Calais Campbell will be back for a 19th NFL season.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Campbell will sign with the Ravens. It will be a one-year deal and it will be Campbell’s second stint with the Ravens.
Campbell’s first stint came from 2020-2002 and he had 113 tackles, 11 sacks, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries in that stretch. Campbell, who was the 2019 Walter Payton Man of the Year, had 43 tackles and 6.5 sacks while starting every game for the Cardinals last season. He’s also played for the Jaguars, Falcons and Dolphins after entering the league as a Cardinals second-round pick in 2008.
The timing of the deal means that Campbell’s signing will not factor into the formula for distributing compensatory draft picks for either the Ravens or the Cardinals.
Two years ago, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers added then-college quarterback Diego Pavia to their negotiation list. As Pavia begins to negotiate the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Ravens, the Blue Bombers remain willing to put their paperwork into action.
Via John Hodge of 3DownNation.com, the Blue Bombers have talked to Pavia’s reps about potentially playing in Canada.
“[Conversations] picked up a little bit, just educating them [about the CFL],” Winnipeg G.M. Kyle Walters told reporters on Wednesday.
“[Pavia’s representatives] were fine and receptive . . . but like all guys — guys with much lesser pedigrees than him — we all kind of get the same treatment prior to the NFL draft, which is, politely, ‘We’re focused on the NFL and we’ll see what shakes down.’”
Although some have trumpeted the notion that Pavia signed a “three-year deal” with the Ravens, that’s the standard term for UDFA deals as required by the CBA. He could be released at any time. And he could eventually need a landing spot in another league.
For now, the Blue Bombers are pressing the pause button.
“[H]e is an interesting prospect, and yes, we’ve been in contact with the agent, but it’s just very early, and now that he signed with Baltimore, I don’t think that it’s much of a conversation moving forward at this point,” Walters said.
Still, at some point, Winnipeg could be back on Pavia’s porch. And they have no qualms about his habit of speaking his mind.
“[Coach] Mike [O’Shea] and I, we’re old and we understand that young guys today change,” Walters said. “We’re not like old men yelling at clouds — we understand that young men today are different, and we get that. You’re not going to hold against him for being an individual, as long as it’s not a distraction to the team. . . .
“He’s got a big personality and he’d make [the communications staff’s] job harder, I’m sure, if he were to sign, but he’s an interesting young man that competes and is confident in himself, which at that position is not a bad thing.”
It’s not a bad thing. But at some point the question is how his game translates to the next level. If it doesn’t work in the NFL, the CFL is willing to give Pavia an opportunity.
Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta said after the draft that it was “unfortunate” that the team wasn’t able to add any help at center and that the cost of trading up to snag a prospect they liked was “probably prohibitive.”
DeCosta and the Ravens aren’t done looking for ways to address a spot that opened up when Tyler Linderbaum signed with the Raiders as a free agent. During an appearance on WBAL, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com, DeCosta said that the team’s scouts do a “great job of finding players” and that could lead to a trade that increases the team’s options at the position.
“It didn’t work out for us this past weekend,” DeCosta said. “I think there may be some potential trades we can look at and some other things we can do to address that position.”
Danny Pinter, Jovaughn Gwyn and Corey Bullock are the current centers on the Ravens roster, but it sounds like we can expect that to change before the team hits the field for the first time this fall.
After it was first reported that former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia had accepted an invitation to Ravens rookie minicamp, it was then revealed on Tuesday that the signal-caller would actually be signing with the club as an undrafted free agent.
Pavia will now get to compete alongside fellow UDFA QB Joe Fagnano on the 90-man roster, ostensibly to have a shot at being the club’s third QB on the 53-man roster behind starter Lamar Jackson and backup Tyler Huntley.
In an interview with NFL Network’s Good Morning Football on Wednesday, Ravens head coach Jesse Minter praised Pavia, noting that the Heisman finalist elevated those around him.
“One thing I would say about Diego — and Clark Lea, the head coach at Vanderbilt, is a really dear, close friend of mine — this guy was a force multiplier at Vanderbilt,” Minter said. “He came there at a time when they needed to get it going and Clark was building something. And this guy made everybody in the building better. He’s one of the first people in, he’s one of the last to leave. He’s a really hard worker.
“We’ll certainly have some talks about maybe how to handle certain things a little bit better. But, again, any rookie undrafted free agent — come in and work. Let what you do on the field and by your actions show who you really are. We’ll let him come in with a little bit of a clean slate and just give him a platform, along with the rest of the guys coming in, give them a platform to see what they can do.”
A four-year starter across two programs, Pavia completed 62.2 percent of his collegiate passes in 53 career games for 10,255 yards with 88 touchdowns and 27 interceptions. He also rushed for 3,098 yards with 31 TDs.
As it turns out, the Ravens will have four quarterbacks on their 90-man roster.
According to multiple reports, Baltimore is signing Diego Pavia to a three-year deal as an undrafted free agent.
Pavia was previously invited to participate in the Ravens’ rookie minicamp on a tryout basis.
The Ravens also agreed to sign UDFA quarterback Joe Fagnano out of UConn earlier on Tuesday.
That gives the club a pair of young QBs behind starter Lamar Jackson and backup Tyler Huntley.
