For the past few days, all the talk around the Baltimore Ravens has been their trade for edge rusher Maxx Crosby, and rightfully so. Crosby is the elite pass rusher Baltimore has lacked and will make a massive impact in 2026. However, another quiet, but very important move, has flown under the radar.
On Saturday, the Ravens retained quarterback Tyler Huntley. They signed him to a two-year, $5 million contract that can be worth up to $11 million.
Huntley played extremely well when subbing in for Lamar Jackson last year. It was an obvious move to extend him. In the same breath, it spells bad news for fellow backup quarterback Cooper Rush, who had a troublesome start to his Baltimore tenure, and now, he’ll most likely be shown the door.
Baltimore Ravens inching toward Cooper Rush decision after Tyler Huntley re-signing
After what went down last offseason, it was widely expected that Rush would be the go-to backup. He signed with the Ravens on a two-year, $6.2 million deal with $4 million guaranteed. Unfortunately, his season didn’t go as planned. Not even close.
When Jackson went down with a hamstring injury in Week 4, Rush got his chance to shine. He didn’t do that. As many were worried about, the 32-year-old looked uncomfortable in Baltimore’s offense, going winless in two starts. and throwing for zero touchdowns and four interceptions. He was eventually replaced by Huntley, who won both of his two starts and led a steady offense.
The Baltimore-Rush pairing was never meant to be. The fact that Huntley worked out and re-signed pretty much forces the front office’s hand to part ways with Rush this offseason.
Rush’s cap hit sits at $2.649 million in 2026. Right now, a cut wouldn’t make much sense in terms of money. According to Spotrac, releasing him with a pre-June 1 designation wouldn’t save much money at all. It would incur more dead cap than cap savings. With a post-June 1 release, they’d only save $1.4 million in cap savings, and see $1.249 million in dead cap in 2026 and $1.647 million in 2027. There’s not a lot of space to operate.
Thankfully, the Ravens can create better financial wiggle room with a June 1 release. In that scenario, their cap savings would rise to $2.1 million with a dead cap of $549,000 in 2026 and $1.647 million in 2027. That’s likely how Baltimore will play their cards.
Ultimately, it makes no sense to let Rush ride out the rest of his contract. The Ravens very rarely keep three quarterbacks rostered, and keeping one as incapable as Rush was in 2025 wouldn’t be smart. They have Jackson and Huntley; that’s more than enough.
Rush could still have some left in the tank. He played well with the Dallas Cowboys, and if released, he could prove he’s still a worthy backup in a system that suits him better.