
Question 4:
@RobertDNeal2 asks: Who are a list of possibly 5 FA or trade targets that the Ravens could be looking at? Plus did the way the Ravens handled the Earl Thomas situation has hindered his chance of signing elsewhere, leaving the Ravens on the hook for $10 million and preventing moves from Eric DeCosta
Answer: Well we talked about two trade possibilities already, with J.J. Watt and Allen Robinson. Brandon Carr would make a lot of sense as a player the Ravens may want to bring back. Carr was recently released by the Dallas Cowboys. To be honest, free agency is slim pickings beyond that. Look at bad teams. Conjure up any trade that may work. Maybe the Chargers would be willing to trade Melvin Ingram and get closer to a top pick in 2021. I’d give a sixth or a seventh round pick for Lorenzo Carter (edge rusher) of the Giants and I’d give them a fifth for tight end, Evan Engram. This is the kind of things you can think about forever. But the options in the middle of the season are never that promising and trades in the middle of the season are the only way to really make something happen.
As for the Earl Thomas thing… yeah that sounds about right. It ended ugly. The Ravens may have scared teams away, Thomas certainly made it easy for them to do so in the first place. Thomas was branded as trouble, the Ravens got the benefit of the doubt and it oddly hurt them in this case, because Thomas getting signed would have helped. DeCosta is very creative but he can only work with what he has to work with and the Thomas situation came along so late in the game that it’s harder to make another move.