The Baltimore Ravens have been linked to an interesting trade proposal involving Allen Robinson of the Chicago Bears.
Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports wrote an article about 10 trades that he thinks need to happen at the trade deadline and No. 1 on the list was Baltimore trading for Robinson sending a 2022 second-round pick and 2023 fifth-round pick to Chicago in exchange.
There are a ton of reasons as to why this trade won’t happen but before we dive into those, let’s take a look at Benjamin’s reasoning for why he thinks Baltimore needs to make Robinson a Raven.
"“Baltimore has a title run in its sights. And while Lamar Jackson is faring just fine with his current crop of wideouts, the Ravens were sniffing around for veteran pass catchers this offseason, and A-Rob would be a nice complement to the speedy Marquise Brown. The Bears ideally wouldn’t be selling their young quarterback’s best weapon, but they’ve repeatedly failed to extend the 28-year-old Robinson, who will be looking to cash in as a 2022 free agent.”"
First and foremost, this trade won’t happen because the Ravens aren’t going to mortgage their future, especially not for a wide receiver. Shipping off two key draft picks while extending Robinson isn’t a good move for the future of the Ravens organization.
They still need to extend Lamar Jackson, Bradley Bozeman, DeShon Elliott, and Anthony Averett, just to name a few. It’d be harder to do that if they’re paying Allen Robinson $20 million a year.
Secondly, the Ravens aren’t even hurting at the receiver position and Benjamin even says so in his writeup. Marquise Brown has looked good this season, Rashod Bateman has shown potential in two games, Sammy Watkins has made an impact when he’s been healthy, and Devin Duvernay is solid.
This is a good enough unit to make some noise in the playoffs.
The Ravens can’t afford to trade for Allen Robinson
The Ravens might end up making some kind of trade before next week’s deadline but it won’t be at wide receiver. This is a team that could use some help along the offensive line, at running back, and in the secondary to help them make a deep run in the playoffs this winter.
Now, would Robinson make the Ravens better? There’s no doubt that he would. He’s been in a crap situation in Chicago and he’d finally have a good quarterback throwing to him in Baltimore.
Be that as it may, this just isn’t something the Ravens should do nor could they realistically pull it off.