Less than a week away from the first game of the regular season, the Baltimore Ravens keep applying some final touches to their active roster and their practice squad.
On Monday, following the first practice of the regular season and the initial training season gearing up for the clash against the Houston Texans on Sunday, Sept. 10, the franchise announced two transactions related to the release of a quarterback and the signing of a cornerback to the practice squad.
The Ravens announced that they had released QB Anthony Brown from their practice squad, opening one spot to sign former FA signee DB Tae Hayes to the same unit.
We have released QB Anthony Brown from our Practice Squad and signed DB Tae Hayes to the Practice Squad.
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) September 4, 2023
Anthony Brown, still a young 25-year-old quarterback, was always on the outside looking in and was ultimately cut when the Ravens had to trim their roster to the final 53-man size required by the NFL. One day after that, last Wednesday, Brown was one of the 15 players re-signed by the Ravens to their practice squad.
Considering the status of the Flock's quarterback and cornerback rooms, releasing Brown to create a PS spot for former USFL champion Tae Hayes makes all of the sense.
The Ravens boast three quarterbacks in their active roster for the regular season, including QB1 Lamar Jackson as well as backups Tyler Huntley and Josh Johnson. The former, who is still nursing a hamstring injury, could easily miss Week 1 forcing Baltimore to name Johnson as the QB2 on Sunday after they re-signed the veteran.
This transaction means that Baltimore is moving on from Brown while still retaining and trusting their top-3 quarterbacks, all of them already placed in the active roster for the RS. On the other side of the ball, adding Hayes bolsters a secondary ravaged by injuries through the summer.
Head Coach John Harbaugh told reporters (per Ryan Mink of BaltimoreRavens.com) after Monday's practice that Huntley's status is unclear after the incumbent QB2 injured his hamstring on Aug. 11 and never made it back to the field after that and through Monday.
"We'll see what he does Wednesday," Harbaugh said about Huntley's status and potential use next Sunday as Lamar Jackson's backup.
Hayes was claimed off waivers by the Ravens in mid-August after the Detroit Lions released him. He can man both the outside and nickel roles as a cornerback, and he appeared in preseason games wearing Ravens' threads already, even getting to pick a pass against the Washington Commanders.
Hayes was initially released by Baltimore following the 53-man roster cuts but after passing through waivers unclaimed by other franchise he was eligible to re-sign with the Ravens, which the franchise did on Monday.
On a final note, this season saw the return of the "emergency third QB," as explained here in detail by Tom Pelissero of NFL Network. The rule allows the Ravens to name Huntley/Johnson as the main QB2 for Sunday, and carry the odd-man-out without any penalization as he can be put in a bonus/free slot without having to remove any other player from the gameday roster.