It’s unclear whether cornerback Jaire Alexander will be making his Ravens debut in Buffalo on Sunday night.
Alexander has been out of practice since August 9 because of knee issues. Head coach John Harbaugh said on Monday that Alexander has been ramping up his physical activity ahead of Week 1, but that participating in practice this week will be a necessary step for him to get on the field against the Bills.
“That would be the key,” Harbaugh said, via the team’s website. “So, we’ll see where he’s at Wednesday. He did some things today.”
Injuries limited Alexander to 16 games over the last two seasons and contributed to the Packers’ decision to part ways with him this offseason. He’s listed behind Marlon Humphrey on the team’s depth chart.
Tight end Isaiah Likely and fullback Patrick Ricard were also out of practice on Monday.
The Ravens aren’t looking at Sunday night’s game as just the first of 17 they will play in the regular season.
It’s common to hear some version of that from teams playing games early in the year, but Baltimore will be heading up to Buffalo for the opener and that’s also the same place where their 2024 season came to an end. The Bills knocked the Ravens out of the playoffs and Ravens left tackle Ronnie Stanley said that he and his teammates are well aware of that as they prepare for this weekend.
“That team sent us home out of the playoffs, so I don’t think it’s just going into a normal game per se,” Stanley said, via the team’s website. “We were very unhappy with the result last time we were there. A lot of us will give anything to leave there with a dub.”
Defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike agrees with Stanley and said that the Ravens “want to get that bad taste” out of their mouths in Week 1. That won’t change what happened in January, but it will give them an early leg up in this year’s race for the top in the AFC.
The season hasn’t started, and it’s already over for defensive tackle DeWayne Carter.
Jordan Schultz reports that the second-year backup tore his Achilles and will miss the season. The Bills still list Carter on their roster, but Carter confirmed on social media that his season was done.
On Instagram, Carter posted a photo of himself in a hospital bed with the caption: “God doesn’t make mistakes. I’ll be back. Thank you for all of the prayers and well wishes! John 13:7.”
Carter, a third-round pick in 2024, missed five games last season with a wrist injury and appeared in 11, making 14 tackles.
The Bills will be without veteran defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi the first six games as he serves a suspension for violating the NFL’s performance enhancing substances policy.
Twenty-four years ago, Shannon Sharpe gave an impassioned — and unexpected — defense of teammate Ray Lewis in advance of Super Bowl XXXV. More recently, Lewis gave and impassions — and unexpected — critique of Sharpe’s media career.
“I’m not surprised,” Lewis said on the PBD Podcast regarding Sharpe’s success as a podcaster. “I’m shocked at his content. . . . I kind of started to watch him and then we kind of went our own separate ways, because I’m like, ‘You’re gonna take that route? I can’t go that route. Never can go that route.’”
What is ‘that route’?
“That route is to become so worldly that you’ve become popular because you’re talking about ignorance,” Lewis said. “A lot of times a lot of these gossip conversations that they’re having and bringing up all this stuff, I’m not gonna do that to nobody. I’m not in the business for that. I’m in life to try to teach people what does it mean to be a better man or give back to the kingdom.
“And a lot of times, like, and a lot of guys get in trouble with these podcasts and things, man, because everybody wants the follower. Everybody wants to be popular, Everybody wants to make money. But that’s a tightrope into what you call influence and popularity. The devil has the ability to make you popular. God has the ability to give you influence that when people see you, they see an image of him.
“And that’s the thing for me that started to switch with not just Shannon, but just a couple of people. I’m like, ‘Wow, you will switch out like that? Really?’ And I would never, ever. Why? Because of the respect that I have for my mother, my daughters, my granddaughters, life, period.
“I think men, given these new platforms, we’ve overrode what the platform is actually for. The platform is supposed to help somebody find a new direction. We don’t help. Everybody’s just gets on. Like everybody’s talking now. Everybody got a podcast. Everybody is the new marriage coach. Everybody’s the new relationship coach. And ain’t nobody coaching themselves, because if you were coaching your yourself, when it says, ‘Power of life and death is found in the tongue,’ then go back and check out a couple of your episodes and ask yourself, ‘Do you give life, or do you give death? And that’s why me personally, yeah, I kind of do my own thing, Stay in my own lane.”
He exited that lane in a big way to share his views about his former teammate’s media career. It’ll be interesting to see if Sharpe, who has plenty to say about plenty of things, will have anything to say about what Lewis said.
The Ravens, like most properly functioning football teams do, didn’t wait to pay a draft pick who panned out. After three seasons, they knew that safety Kyle Hamilton had earned a second deal.
And they gave it to him.
Here are the full details of the contract, per a source with knowledge of the terms:
1. Signing bonus: $26.9 million, with $20 million paid within 10 days and $6.9 million paid by December 31, 2025.
2. 2025 base salary: $1.1 million, fully guaranteed.
3. 2026 option bonus: $18.4 million, fully guaranteed..
4. 2026 base salary: $1.622 million, fully guaranteed.
5. 2027 base salary: $17 million, guaranteed for injury at signing and fully guaranteed in 2026.
6: 2028 base salary: $17 million, guaranteed for injury at signing and fully guaranteed in 2027.
7. 2029 90-man roster bonus: $1 million, due on the fifth day of the league year.
8. 2029 base salary: $17.9 million.
9. 2030 90-man roster bonus: $1 million, due on the fifth day of the league year.
10. 2030 base salary: $20 million.
The four-year deal has a new-money average of $25.1 million. Given the amounts he was due to make in 2025 and 2026, the contract has a value from signing of $20.32 million.
The contract pays $48 million fully guaranteed at signing, with rolling guarantees that lock in the third year by year two, and the fourth year by year three. It makes $82 million guaranteed, as a practical matter.
Lions safety Kerby Joseph had been the highest-paid safety. From a new-money standpoint, Hamilton pushed the bar $3.85 million higher.
Joseph will make $11.6 million this year; Hamilton will make $28 million. Over the next three seasons, Hamilton will out-earn Joseph by $23.4 million.
And it’s the biggest deal the Ravens have ever given to a non-quarterback.
