Tight end Isaiah Likely’s hopes for a breakout 2025 season with the Ravens were hindered by a preseason foot injury, but he hasn’t lost sight of that goal as he gets closer to becoming a free agent for the first time in the NFL.
Likely told Jon Gruden on Gruden Goes Long that he didn’t feel like himself until around Thanksgiving because of the foot issue that caused him to miss the first three games of the season. He finished the year with 27 catches and he said that his message for his agent was that he wants to sign his next contract with a team that allows him to move to the next level.
“With my agent, what I told him was I just want to be able to blossom,” Likely said. “The last couple years, I’ve had a great vet in Mark Andrews, where he taught me everything to be a star-caliber tight end to the point where it’s like now I just want to be on a team where I can get out there and help a quarterback, help a team be able to put as much points on the board as possible. So just giving that information to my agent and letting him go to the teams and be an agent.”
Likely isn’t ruling out a return to Baltimore and said he considers it home before adding that “business is business” when it comes to a team that recently signed Andrews and wide receiver Rashod Bateman to new deals. They also have wide receiver Zay Flowers due for his first extension and quarterback Lamar Jackson set for another one, so there may be too many mouths to feed for the Ravens to clear out enough space for Likely.
Ravens Clips
Every year, the coaching carousel spins first. Then, the quarterback carousel whirls.
It’s coming soon. Veteran quarterbacks will be cut, traded, signed. Teams will reshuffle their depth charts with changes at the most important position on the team.
In a recent item about the potential contract prospects of Packers (for now) backup Malik Willis, some of the veteran options were listed. Here’s a look at the various teams that will have decisions to make regarding veteran quarterbacks currently on the roster, or to be added once the new league year begins.
Dolphins: They have a decision to make about Tua Tagovailoa. The Dolphins owe him $54 million in 2026. The two-year (or one-year, if they choose to rip the Band-Aid in one motion) dead-cap charge for cutting Tua would be $99.2 million. They need to decide what to do with Tua, and whether to add a veteran — like Willis. They’d surely love to find a way to trade Tua, even if it means selling some of the cap charge to another team by attaching a draft pick to Tua’s contract. And since they owe him every penny of his 2026 pay, they could choose to keep him around. (That would fully guarantee another $3 million for 2027, however.)
Jets: Justin Fields likely will be cut. Half of his $20 million salary for 2026 is fully guaranteed. They’ll likely be looking for a veteran, possibly on a short-term basis, to run new coordinator Frank Reich’s offense.
Steelers: They’re willing to wait for Aaron Rodgers, which would take them out of play for a veteran in the early days of free agency. Willis or Cousins could be intriguing options, if they find out before March 11 that Rodgers won’t be returning.
Browns: Who knows what they’ll do? Deshaun Watson is under contract for another year, at $46 million. Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel are, too. Will the new half-regime led by coach Todd Monken want a veteran from the outside?
Ravens: In the unlikely event the Ravens trade Lamar Jackson, they’d need a new quarterback — presumably one with starting experience.
Colts: Daniel Jones, who is recovering from a torn Achilles, likely will be back. Anthony Richardson has one year left on his rookie deal; he’s under contract for 2026 at guaranteed pay of $5.385 million. If Jones leaves, the Colts would need another veteran.
Raiders: They owe Geno Smith $18.5 million for 2026. Another $8 million becomes fully guaranteed on March 13. Would someone trade for him at $26.5 million? He could be cut. The Raiders also could keep him as the bridge to Fernando Mendoza, if they make him the first overall pick.
Vikings: They want a veteran who’ll compete with J.J. McCarthy. That could make it harder to attract a veteran who’ll want a commitment that he’ll be QB1. Based on McCarthy’s performance and durability in 2025, however, most veteran quarterbacks with reasonable confidence would believe they can win a fair and square competition. If they believe the competition will be both fair and square.
Falcons: They haven’t committed to Michael Penix Jr. being the Week 1 starter, and for good reason. Penix is recovering from his latest ACL tear. Cousins could, in theory, return after being released. That seems unlikely. Another veteran is possible for the new-look football operation led by Matt Ryan, Ian Cunningham, and Kevin Stefanski.
Cardinals: The moment Kyler Murray was placed on injured reserve with a foot injury that was supposedly healing, the message was clear — it’s over for Murray in Arizona. The Cardinals owe him $36.8 million for 2026, with another $22.55 million in 2026 pay and 2027 salary hitting the books early in the 2026 league year. If not traded, he’ll be cut. Willis could be an option for the Cardinals. Rodgers potentially could be a target, too.
With the Scouting Combine beginning soon, the carousel will start moving. Coaches and General Managers who take the podium on Tuesday or Wednesday will be asked pointed questions. Agents will meet with teams.
The Scouting Combine gives NFL teams a chance to watch draft prospects work out and it also gives teams a chance to start seeing what might happen when free agency gets underway in March.
One situation to watch involves Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum. The Ravens did not pick up Linderbaum’s option because is would guarantee him $23.4 million in 2026 and the cost of a franchise tag for an offensive lineman would be even higher, so Linderbaum is likely to be available in free agency if the Ravens can’t come up with a deal that keeps him from weighing his options.
During an appearance on the Inner Circle podcast, Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta acknowledged that the team has some heavy lifting to do if they want to keep Linderbaum in Baltimore.
“We’ve got some work to do on Tyler Linderbaum’s contract,” DeCosta said. “He’s a free agent. We strongly hope to have him back. He’s a great player for us and a great leader.”
Chiefs center Creed Humphrey has the highest average annual salary at the position at $18 million and Linderbaum will likely be aiming to top that in a deal with Baltimore or anyone else.
When new Ravens offensive coordinator Declan Doyle emphasized the importance of offseason workouts, he didn’t single out any one player.
He didn’t need to.
Doyle undoubtedly was talking about, and to, quarterback Lamar Jackson.
“We would expect [players] to be here and, certainly, it is voluntary,” Doyle said. “But, if you want to say that you’re going to win a championship, you want to say that you have championship standards, and those are your goals and your expectations — certainly that’s going to take work, that’s going to take collaboration, and that’s going to take the beginning of building the relationship with their coaches [and] other players starting off this next regime on the right foot.”
The comment doesn’t entirely mesh with the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which says this: “No Club official may indicate to a player that the Club’s offseason workout program or classroom instruction is not voluntary.”
And while Doyle added that the offseason program is “voluntary,” the full sentence makes the point. They “expect” the players to volunteer.
The voluntary nature of the offseason workouts is a collectively bargained fiction. Still, plenty of players take advantage of the ability to stay away. That’s why teams use workout bonuses or other contractual clauses to induce players to volunteer.
For Jackson, his contract includes $750,000 in annual workout bonuses from 2024 through 2027. He has already given up $1.5 million by not participating in the minimum number of voluntary practices over the past two offseasons.
As the Ravens approach a new league year that will see Jackson’s cap number mushroom from $43.5 million to $74.5 million, the Ravens hope to extend the deal. They also hope, based on Doyle’s comments, that Jackson will choose to show up for the team’s offseason program.
The clock is ticking on a new contract. Owner Steve Bisciotti has said that, without one, the Ravens will exercise their prerogative to restructure the deal and slash the cap number. That likely won’t do much, if anything, to persuade Jackson to not give up another $750,000 in what will be a critical offseason for a brand-new coaching staff. A new, market-level deal could.
Through it all, no one knows what Jackson truly thinks about the new coaching staff. The same as no one knows what Jackson thinks about Doyle applying not-so-subtle pressure to a quarterback who has the power to walk away in two years.
And that’s the bottom line, even if plenty of Ravens fans don’t want to acknowledge it. Jackson can choose to make $104 million (or $102.5 million by skipping the voluntary offseason program) over the next two season and become a free agent. Only a new contract will keep that from happening.
New Ravens offensive coordinator Declan Doyle is 29 years old.
That currently makes him the same age as quarterback Lamar Jackson, though Jackson turned 29 in January and Doyle will turn 30 in early March.
But Doyle has been coaching since 2016, having first served as a student assistant while at Iowa before becoming an offensive assistant for the Saints under head coach Sean Payton in 2019.
From there, he became the Broncos’ tight ends coach again under Payton in 2023 before being hired as the Bears’ offensive coordinator under head coach Ben Johnson last year.
Now he’s in his first job as a full-time play-caller and feels like being close in age with his quarterback can be an advantage.
“I think first of all, it starts with any of our players, it’s the relationship that you build,” Doyle said in a Wednesday press conference, via transcript from the team. “And so, it actually is a little bit easier for me to connect with guys because we are the same age. We grew up in the same world, and I’ve kind of had that experience every step of the way throughout my coaching journey.
“This is going to be my 11th year coaching, and I’ve pretty much been younger than every guy in the room I’ve been in. I’ve always been too young for every job I’ve ever had. And what I’ve noticed is that it really doesn’t matter. Knowledge is power, and if they feel like you can help them and they feel like you can help accelerate their career and our goals as a team, guys are willing to listen, guys are willing to be taught and to grow and to work together. And so, it is a collaboration. I do think it gives me a little bit of a unique advantage, just in the fact that we kind of come from the same world.”
As for his budding relationship with Jackson, Doyle said he and the quarterback have spoken a few times over the last several weeks.
“One of them was in the interview process,” Doyle said. “I was able to sit with him for, I don’t know, over an hour on a Zoom call while he was down in Florida. We talked about a lot of different subjects, but kind of go through his time in the past year and kind of what his vision is for what he needs to be able to operate at the highest level. I really wanted to see if we were compatible and if that was a fit. You’re trying to figure out what the coaching structure is going to look like in that way.
“And so, I got a chance to visit with him then and have had a chance to visit with him a few more times since then. [We’ve] exchanged some texts, and I am certainly very excited about the caliber of player he is, but also just in all the conversations, his willingness to listen, his hunger to learn, and his hunger to grow. I think he does — he’s a guy with a growth mindset. He’s played at a really high level, and still, I think that he wants to continue to work and feels like he can get better. And so, [I] and the rest of the staff are really excited to chase that with him.”
Four years ago, Malik Willis was favored to be the first quarterback in the draft. He wasn’t.
At pick No. 86, Willis went third among all quarterbacks, behind Kenny Pickett and Desmond Ridder.
It never really clicked for Willis in Tennessee, and he became expendable after two seasons. The Packers obtained Willis for a seventh-round pick not long before the start of the 2024 season.
While he has been the clear No. 2 to Jordan Love for the last two years, Willis has made the most of his limited opportunities.
In 11 appearances with four starts for the Packers, Willis completed 70 of 89 passes (78.6 percent) for 972 yards (10.92 yards per attempt), six touchdowns, and no interceptions. His passer rating was 134.64. He also has 261 rushing yards on 42 attempts (6.2 yards per carry) for three touchdowns.
Yes, the sample size is small. But, yes, the impact has been significant.
And he’s less than three weeks away from free agency.
Where he goes, and what he’ll get, becomes one of the more intriguing questions of free agency. The coming class of free-agent quarterbacks is headlined by Aaron Rodgers and Daniel Jones. One is 42, and the other is recovering from a torn Achilles tendon. Both are generally expected to return to their current teams (Steelers and Colts, respectively).
Other current free-agent options for quarterback-needy teams include Russell Wilson, Marcus Mariota, Joe Flacco, Tyrod Taylor, Pickett, Zack Wilson, and Jimmy Garoppolo.
The Kirk Cousins contract adjustment from January guarantees he’ll be cut on March 11 or 12, so he’s essentially a free agent. Kyler Murray and Tua Tagovailoa likely will be released, unless a trade can be worked out for either or both. The Jets also could move on from Justin Fields. And Mac Jones looms as a potential trade option, if the 49ers are willing to move him. (They say they’re not, but ‘tis the season for posturing.)
Then there’s Geno Smith, who already has $18.5 million fully guaranteed from the Raiders in 2026, with the remaining $8 million vesting on the third day of the 2026 league year. He could be available for trade, or he could be cut. (The Raiders also could keep him as the bridge to Fernando Mendoza, if they make him the first overall pick in the draft.)
Willis’s numbers are undeniable. Is he ready to be a full-time starter? And is a team ready to give him a starter-level contract?
As starter-level contracts go, the range is broad. The market tops, generally speaking, at $60 million per year. The bottom of the veteran starter market, as of last year, was $10.5 million for Russell Wilson (who started only three games). Fields has a $20 million average, and he received $30 million guaranteed on a two-year deal. (Fields also was eventually benched, after being publicly bad-mouthed by his thin-skinned owner.)
Sam Darnold, with only one viable suitor, received $33.5 million per year on a three-year deal from Seattle, which has quickly proven to be a steal. (In hindsight, he should have signed a one-year deal, like Jones did in Indy. With no other options, however, it wouldn’t have been easy to insist on a one-year commitment.)
Where will Willis fit? Much of it depends on the number of teams that pursue him. The Dolphins, who are now run by a pair of former Packers employees, are a team to watch — if they can wedge Willis’s contract into the cap wreckage of the Tua contract. The Cardinals, where Packers coach Matt LaFleur’s brother, Mike, is now the head coach, could make sense, too.
The Steelers could be an option, but they seem to be content to wait for Rodgers to make a decision. Which would take them out of play in the early days of free agency. The Vikings will be looking for a veteran to compete with J.J. McCarthy.
And don’t rule out the Ravens. If (and it’s not a big if but it’s still on the radar screen) they trade Lamar Jackson, they’ll need a quarterback, too.
Other teams that will or at least could be looking for a veteran quarterback include the Jets, Browns, Colts (if Jones leaves), and Falcons.
Someone surely will want Willis. The more teams that want him, the more money he’ll make.
The process will accelerate next week in Indianapolis, where every team will meet with every agent who represents every looming free agent in an annual swap meet of untraceable tampering that happens with no electronic footprints or popcorn trail.
Our guess is that Willis will land between $20 million and $30 million per year — unless a land rush emerges. If that happens, who knows? $35 million? $40 million? (While $40 million sounds like a lot, it’s still only 66.6 percent of the current market limit.)
Or maybe Willis will have the leverage and willingness to insist on a one-year deal that pays him a relatively modest salary but gives him another shot at free agency in 2027. (A no-tag clause would be even better, if not virtually impossible to finagle on a one-year deal.)
However it goes, it’s a story that isn’t getting the kind of attention it should, or that it will once teams start jostling for a chance to see whether Willis can do on a full-time basis what he did as a part-timer for the Packers.
His numbers suggest that he could be not just a capable starter but a potential superstar. With true franchise quarterbacks so hard to find, why wouldn’t someone roll the dice on the possibility of landing a player who could become one of the best quarterbacks in the league?
Ravens offensive coordinator Declan Doyle would like to see all of the team’s veteran players on hand for the voluntary portion of the team’s offseason program this year.
Doyle is installing a new offense and he was asked about that participation during a press conference on Wednesday.
“We would expect [players] to be here and, certainly, it is voluntary,” Doyle said, via the team’s website. “But, if you want to say that you’re going to win a championship, you want to say that you have championship standards, and those are your goals and your expectations — certainly that’s going to take work, that’s going to take collaboration, and that’s going to take the beginning of building the relationship with their coaches [and] other players starting off this next regime on the right foot.”
Quarterback Lamar Jackson has not been a frequent part of that voluntary work in past seasons and Doyle’s comments will ensure that his approach to this offseason’s program will remain a focal point in Baltimore.
Anthony Weaver opened a Wednesday press conference by saying he saw a lot of familiar faces in the crowd at the Ravens’ facility because it was only a couple of years ago that he was ending his first run as a member of Baltimore’s coaching staff.
Weaver was the assistant head coach and defensive line coach under John Harbaugh, but left to become the Dolphins’ defensive coordinator when the Ravens tabbed Zach Orr for that job ahead of the 2024 season. Weaver returned to become the defensive coordinator after Jesse Minter was hired to succeed Harbaugh as the team’s head coach in January.
That choice was the topic of a question for Weaver during the press conference. Weaver drew head coaching interest this cycle and he was asked what drew him back to Baltimore to serve as a coordinator who won’t be calling the team’s defensive plays.
“This job is hardly a consolation prize,” Weaver said. “I’d be lying to say I wasn’t disappointed that I didn’t get a head job. Ultimately, I just came back to ‘Why am I doing this in the first place?’ Selfishly, I’m in it to try to win a Super Bowl. To be part of a group that’s forever. . . . .Secondly, I’m here to serve. I’m here to serve players and help them reach whatever God-given potential they have. I don’t need to be a head coach to do that. I can certainly do that from this seat. I’m incredibly proud to be a defensive coordinator in Baltimore because I think the defensive coordinator in Baltimore is like the main defensive coordinator in the National Football League.”
If Weaver is able to help the Ravens to a Super Bowl, it wouldn’t do anything to hurt his chances of one day moving up the ladder to a head coaching position even if his job responsibilities are a bit different than they were in Miami. Given how shaky the Ravens defense was for much of last season, it remains to be seen if that’s a realistic goal for the immediate future in Baltimore.
Declan Doyle’s first chance to call offensive plays in the NFL will come in a very high-profile situation.
The Ravens hired Doyle as the offensive coordinator on new head coach Jesse Minter’s staff and that means Doyle’s play calls will be executed by a two-time MVP quarterback in Lamar Jackson. Doyle is less than a year older than Jackson, which makes for a very different dynamic than we’ve seen so far in Jackson’s career and Doyle acknowledged that “trust is going to be earned through time” on both sides of the relationship.
Jackson dealt with injuries in 2025 and was less of a dual threat than he’s been in the past, but Doyle said he thinks there are still bigger things ahead of Jackson.
“When you watch the tape, there’s not really any throws that he can’t make,” Doyle said, via the team’s website. “He’s very arm-talented. I think there’s even a higher ceiling to his game. You’re looking at a guy that’s been the MVP twice. And yet I still think just like all our guys, he still has room to grow. It’s a surreal opportunity, and yet it’s one that I feel very ready to do.”
Doyle is the fourth offensive coordinator in Baltimore since Jackson joined the team and the results under the first three have been stronger on the individual front than for the team. Finding a way to marry those two things will be the major test for Doyle as he moves forward with Jackson and the Ravens.
The Dolphins are in a full blown Two Days After St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
The latest to go is receiver Tyreek Hill. And it’s the least surprising.
Even without the significant knee injury he suffered on September 29, this was coming. Even without the firing of G.M. Chris Grier and coach Mike McDaniel, this was coming.
Hill was due to make $35 million in 2026, the final year of his contract. He had a $5 million roster bonus that was due on the third day of the new league year.
He was always going to be released. He was always going to be available on the open market.
Now, for the first time, he’ll be free and clear to sign with anyone.
The question is whether Hill will be signed before he’s fully and completely healthy and, if so, whether his contract will include protections based on Hill eventually passing a physical. Sometimes, a player has enough leverage (like receiver Chris Godwin a year ago) to avoid such limitations on his pay.
Hill turns 32 on March 1. The best of his best days are likely behind him. If healthy, however, he’s still pretty damn good.
The most obvious potential destination is Kansas City. Last year at the Super Bowl, Hill expressed some regret for leaving in the first place. With Eric Bieniemy back as the offensive coordinator, the Chiefs could decide to bring Hill back, too. Which may have the added benefit of getting tight end Travis Kelce to return for another season.
The Chargers could become a potential destination, given McDaniel’s arrival there as offensive coordinator. They desperately need effective weapons for quarterback Justin Herbert — and a 32-year-old Hill would instantly be better than anything else they currently have.
Other teams with needs at the position should give Hill a look, including (to name a few) the Bills, Ravens, Steelers, Packers, Jets (who tried to trade for him four years ago), Patriots, and Seahawks (who need a strong, consistent complement to Jaxon Smith-Njigba).
