Can we keep both? That has been a question looming the minds of fellow Ravens fans since the Houston Texans game. To continually see this secondary beasting on opponents, making signal-callers scared to make throws is phenomenal. Two of the main reasons it has been difficult on opposing teams are Marlon Humphrey and recently acquired Marcus Peters. They are handling business on the field, locking up the competition. Can Eric DeCosta do his part in locking up them for the foreseeable future?
Marcus Peters came to the Baltimore Ravens on the backend of his last deal. This means he is bound to be a wealthy man come next season. Xavien Howard has the per-year-salary of the top paid Corner in football, which according to spotrac.com is $15.1 Million annually. With $56 Million in cap space in the upcoming 2020 offseason, there is some wiggle room but not much. There are at least ten solid “play like a Raven” contributors that are the skeletal structure of this team. Guys like:
CB Jimmy Smith
CB Marcus Peters
LBPatrick Owuasor
CB Matt Judon
FB/DT Patrick Ricard
DEPernell McPhee
LB/SS Anthony Levine
DT Michael Pierce
RB Gus Edwards
Sure, there are other names on the list, but these are the key players that came to mind as far as free agents that it would be nice to have resigned. In a perfect world, the team should make an effort to retain all of these, but there are still other contracts coming up, such as that of LT Ronnie Stanley and that of the Beast, the Dog himself, Lamar Jackson. Jackson is basically going to break the bank unless some of that remarkable humility rubs off on his contract negotiations.
DeCosta is about to have his hands full coming this offseason. I wish him luck. We need both of those lock-down corners for the long term.