Ravens release Lamar Jackson's cousin, re-sign him one day later. Wait, what?
In one of the most bizarre moves of the NFL offseason, the Baltimore Ravens completed a couple of transactions on back-to-back days involving one single player getting released, the re-signed just a few hours after that. Why was that?
The Ravens placed cornerback Trayvon Mullen on the non-football injury list last Thursday. The former second-round pick by the Oakland Raiders had spent time at multiple other franchises in recent years, but the Ravens signed him for the last time last March.
Following his placement in the NFI list, Baltimore released Mullen on Friday for "failing to disclose an injury" as we reported a few days ago.
Then, on Saturday, the Ravens re-signed the defensive back and he "was in the locker room following Saturday’s practice," according to Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic.
A day after releasing Trayvon Mullen w/failure to disclose injury designation, my understanding is the Ravens will re-sign the CB. Still trying to figure out contract implications and reason it went down like this, but bottom line was Ravens like player and Mullen wanted to stay
— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) July 29, 2023
Good for us, the Ravens beat reporter found out about why the franchise did this crazy string of transactions this week.
According to Zrebiec, Mullen "has been dealing with a foot/toe injury." The problem with those issues and his contract with Baltimore before getting released is that "the type of contract Mullen previously had wasn’t the type of deal the team could renegotiate."
Amid the flurry of healthy issues experienced by the veteran cornerback, Baltimore just decided to "take the step of releasing him and re-signing him."
The main reason for those actions is, of course, that the new contract "offers the team a little more protection in case Mullen’s injury lingers," wrote Zrebiec in his Day 4 recap.
In the tweet included above, he also wrote that ultimately, the "Ravens like [the] player and Mullen wanted to stay," so this is nothing more than a little trick pulled off by Baltimore in order to keep their relationship going while under friendlier and better terms for both parties going forward.
More Baltimore Ravens News
feed