This offseason the Baltimore Ravens have desperately been searching for a new wide receiver. They have yet to land one. However, it is not for a lack of trying. The Ravens had tried to court several free-agent receivers in order to upgrade their passing game but none of them have accepted the Raven’s offers. No wide receiver wants to play for the Baltimore Ravens. No one wants to catch passes from Lamar Jackson.
Most recently Colts Wide Receiver T.Y. Hilton declined an offer from the Ravens to return to the team that gave him so much success. The catch is that he got significantly less guaranteed money with the Colts.
Juju Smith Schuster also rejected the Ravens while taking significantly less money to play for the team that drafted him, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Ironically, the Ravens were in talks with Sammy Watkins the former number three receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs. However, despite apparently good talks, Watkins is still talking to other teams, including the New York Jets. If a former number three option is willing to talk to the Jets over signing with you, you may be in trouble.
The list goes on and on. The number of receivers that the Ravens were reportedly in talks with was outstanding. Despite this, they have yet to sign a single free agent wide receiver of note. They have only been able to pick up players that either no one has heard of, or were barely good enough to make NFL practice squads and rosters. Even their former number two receiver Willie Snead is looking to leave Baltimore. As of right now, their WR room consists only of the overrated Marquise Brown.
So what is the problem with the Baltimore Ravens? Most people would assume that free agents would be clamoring towards Baltimore. Especially after the last two years, where the Ravens scored almost 1000 points, the most in the NFL. However, there is a problem with that statistic. Most of those points did not come through the air, they came on the ground. In fact, over the last two years, the Ravens have had one of the worst air attacks in all of the NFL. You can blame that on the coaching or the scheme, or you can blame Lamar Jackson and his timebomb of a career. Whatever it is receivers don’t want to go to a place where they will be underutilized and where their career will die.
Whether it’s the money, the familiarity, or Lamar Jackson, no one wants to sign to the Baltimore Ravens. If the Ravens don’t fix this problem soon, they may have trouble throwing the ball for years to come.
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