Ravens news, notes and opinions: Does a Marcus Peters return make sense? (2024)

The Athletic has live coverage of Ravens vs. Titans in London for Week 6 NFL action.

On one side of the argument is the common refrain from Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta and his predecessor, Ozzie Newsome, who are fond of saying you can never have enough cornerbacks. On the other side is the reality that the Ravens won’t know what they have in their young cornerbacks if they don’t play them, and it’s hardly certain that any of the available free-agent corners are better than what Baltimore has on its current roster.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh said following Saturday’s rookie minicamp practice that the team hasn’t closed the door on adding another corner, despite signing Rock Ya-Sin last week. He then specifically mentioned Marcus Peters, who has played parts of three years with Baltimore but is surprisingly still looking for work this late in the offseason.

“You don’t close the door on good players and good people,” Harbaugh said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

There are other veteran corners still available. Shaquill Griffin, Ronald Darby, Casey Hayward, Kyle Fuller and William Jackson are among those still out there. But it is Peters, of course, who is the easiest connection to make. He knows the Ravens’ defense. He has a strong relationship with many people in the building. With 32 career interceptions and three Pro Bowl nods, he’s also the most accomplished corner still on the open market.

But here are the questions the team’s decision-makers have to be asking themselves when it comes to Peters. The biggest one is which Peters would they be getting? The 30-year-old had a rough 2022 season. He often was a step behind in coverage and was penalty prone. With one interception and six pass breakups in 13 games, Peters also didn’t get his hand on too many footballs, which is his strength. Peters was coming back from a torn ACL in his knee that cost him the entire 2021 season. It’s plenty reasonable to think Peters will rebound now that he’s another year removed from the knee injury. It’s also possible that because of the injury and his age, last year was a sign of things to come.

There’s also the matter of whether Peters is the best fit for the role Baltimore might be looking to fill. The Ravens seem content with the idea of starting Marlon Humphrey and Ya-Sin. Humphrey can play either outside or inside, giving Baltimore some flexibility when three corners are on the field. The Ravens could then hope that one of their youngsters in Jalyn Armour-Davis, Trayvon Mullen, Damarion Williams or Kyu Blu Kelly — or veteran Daryl Worley — can win the No. 3 cornerback job. Safeties Kyle Hamilton, Brandon Stephens and Ar’Darius Washington are also options in the slot.

In other words, there’s no guarantee Peters would be a 100 percent defensive snap guy or have the same significant role. How would that sit with an extremely proud and fiery player? The volatility is part of the Peters experience, and if he’s not content with his role, it’s not going to be a good situation for anybody.

Those are the things the Ravens have to figure out, but their best bet might just be to wait. Evaluate Armour-Davis and Williams, fourth-round draft picks last year, in the various organized team activities and minicamps. See what you have in Kelly, a rookie fifth-rounder, and Mullen, a 2019 second-round pick with 31 starts on his resume. If you are going to make final determinations on a cornerback based on one year or one training camp of struggles, it’s going to be awfully hard to develop any young players at that position.

If they don’t like what they see in practice over the next month, they can always turn back to Peters, assuming he’s still available, and/or Fuller, who is recovering from a season-ending knee injury.

Intriguing UDFA class

Baltimore’s undrafted free-agent class, which was announced on Friday, is not short on intriguing personalities, backgrounds and storylines.

There’s a two-way player in fullback/defensive tackle Levi Bell out of Texas State. There’s the former Baltimore high school standout, Lafayette outside linebacker Malik Hamm, a two-time Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year; and a former college standout from the state, Maryland wide receiver Dontay Demus Jr.

There’s Delaware’s Nolan Henderson, the quarterback who grew up idolizing Joe Flacco, the former Ravens Super Bowl hero; and East Carolina running back Keaton Mitchell, whose father, Anthony, made one of the biggest plays in the 2000 Ravens’ Super Bowl season. There’s a high school All-American wrestler in Oregon State offensive tackle Brandon Kipper. And then there’s Kentucky guard Tashawn Manning, who battled leukemia as a high school student.

The Ravens take great pride in their ability to unearth quality undrafted free agents. The question is usually not whether one will make the team, but how many will. You never know how the injury situation will play out, but it won’t be an easy task to make Baltimore’s roster this summer.

10 random thoughts, observations

1. The NFL regular-season schedule is expected to be released this week. We already know the Ravens’ opponents. Beyond their six divisional games, they play the Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins and Seattle Seahawks at home. On the road, they have the Arizona Cardinals, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers and Tennessee Titans. Here are a few things I’ll be watching: Will they be heading overseas for the first time since 2017? Two of their road opponents, the Jaguars and Titans, are scheduled to host games in London in 2023. Will they have back-to-back road games on the West Coast, potentially prompting the team to stay out there to prepare for the second game? And, of course, how many prime-time games will there be? Given some of the divisional matchups alone, I’d be surprised if the Ravens didn’t have three or four in prime time.

2. Veteran free-agent safety Adrian Amos visited the Ravens over six weeks ago, and there still appears to be mutual interest. Amos is a Baltimore native who grew up idolizing Ravens Hall of Fame safety Ed Reed, so a homecoming to play on a high-quality defense would seemingly have some appeal. However, Amos, who hasn’t missed a start in five straight seasons and has only missed four games in his eight-year career, has other options, including a return to Green Bay. Ultimately, it will come down to the contract and the role. How much will the Ravens be willing to pay when they have a few other depth needs with limited cap space to fill them, and how would they utilize Amos alongside projected starting safeties Marcus Williams and Hamilton? It would be easy to say the Ravens already have enough depth at safety, but adding Amos would allow them to use Hamilton more in matchup situations and in the slot. In a way, it would be almost like adding another corner.

3. The Ravens hosted another local product, former Chicago Bears starting center Sam Mustipher, on a free-agent visit late last week. While a deal wasn’t immediately signed, the Ravens’ interest in adding a backup center with guard versatility makes a lot of sense, particularly after they lost that piece, Trystan Colon, to the New York Jets earlier this offseason. Patrick Mekari is the closest thing the Ravens have to a backup for starting center Tyler Linderbaum. Mekari, though, is also the Ravens’ top reserve tackle. Having a guy who can step in at center in a pinch, particularly if Mekari is needed at tackle, feels imperative. Mustipher, who started 40 games for the Bears over the past three seasons, isn’t the only center/guard-type available. There are also Billy Price, Pat Elflein, Chase Roullier and old friend Matt Skura. The Ravens should be able to fill that spot with a minimum salary-type deal.

4. The Ravens signed edge rusher Justin Houston to a one-year deal in 2021 on July 31. In 2022, they agreed to terms with him on a one-year deal on July 7. If the plan is to re-sign him for a third stint, there probably isn’t any rush.

5. There were four inside linebackers taken in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft: Isaiah Simmons went No. 8 to the Cardinals, Kenneth Murray was taken at No. 23 by the Chargers, Jordyn Brooks was selected at No. 27 by the Seahawks and Patrick Queen came off the board at No. 28 to the Ravens. All have played well at times for their respective teams. Yet when it came time for decisions to be made on the fifth-year options on their rookie contracts, all four had theirs declined. Brooks is coming off a major injury, and Simmons, Murray and Queen have all fought some consistency issues. However, that their options were declined probably says more about the economic realities of the NFL rather than them as players. All linebackers are grouped together for the purpose of the fifth-year options. That means it costs just as much to pick up the option on an outside linebacker/edge rusher as it does for an inside guy. The price tag to tag those above-mentioned guys was $12.7 million. That’s awfully steep on a one-year deal for a position that is not prioritized like edge rushers are. Just look at the salaries for the free-agent inside linebackers this offseason. Only one (Tremaine Edmunds) got a contract worth more than $10 million a year.

6. Enough has been said and written about Lamar Jackson’s new contract, and there’s really not a whole lot to add. However, one thing Jackson said during his signing news conference that really surprised me was that he hadn’t spoken to Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti during the process. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything. As DeCosta said, Bisciotti is more than content to stay in the background and let the front office and coaching staff do their jobs. It’s also possible that Bisciotti called Jackson and they just didn’t connect. The Ravens quarterback is as elusive to reach on the phone as he is to catch in the open field. Still, it was an interesting admission, especially since a few weeks earlier Odell Beckham Jr. spoke about the role his talk with Bisciotti had on him signing with the team.

7. The initial plan was for Beckham to wear No. 0. What Beckham and most other people didn’t know at the time was that middle linebacker Roquan Smith had already decided earlier in the offseason that he would shift from No. 18 to No. 0. It required some maneuvering late in the process, but ultimately Beckham took No. 3, James Proche went from No. 3 to No. 10 and Smith had his No. 0.

8. The Ravens exited their rookie minicamp with 87 players on the roster, but that number could be changing in the near future. Typically, the Ravens have done some shuffling at the back end of their roster following rookie minicamps. A few guys who were at the minicamp on a tryout basis and impressed are signed. A few players, usually either returnees who dropped on the depth chart since the draft or rookie free agents who didn’t look the part in the minicamp, are let go. I’d be surprised if they didn’t add a kicker, punter or both before the start of training camp, because they won’t want to wear out kicker Justin Tucker and punter Jordan Stout in training camp practices and the preseason. They’ll also still likely sign a few more veteran free agents. The roster churn will be in full effect.

9. Harbaugh confirmed that the Ravens do not expect seventh-round offensive guard Andrew Vorhees, who tore his ACL in early March at the NFL Scouting Combine, to play this season. Vorhees will essentially take a redshirt year in 2023 as he rehabs his surgically repaired knee with the hope he’ll be ready to go ahead of the 2024 campaign. Because his injury occurred before he officially entered the NFL, Vorhees will likely spend the year on the non-football injury list. He will not get an accrued season on that list, so the Ravens will have Vorhees under contract for four more years following 2023.

10. Full disclosure: I honestly don’t have a great feel for whether the Ravens were ever “close” to trading for Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, as at least one report indicated. I do know the Ravens did their due diligence on Hopkins earlier in the offseason, and at that point, they didn’t see a trade as feasible because of several factors, including the wide receiver’s contract, the Cardinals’ asking price and Baltimore’s limited 2023 draft capital. What I’m not clear on is whether the talks heated up closer to the draft, once Arizona’s asking price presumably dropped. Whether they did or didn’t re-engage, the Ravens made no effort to distance themselves from the perceived Hopkins interest — and why would they? It behooved them to have the rest of the league thinking they were down the road on a Hopkins trade so teams didn’t think they had to trade in front of the Ravens in the first round to get the receiver they wanted.

(Top photo: Abbie Parr / Getty Images)