosley, and there’s no way to get around that. Mosley isn’t the best linebacker in football, but his contract says otherwise.
Some of the same fans who have complained about bad contracts for players such as Joe Flacco and Jimmy Smith are the ones saying it would have been a good choice to franchise tag Mosley. Mosley ended up getting more than $15 million per season with the Jets and that’s the basis for this line of thinking. The problem is that franchise tagging Mosley would have put a huge cap restraint on this year and would have created the same exact problem next year. Matt Judon is a free agent next year so that makes delaying a deal with Mosley even less of a good idea. The franchise tag was too steep of a price for Mosley, especially because it would not have solved a problem.
The Ravens got priced out of Mosley’s services. When Kwon Alexander (a good, not great linebacker) got a big deal from the San Francisco 49ers, Mosley’s deal with the Jets became an inevitability. The market for an inside linebacker was set by teams with a ton of cap space who overvalued what they got off the free agent market. Mosley’s price tag wasn’t in DeCosta’s control. Blaming the Ravens for letting Mosley go is a pointless complaint. The Ravens have had Mosley since 2014. If they thought he was a generational talent that they couldn’t have lost to the Jets, it would be a different story. He’s a good player that is replaceable and the Ravens know that.
2. Replacing Mosley:
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Kenny Young has a ton of potential and he is coming off a fantastic rookie season. He had 51 tackles and 2.5 sacks with a pass defensed as his official rookie stat-line. Young will get a lot more playing time in his second season and he has the athleticism to make plays all over the field. He’s built like the modern day linebacker, he’s good at a bit of everything from run defense to pass coverage. Young may have been a fourth round pick but he is the unquestioned future star of the Ravens defense. The Ravens lost a Pro Bowl linebacker, Young could reach that level of play soon.
Assuming that his 2nd round tender keeps him in Baltimore, Patrick Onwuasor is poised to become a leader of the defense. Onwuasor is coming off a good season and he is capable of being a productive linebacker. Pretending like the Ravens won’t notice a drop off from Mosley isn’t something the Ravens Flock should do, but panicking about the linebacker position isn’t either. The Ravens have apparently had some interest in former Denver Broncos linebacker, Brandon Marshall. It wouldn’t be an overly exciting move but it there are worse options. The Ravens will add to the linebacker position one way or another. The NFL Draft seems like a good avenue for the Ravens.
The way the Ravens should look at this is simple. They have one of their starters moving forward in Young with Onwuasor being a starter for now. If a player like Devin Bush falls to them at pick 22, which isn’t too crazy, the Ravens should take him off the board. If the Ravens find a future starter in the third round or even later, that’s okay too. Remember Zach Orr and Jameel McClain were undrafted free agents. The Ravens are good at finding linebackers and even better at developing them into studs. Baltimore should be fine at the inside linebacker position.
The Ravens defense will be very different in 2019:
The Ravens defense will be without Mosley, Eric Weddle, Terrell Suggs and Za’Darius Smith next season. While the star power comes from Marlon Humphrey and a deep cornerback group, the Ravens still need to replace Weddle at free safety. The Ravens may end up regret cutting Weddle, despite having a logical reason to do so. There are surely a lot of questions that need to be answered. The only thing we know about the Ravens defense as a whole is that change has come and it is going to be different.
Losing Mosley wasn’t the biggest problem for the Ravens defense. The Ravens have become a cornerback heavy team and that’s the strength of the entire roster right now. There are two areas the Ravens need to improve upon, pass rush and free safety. The Ravens can get by without Mosley, who wasn’t great against the pass. In a pass happy league, the Ravens need to be able to get to the quarterback and they need a last line of defense in the secondary. If the Ravens don’t fill those voids, their investment in the cornerback positions won’t matter much in 2019.
The Ravens can still have a very good defense moving forward. Their corners are a real convincing group and Don Martindale is a good defensive coordinator. The defensive front should be strong as a whole, they just need to bring in star power on the edge. The Ravens lost the number one defense in the NFL. That doesn’t mean they have nothing to work with and that doesn’t mean that the defense is going to be bad. The Ravens need to add to the defense here and there. The defensive roster is going to look a lot different in 2019 and waiting for moves is all we can do right now.