Ravens: 4 most surprising roster moves on cut day
By Kristen Wong
4. The Ravens’ decision to keep Miles Boykin
Wide receiver Miles Boykin will probably be placed on injured reserve tomorrow, but the fact that he wasn’t cut was a little surprising.
The talk of this year’s training camp was Boykin’s battle against James Proche for the final wide receiver spot on Baltimore’s depth chart. Boykin’s hamstring injury caused him to miss valuable chances to shine, while Proche performed above and beyond everybody’s expectations.
The former third-round pick out of Notre Dame just couldn’t catch up to Proche in time, and after Proche’s stellar preseason finale showing, he all but secured his receiver spot.
Though it’s not so far-fetched that the Ravens kept Boykin on the roster, we had reason to believe they would have cut him.
In two underwhelming years in Baltimore, Boykin recorded 464 yards with seven touchdowns on 55 targets. He was the fourth-most targeted player in 2020, and while Baltimore valued his solid contributions, he was expected to step up in a big way in the preseason this year.
Needless to say, he fell short of those expectations and it seems the Ravens are keeping him around for insurance purposes. With Sammy Watkins on a one-year deal, Baltimore may want to hold onto Boykin for the final year of his rookie deal in 2022.
As we said, the Ravens will very likely assign Boykin to IR tomorrow, but we can’t say we blame them for keeping the wideout for now.
Had Boykin not been injured this preseason, who knows if he would have beaten Proche for that sixth wide receiver spot.