Report: Ravens "in on Chase Young, couldn't push trade" before NFL deadline

If you are a fan of the Baltimore Ravens and didn't like what happened last Tuesday on the day of the NFL trade deadline, you can now add another reason to your growing list of frustrations.

According to Baltimore Ravens beat reporter Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic, the Ravens "were in on Chase Young," last Tuesday before the final buzzer. Worst of all? They didn't complete the trade "for whatever reason."

"The Ravens were in on Young, yet, for whatever reason, they couldn’t push it over the finish line. The Ravens lead the league in sacks, but the addition of an explosive edge rusher would have allowed them to be less reliant on scheme, stunts and blitzes."

- Jeff Zrebiec, The Athletic.

Insert a sad-face emoji here if you know how to do so, please and thank you.

The Ravens, reportedly, failed to land Derrick Henry when they had already completed a trade for the running back because, for some reason, the owner (not the general manager, not the coach, the owner) of the Tenessee Titans decided to veto that trade preventing Baltimore from getting the King RB.

Now, Zrebiec again wrote that "for whatever reason," the Ravens "couldn't push [the trade for Young] over the finish line." Sheesh...

While Zrebiec reasonably and smartly points out that trading a first-round pick to trump Chicago's offer for fellow-former Washington Commander's pash rusher Montez Sweat might have been too much, trading "a third-round pick for Young was reasonable."

Yet, the Ravens balked.

Read that again. A third-round pick for a former no. 2 pick, even if he might have only been a rental for the remainder of the season, was a ridiculous bargain deal Baltimore should have completed and agreed to pursue to the limit. No dice.

The main reason for the Ravens not to go all-in for Young, or for Washington to move on from him (depending on how you want to look at it) was, seemingly, his health.

"There was also concern, multiple sources said, about Young's long-term durability after he suffered not only a torn ACL but also a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee in 2021," reported John Keim of ESPN. "Sources said medical concerns prevented some teams who had expressed interest from making an offer."

Not the San Francisco 49ers, mind you, who sent a third-round pick to Washington in exchange for a generational pash rusher, that, most probably, simply needs a change of scenery and to play in a new environment to rack up numbers and excel at his position on defense.

The Ravens, for the remainder of the season, will rely on the veteran and aging duo made of Jadeveon Clowney and Kyle Van Noy, as well as the returning (if they ever do) Odafe Oweh and David Ojabo. So far, so good for the unit as they lead the NFL in sacks.

That said, Baltimore could have bolstered their pash rushing for the cheap price of a second-day pick but "for whatever reason" didn't want to. Yikes.

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