Ravens Clips
With training camp approaching, the Ravens had five quarterbacks on the 90-man roster.
They now have four.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the Ravens have waived rookie quarterback Diego Pavia.
Undrafted in April, Pavia signed with the Ravens. The contract contained no signing bonus or guarantees.
Pavia finished the offseason program with the Ravens. He’ll now be subject to the waivers system. If not claimed, he’ll become a free agent again.
Remaining on the roster for the Ravens are quarterbacks Lamar Jackson, Tyler Huntley, Skylar Thompson, and Joe Fagnano.
The NFL Players Association released its annual Rising Stars list on Tuesday and the first overall pick of this year’s draft is one of the players at the top.
Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza is No. 1 on the list of the 10 rookies that the NFLPA projects to be future members of the Top 50 list of licensed player product sales. There is also a list of 10 players with NFL experience who have not been on the Top 50 and it is topped by Saints quarterback Tyler Shough.
Mendoza is followed on the list by Cowboys safety Caleb Downs, Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love, Titans wide receiver Carnell Tate, Eagles wide receiver Makai Lemon, Commanders linebacker Sonny Styles, Saints wide receiver Jordyn Tyson, Giants linebacker Arvell Reese, Ravens wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane, and Buccaneers edge rusher Rueben Bain.
The list of veteran players also includes Bears tight end Colston Loveland, Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker, Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, Buccaneers wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, Cardinals tight end Trey McBride, Dolphins running back De’Von Achane, Bills running back James Cook, and Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez.
Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta had a positive update about linebacker Teddye Buchanan last week.
Buchanan tore his ACL in a December game last season and DeCosta was asked during an interview on 105.7 The Fan about his outlook for the coming season. DeCosta declined to offer any specifics when it came to a timeline, but made it sound like Buchanan has made a lot of progress since having surgery.
“I think you’ll see Teddye sooner than later. He has done a great job, I mean top 1 percent of rehabs that I’ve seen in my time here. . . . Very optimistic about Teddye,” DeCosta said.
Buchanan was a fourth-round pick last year and started 13 of the 14 games he played before his injury. He had 93 tackles, five tackles for loss, a half-sack, and a forced fumble in those appearances.
Last summer, the Ravens signed wide receiver Rashod Bateman to a three-year, $36.75 million contract extension. They did not get their money’s worth, as Bateman struggled through an ankle injury and finished with a career-low 224 receiving yards.
But Ravens General Manager Eric Decosta says he does not regret his investment. DeCosta said he’s expecting big things from Bateman in new offensive coordinator Declan Doyle’s offense, and that 2026 is going to represent a fresh start for Bateman.
“He’s a phenomenal athlete. Great route-runner. Rashod, it’s right there in front of him. He’s shown flashes of being a real problem for other teams,” DeCosta said on 105.7 The Fan. “His mindset is good. I’m really, really excited to see how he does this year with Declan in this offense. Everybody’s excited about him. He’s got a lot of opportunities this year. Last year was just kind of a lost season in some ways, but that’s no indication of the type of player that we think he is and how he can help us. I love the guy. I know he’s probably his biggest critic, but he’s a playmaker, and I expect him to have a great year this year. I’m excited about him and I can’t wait to see how he looks in this offense.”
If the Ravens can get Bateman back to producing like he did in 2024, when he had career-highs of 756 receiving yards and nine touchdowns, that would bring back an explosive element in Baltimore’s new offense.
Free agent center Ethan Pocic has agreed to a one-year deal with the Ravens, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.
The Ravens lost three-time Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum to the Raiders in free agency. Danny Pinter, Jovaughn Gwyn and Corey Bullock are the other centers on the roster, and they have combined for 10 career starts, all by Pinter.
Pocic, who turns 31 next month, spent the past four seasons in Cleveland. He was recently medically cleared after tearing his left Achilles in a Dec. 7 game against the Titans.
He is entering his 10th season since the Seahawks made him a second-round pick in 2017. Pocic spent five seasons in Seattle, appearing in 57 games with 40 starts.
He signed with the Browns as a free agent in 2022 and started 57 games for the club.
Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby says four quarterbacks stand out as the hardest in the NFL to sack.
Asked in a kick.com interview who he considers the hardest to sack in the league, Crosby named Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield.
“Mahomes has definitely got to be up there, Lamar is a freak athlete, he’s so quick and fast. Josh Allen is like my size playing quarterback, but you’ve got to really fucking tackle him. I’d say those three are the top,” Crosby said. “A sleeper one, too: Baker Mayfield. He pissed me off. I had two of them I should have had on him. He ducked under, got under them. I was fucking livid. Baker’s tough. I like Baker.”
Crosby never sacked Mayfield in that game (the photo accompanying this post shows one of the near-sacks that Mayfield escaped), and Mayfield threw for three touchdown passes in a 28-13 Buccaneers win. Crosby hasn’t forgotten.
The Ravens will resume on-field work when training camp opens this month and they could get some off-field business done before the start of the season as well.
Wide receiver Zay Flowers is eligible for a contract extension and General Manager Eric DeCosta was asked during an appearance on 105.7 The Fan whether he’d like to see that done before the start of the regular season. DeCosta said that he would and that there have been “good conversations” with Flowers’s representatives about a deal.
“Yeah, definitely,” DeCosta said. “I love Zay, Zay wants to be here, we want Zay here. . . . . Certainly a work in progress, optimistic about it. Feel like at some point it will get done.”
The Ravens have exercised their fifth-year option on Flowers’s rookie deal, so he is under contract through 2027 as the two sides try to work out a longer arrangement.
There were positive reports about Ravens defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike’s prospects for playing in 2026 throughout the offseason and General Manager Eric DeCosta provided another one on Thursday.
Madubuike missed all but two games of the 2025 season with a neck injury that required a surgical repair. During an appearance on 105.7 The Fan that was shared by the team’s website, DeCosta said that there’s optimism about Madubuike’s condition a couple of weeks before the Ravens open up training camp.
“I think everything looks to be pointed in the right direction, but you’re talking about a different type of injury, a different type of circumstance,” DeCosta said. “I’m excited about where Nnamdi is, and I think we’ll have more information in the coming weeks. In the next two weeks, I think we’ll have a lot more information that we’ll be able to share with people.”
Madubuike had 19.5 sacks and 50 quarterback hits over the 2023 and 2024 seasons and he had a pair of sacks in his brief time on the field last year. New head coach Jesse Minter would welcome the return of that kind of production to the defensive line as he tries to get the Ravens back into the playoffs.
Whenever quarterback Joe Flacco finally retires, he’ll have a reward waiting for him in Baltimore.
Flacco will be joining the Ravens Ring of Honor.
The first episode of the latest season of Quarterback on Netflix focuses on Flacco’s Week 1 return to Baltimore in the 2025 season, where he faced the team that made him a first-round pick in 2008. During a pregame conversation, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti makes it clear to Flacco that Bisciotti is ready to put the Super Bowl XLVII MVP in the Ring of Honor once Flacco finishes his playing career.
“I’m so happy you’re healthy and still pulling this off,” Bisciotti says. “I thought I’d have you up in my Ring of Honor about five years ago.”
“You called me five years ago,” Flacco responds.
“I did, didn’t I?”
“We can delay that a little bit,” Flacco says.
It’ll be delayed at least another year, as Flacco embarks on his 19th NFL season — and his eighth since leaving Baltimore after the 2018 campaign.
And he’ll be back in Baltimore again this year, as the backup to Joe Burrow with the Bengals.
The crowning achievement of Joe Flacco’s NFL career came at Super Bowl XLVII, when his Ravens won the championship and he was named Super Bowl Most Valuable Player. But while the accomplishment might matter to him, the ring and trophy that came with it does not.
Flacco revealed on the Netflix Quarterback documentary series that his MVP trophy has been scuffed over the years because keeping it pristine wasn’t a priority, as the trophy itself really never mattered to him. As for the ring, he said it means more to his children that they can put on their dad’s ring than it means to him.
“This is my Super Bowl MVP trophy,” Flacco said, showing the cameras how worn down it is. “It’s tarnished as heck. It’s been in my dad’s place, nobody’s touched this in 12 years, 13 years. These are things you think you’re going to care about a lot, and I guess the idea is, ‘That’d be cool, to have an office and put some things up.’ And then you ultimately don’t care about it. Like this ring. I think my kids like to look at it. I think that’s ultimately what it’s for.”
Ultimately, Flacco knows the Super Bowl itself means something to himself and his legacy, not the tangible objects that came along with it.
