Veteran left tackle Ronnie Stanley agreed to re-sign with the Ravens this offseason, extending his run with the Ravens that began back in 2016.
In 2025, he’ll have a new veteran teammate at receiver in DeAndre Hopkins. In his Monday video conference, Stanley expressed his excitement to have Hopkins on board.
“I mean I had a huge smile on my face when we signed ‘D-Hop,’” Stanley said. “You know what you’re getting with that guy. I think he’s a Hall of Fame-caliber wide receiver, and I still think he has a lot of good reps, years, seasons in him. And he’s a physical player, he’s a competitive player, and I think he’s going to fit into our team really well.”
Hopkins split his 2024 between the Titans and Chiefs, catching 56 passes for 610 yards with five TDs in 16 total games. He then had three receptions for 29 yards with a TD in three postseason games for Kansas City.
Left tackle Ronnie Stanley didn’t wait for the start of the official free agency negotiating period to make up his mind about where he’ll be playing in the future.
Stanley chose to re-sign with the Ravens on a three-year deal that sets him up for a 12-year run with the team that made him a first-round pick in 2016. During a press conference on Monday, Stanley said that history led him to give the Ravens “first dibs” on signing him and he feels that the deal he signed fit his needs while also allowing the Ravens to spend money elsewhere.
Stanley said it is “really cool” to spend his entire career in one place and that he feels there’s unfinished business as he heads into his 10th season with the team.
“Yeah, for sure,” Stanley said. “We’ve broken so many records the last however many years, I don’t think we really care about it to be honest. Especially guys that have been here. The only we really care about is winning a Super Bowl. All that other stuff for sure is nice and all, but, yeah, definitely unfinished business. I don’t think anyone’s really happy.”
Plenty of longtime Ravens have expressed variations on that theme since the team’s loss to the Bills in the divisional round of the playoffs and Stanley wants to be around when the team finally does break through.
Cooper Rush is headed to backup a quarterback in the AFC.
Rush has agreed to a two-year deal with the Ravens, according to multiple reports.
The initial numbers indicate Rush’s contract is worth $12.2 million.
Rush, 31, had spent effectively all of his career with the Cowboys — with the exception of a short stint with the Giants in 2020. He’s appeared in 38 games with 14 starts. The Cowboys notably went 4-1 with Rush at quarterback for a five-game stint in 2022. The club was 4-4 with him as a starter in 2024.
Rush has completed 60.7 of his career passes for 3,463 yards with 20 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Now, he’ll serve as the backup to two-time MVP Lamar Jackson.
The Ravens are holding onto offensive lineman Ben Cleveland.
The team announced that Cleveland has re-signed with the team. They did not disclose any terms of the deal.
Cleveland has appeared in 54 games for the Ravens over the last four regular seasons and he’s also made five playoff appearances. Cleveland started seven of those games.
The Ravens lost right tackle Patrick Mekari as a free agent, but re-signed left tackle Ronnie Stanley and also have the rest of their starting offensive line due back for the 2025 season. Cleveland gives them some experienced depth behind those players.
When wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins agreed to a deal with the Ravens this week, many people dusted off a tweet of his from February 2020.
Hopkins shared a picture of himself with Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson that featured a caption wondering how many touchdowns the trio could score if they were on the same team. Hopkins got a chance to play with Henry in Tennessee and now he’ll have a chance to play with both players in Baltimore.
On Friday, Hopkins said at a press conference that he didn’t “think that was a possibility” and responded to the same question he asked five years ago.
“Hopefully enough to win a lot of games. To win the games we need to win,” Hopkins said, via the Ravens’ website. “I don’t have a number, but hopefully more than a little bit.”
Henry and Jackson had big seasons in 2024, but Hopkins has seen his production drop since a 115-catch season for the Cardinals in 2020. The hope in Baltimore is that joining up with the other two players will push things back in the other direction
Veteran receiver DeAndre Hopkins agreed to terms earlier this week with the Ravens. The one-year, $5 million deal (with a $1 million upside) sends one very specific message. Ravens G.M. Eric DeCosta has sent a very different message.
“We are happy to bring DeAndre Hopkins to the Ravens,” DeCosta said in a statement issued by the team upon the announcement of the deal. “D-Hop is a player whom we have competed against and admired for a long time. He fits our style of play and is another weapon for our offense.”
Hopkins presumably takes Nelson Agholor’s spot in the depth chart, at No. 3 behind Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman. The contract makes that clear. And since the initial reports of the one-year deal didn’t mention that the $5 million is fully guaranteed, it apparently isn’t.
It’s a far cry from the contract the Ravens gave Odell Beckham, Jr. only two years ago. They gave him $15 million, fully guaranteed. And he unlocked a third of the $3 million incentive package, for a total haul of $16 million. In return, he generated 35 catches for 565 yards and three touchdowns in 14 regular-season games, along with four catches for 34 yards in two playoff games.
So what will they get from Hopkins? The Chiefs, who traded for him during the 2024 season, didn’t get very much, frankly. In 10 games (five starts), he caught 41 passes for 437 yards and four touchdowns. He added three catches for 29 yards and a touchdown in the postseason.
He has a big name. An impressive resume. But he’ll be 33 in June and it’s fair to wonder how much remains in the tank. On that point, the latest contract arguably says it all.
Marcus Williams’ time in Baltimore is over.
The Ravens announced that they have released Williams, three years after making a splash in free agency by signing him to a five-year, $70 million contract.
The move had been widely expected since the Ravens benched him last season. Williams rapidly fell out of favor in Baltimore, going from playing almost every defensive snap in his first nine games of the 2024 season, to playing just one snap in each of the next two games, and then never being active for a single game in December or January.
Considering the contract he signed, Williams will be remembered as a major disappointment in Baltimore, frequently missing time with injuries and not playing up to expectations when healthy.
Still, Williams is just 28 years old and showed a lot of promise when he was playing for the Saints from 2017 to 2021. Some team might think he can still turn his career around and give him a shot to get back on track. Even if the Ravens are done with him.
The Ravens will see the return of wide receiver Tylan Wallace on a one-year deal, Jeff Zrebiec of TheAthletic.com reports.
Wallace confirmed his return on social media, writing, “Ravens Flock! Let’s run it back.”
Wallace, 25, has spent the past four seasons in Baltimore after the Ravens made him a fourth-round pick in 2021. He has played 54 games, including all 17 in 2024.
Wallace set career highs last season with 11 receptions for 193 yards.
He also is a core special teams player, having playing more than 50 percent of the team’s special teams snaps in the games he’s played. Wallace as 15 career tackles, including three last season when he saw action on 268 special teams snaps.
Jake Hummel has found a new home.
The former Rams linebacker and core special teams player Jake Hummel has agreed to a one-year deal with the Ravens, Dianna Russini of TheAthletic.com reports.
Hummel, 26, has played 117 defensive snaps and 827 on special teams.
In his three seasons in Los Angeles, Hummel totaled 31 tackles.
He has played all 17 games in each of the past two seasons, and in 2024, Hummel made eight special teams tackles and blocked a punt that led to a touchdown against the Bills.
Ravens nose tackle Michael Pierce has announced his retirement.
“After nine seasons, after much prayer, talking to my family, going through the grind and being satisfied where I am, looking forward to other things in my life, I’ve decided to call it a career,” said on the Sports Spectrum podcast.
The 32year-old Pierce originally signed with the Ravens as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2016. He played in Baltimore until 2019, then played the 2020 and 2021 seasons in Minnesota, then returned to Baltimore in 2022. Last year Pierce played in 11 games, with one start.
For many fans, Pierce’s most memorable moment will be the last snap he played in his final regular-season game, when he intercepted a pass from Browns quarterback Bailey Zappe and delighted teammates and fans with the sight of a 355-pound ball carrier, until Pierce decided to just go down and celebrate that he had clinched the Ravens’ win.
