Report: Ravens called Panthers about Brian Burns but balked at trade price

After the infamous report revealing the vetoed trade of Derrick Henry to the Baltimore Ravens because of the last-second decision made by the Titans owner...

After the infamous report revealing that Baltimore "was in on Chase Young," but ultimately didn't complete a trade with the Washington Commanders "for whatever reason"...

Add a third and perhaps more damaging report to the seemingly never-ending string of failed trades attempted by GM Eric DeCosta ahead of last Tuesday's NFL deadline. The target in this one: Carolina Panthers superstar edge rusher Brian Burns.

"Brian Burns was in demand before and at the NFL trade deadline," wrote Adam Schefter of ESPN, "with at least five teams inquiring" about the Carolina Panthers pass rusher." One of those? Your beloved Ravens. Yikes.

Turns out the Carolina Panthers ended up retaining Burns as the franchise stood firm and rejected all trade attempts for their star linebacker. According to Schefter, Carolina rejected proposals from the San Francisco 49ers, Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears, Atlanta Falcons, and Jacksonville Jaguars.

The problem is that the Ravens failed to land Burns... on top of failing to complete a trade for RB Derrick Henry and ER Chase Young and ER Montez Sweat and ER Danielle Hunter...

...while the 49ers successfully secured Chase Young from the Washington Commanders, and the Bears addressed their needs by acquiring Montez Sweat in a deal with the Commanders. Sheesh...

This season, Burns has completed five sacks, 14 solo tackles, and forced one fumble. Despite Baltimore leading the league in sacks, they engaged in trade talks about Young and also explored the possibility of a trade for Burns, but they ultimately balked in both cases. Landing Young would have taken sending a measly third-round pick the other way. Yes, you read that right.

Getting Burns could have cost much more than that, yes (last year Carolina already declined an offer from the Rams built around two first-round picks), but even then Burns is a legitimate game-changing type of player. You just pounce when this type of opportunity emerges.

The Panthers may have to resort to franchising Burns after this season as both sides seem to be quite uninterested (per David Newton of ESPN) in discussing Burns' contract extension. The franchise tag is projected at $17.4 million for linebackers and $20.4 million for defensive ends, and it's still unclear where the NFL will place Burns.

It'd be ridiculous to say the Ravens' defense hasn't played great, or that their sack numbers are a fluke (we're past the halfway point of the season, mind you), but it's also true that Baltimore has done that with two veterans that could go down injured and miss ample time, simply stop producing or grow tired as the season advances, etc...

No need to mention that the two supposed starters on the edge, David Ojabo and Odafe Oweh, have missed more games than they have played this season and that first-in-line backup Tyus Bowser is nowhere to be found these days.

The Ravens are sitting pretty (nearly) atop the NFL pecking order on both offense and defense, but you never have enough pass rushers around so they should have gone all-in to get Burns, Young, Sweat, Hunter, or whoever they had a realistic chance of trading for. Sadly, they balked all week long.

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