Former Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson isn’t the only player with whom former Louisville cornerback Jaire Alexander will be reunited in 2025.
With Alexander joining the Ravens, he’ll see former Packers teammate Aaron Rodgers twice this year.
The Steelers and Ravens cross paths in Week 14 and Week 18.
Alexander and Rodgers spent five years together in Green Bay. Each surely picked up a thing or two about the other during their time on the practice field.
Alexander will also cross paths with the four teams he knows best — the Packers and his former NFC North rivals. Including the Vikings and receiver Justin Jefferson.
Of course, all of this hinges on Alexander staying healthy. Which he hasn’t done over the past two years, resulting in Alexander missing 20 total regular-season games.
DeAndre Hopkins is 33 years old and his production has declined in recent years, with a career-low 10.9 yards per catch average last season. But fellow Ravens wide receiver Rashod Bateman still brings plenty to Baltimore.
Bateman said on NFL Network that Hopkins, who signed a one-year contract with the Ravens in March, has been teaching the younger wide receivers
“You could just definitely tell that he’s been in the game a while and done a lot of great things,” Bateman said of Hopkins. “A lot of people respect what he’s done and what he brings to the table. But as far as right now, he’s been a very good veteran for us, giving all of us advice -- not even just myself -- he’s been very vocal about that. All of us are much younger so [our] ears are open and we’re taking all the advice we can get from him. He’s done great things, so hopefully we can take that, add it to our game, add it to our personalities to go help this team. He’s been good for us and I know he’s going to be big for us this season.”
The Ravens are Hopkins’ fifth NFL team, and perhaps the team that can put a Super Bowl ring on his Hall of Fame résumé.
Linebacker C.J. Mosley is hanging up his cleats.
Mosley announced in a social media post on Thursday that he is retiring after 10 seasons in the league.
“I spent my whole life and career building my legacy,” Mosley said in his post. “Now, it’s time to start a new chapter with new dreams.”
The No. 17 overall pick of the 2014 draft, Mosley immediately made an impact with the Ravens, finishing the season No. 2 in AP defensive rookie of the year voting. He was also selected to his first Pro Bowl and was a second-team All-Pro.
He played his first five seasons with the Ravens before signing with the Jets as a free agent in 2019, which is where he spent the rest of his career. In 2024, Mosley was limited to just four games with three starts due to a neck injury.
New York released Mosley in March.
Mosley ends his career having played in 133 games. A five-time Pro Bowler, he recorded 1,083 total tackles, 12.0 sacks, 55 tackles for loss, 40 QB hits, 53 passes defensed, 12 interceptions, 10 forced fumbles, and nine fumble recoveries.
Lamar Jackson spoke it into existence. And the signing of Jaire Alexander could help spark a Lamar Jackson extension.
At a minimum, it can’t hurt the Ravens’ effort to get a deal done.
In 2023, Baltimore’s decision to give receiver Odell Beckham $15 million in full guarantees on a one-year deal absolutely helped mend fences with Jackson — and ultimately to get him signed. Adding Lamar’s Louisville teammate only one day after Lamar said publicly to “go get him” becomes a potential building block toward a new contract.
The question becomes whether the Ravens want to get it done before or after the 2025 season. Currently, Jackson has a cap number of $43.5 million, and the team has not exercised its unilateral right to restructure the 2025 pay in order to drive the cap number down.
The target for a new contract could be after the season, since Jackson’s cap number shoots to $74.5 million in 2026. The Ravens will again have the right to restructure the deal in order to reduce the cap charge. But the objective, at some point, will be to get a deal done.
The challenge for the Ravens is to get Lamar to do it. Last time around, the two sides weren’t able to finalize a contract until after his rookie deal expired, Jackson requested a trade, the Ravens applied the franchise tag, and no other team even brought him in for a visit. With three years left on his current contract, will Lamar feel compelled to do a new deal?
He’ll make $42.75 million this year and $52 million in 2026 and 2027. (It’ll be $51.25 million each year if he fails to satisfy the minimum percentage of participation in voluntary workouts.) Which means that he can ride it out and make $146.75 million (or $145.25 million) over the next three seasons and see what happens next.
One thing that might not happen is a second franchise tag. Based on his current cap number for 2027 ($74.5 million), the franchise tag would cost the Ravens $89.4 million in 2028.
Arguably, then, time is on Jackson’s side even more than it was the last time around. While his fictitious new-money average has slipped to the bottom of the top 10 NFL quarterbacks, the value of his five-year deal from signing remains near the top. He’ll make very good money over the next three years, and he quite possibly would have a chance to become an unrestricted free agent.
The Ravens’ goal could be to get a deal done before Jackson realizes he’s a season or two away from putting the Ravens in the kind of salary-cap checkmate that would allow the two-time NFL MVP to do what Jaire Alexander did on Wednesday — pick his next team.
The Ravens closed out their offseason by making a big addition to their secondary.
Cornerback Jaire Alexander signed with the team on Wednesday in a move that adds to a spot where the team was already pretty well stocked. They drafted Nate Wiggins in the first round to go with Marlon Humphrey last year and signed Chidobe Awuzie as a free agent this offseason, so the team is now four-deep at the top of their depth chart.
Some might wonder how they’ll get all of those players on the field at the same time, but Humphrey doesn’t think that’s actually something worth worrying about.
“A quote that’s never been said and probably will never be said in NFL history is, ‘We got too many corners that can cover,’” Humphrey said, via the team’s website. “I think that’s a great problem to have. Really excited for that addition. The options are endless. It’s going to be a fun secondary.”
When all four players are available, the Ravens might have some tough decisions to make about who is on the field. History says that all of them won’t always be healthy, however, and adding Alexander gives the Ravens flexibility to manage moments when injuries crop up over the course of the season without sacrificing much in terms of ability.
