3 reasons Baltimore Ravens did not overpay for Odell Beckham Jr.

When the Baltimore Ravens signed Odell Beckham Jr. the initial thought was, great, but for how much? When the report was that he was going to get up to $18M, the initial thought was that the actual deal would be much lower. Then, many were shocked to hear that he got $15M of that guaranteed. Most assumed it would be only $5-$6M with plenty of funny money due to his health, but the Ravens went all-in.

Is it risky? Yes. But it is not a bad overpay. Here is why.

3. Baltimore Ravens can add void years to lower the cap hit

The salary cap is real, and it there are hard and fast rules. However, there are ways to soften the cap and make it easier to manage. One way that popped up due to the pandemic was void years. Teams did not initially want to go to these deals, but in an effort to clear cap in the present, they added void years to kick the issue down the road.

Considering the Ravens are tied up against the cap, and they have the Lamar Jackson situation looming over them, they will be using these void years to lower his salary cap. Below is a look at what this may look like.

This shows us that the cap hit for next season will end up closer to $4M. That is closer to Nelson Agholor. Of course, Agholor does not come with the additional four years of a roughly $3M cap hit. Still, $3M is not much on the cap, and considering the cap should go up every year, the hit actually gets smaller and smaller from a percentage stand point.

The number was initially surprising, but when you phrase it as a $4M cap hit today and a bunch of small hits that get easier to manage over four years, it is fine, and not going to break their backs, or hurt their chances of doing anything else.