Baltimore Ravens general manager, Eric DeCosta, hasn’t gotten through the entirety of his first offseason, but the most consequential moments of the offseason are in the books. That means it’s time for an offseason report card:
The free agency period is never easy to get through at first. That could be said doubly for the Baltimore Ravens. It started off with players leaving. It wasn’t run of the mill departures either; the Ravens said goodbye to Eric Weddle, Terrell Suggs, Za’Darius Smith and C.J. Mosley. The patience and discipline that the front office showed was almost hard to believe.
The Ravens got into the action shortly after the Le’Veon Bell drama ended with him getting a New York Jets contract. Eric DeCosta made Mark Ingram his first big signing. Not long after that, Earl Thomas was signed and the mood in Baltimore changed. The Ravens didn’t make the big splash to get Bell. Instead they got Ingram at a bargain.
The Ravens walked away from free agency with a completed secondary and a reliable veteran running back. The Ravens also added special teams prowess with Justin Bethel and a receiver entering his prime in Seth Roberts.
Losing Suggs was a tough turn of events. It was the one moment of the free agency period that was surprising. The rest of the departures were going to happen one way or another. Suggs was a member of the Ravens since 2003. It won’t be the same without him and now the Ravens have a young and mostly unproven group of outside linebackers.
The Ravens also did not address the offensive line in free agency. Adding a center to the mix and keeping number 55 would have made this a solid A.