The Ravens closed out the original Cowboys Stadium by beating Dallas on a Saturday night in December 2008. The Ravens will now be the visiting team for the Cowboys’ first-ever international home game.
The NFL announced on Friday night that the Ravens and Cowboys will play in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, September 27. It will be a Week 3 game, televised by CBS at 4:25 p.m. ET.
Most international games currently land in standalone windows. This one won’t, but it likely will be the top national game that afternoon — likely generating the biggest audience of the day.
In 2024 and 2025, the Brazilian game came in Week 1. This year, the 49ers and Rams will instead play in Australia to get things started.
Those are the only two games with both teams known. The other 270 will be announced in the next few weeks.
Ravens Clips
The Ravens have selected guard Olaivavega Ioane out of Penn State at No. 14 overall in the 2026 NFL Draft.
One of the top offensive linemen in the 2026 draft class, Ioane appeared in 44 games with 32 starts for the Nittany Lions.
He spent all of his time at left guard.
Listed at 6-foot-4 and 320 pounds, Ioane will be an important part of the five up front for Baltimore and quarterback Lamar Jackson.
The Ravens have made an expected move to keep one of their top players for another year.
According to multiple reports, Baltimore has exercised receiver Zay Flowers’ fifth-year option, putting him under contract through 2027.
He is set to earn $27.298 million guaranteed in what is now the last year of his rookie deal.
Flowers, the No. 22 overall pick of the 2023 draft, was the first Ravens wideout in team history to make the Pro Bowl in 2024. He followed that with an even better season in 2025, recording 86 catches for 1,211 yards with five touchdowns, earning his second Pro Bowl berth.
In his 50 career games with 48 starts, Flowers has caught 237 passes for 3,128 yards with 14 touchdowns.
Ravens defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike appears likely to play this season.
Madubuike suffered a serious neck injury in Week Two of last season, and there were concerns that it could end his career. But Madubuike had neck surgery last week that has his doctors expecting him to play this season, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
That news comes after a report last month of “growing optimism” within the Ravens that Madubuike would return.
When healthy, Madubuike is one of the best interior pass rushers in the NFL. He’s also one of the most expensive defensive tackles in the NFL, with two years left on a four-year, $98 million extension. His 2026 base salary of $22 million is fully guaranteed, and he has a salary cap hit of $30 million.
Given that investment, the Ravens would love to see Madubuike recover to the point where he can contribute this season. That looks like it will happen.
The Ravens re-signed wide receiver Xavier Guillory, the team announced Monday.
Guillory was with the team last year during training camp and the preseason.
He broke his collarbone in the 2025 preseason finale against the Commanders after making three catches for 17 yards in the exhibition season.
The Ravens originally signed Guillory as an undrafted free agent out of Arizona State in 2025.
He caught 22 passes for 339 yards and five touchdowns in 13 games for the Sun Devils during the 2024 season.
The Ravens are expected to draft a wide receiver this week, with DeAndre Hopkins still a free agent and Tylan Wallace now in Cleveland.
For decades, the best college football players left school after three years, as soon as the NFL would take them. That’s changing. Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta doesn’t see it as a good thing.
The NCAA now allows players to make money off lucrative name, image and likeness deals, and the NCAA has also become more lax about granting players extra years of eligibility. That means players are waiting to turn pro, and DeCosta says he sees more older players who have less room for growth in the NFL.
“There is a changing dynamic we’ve seen with the draft,” DeCosta said. “Players are older. The average age of the players is not necessarily older but there are older players in the draft. We’re seeing more 24 and 25-year-old players. That’s because of covid initially, and now because of NIL, guys are getting paid to stay in. That’s problematic for us because if guys are coming in older they’ve probably got less upside. They’re not three-contract players in some cases, they’re two-contract players. And in some cases they’ve got more injuries. They’ve been playing college football longer so they’ve taken on more injuries.”
DeCosta, who has been with the Ravens for 30 years, says the team has more players who will turn 25 as rookies than ever before.
“We’re trying to get a handle on that,” DeCosta said. “It’s tough for us to assess what that means. It’s something we’ve seen over the last three years, this will be the third year, 2024, 2025 and 2026. We might have had 4 percent of our players on the draft board 24 1/2 or older prior to 2024, now that number is up to 18 percent. So we’ve seen a 14 percent increase in older players on the draft board. That’s something that we don’t really understand fully what that means. I don’t think it’s a good thing, certainly. Historically we’ve tried to draft younger players when we can. That’s something we feel strongly. But now we’ve got 18 percent of the draft board that’s over 24 years old. So that’s going to change the way we target players.”
College football players are now professionals, making money and choosing their own career paths in a way they never had before. It’s a changing landscape in college football, and that changes the NFL as well.
Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers says he’s looking forward to a different approach to practices with new head coach Jesse Minter, who won’t break the team down the way Flowers says John Harbaugh did.
Flowers said on the 4th and South podcast that Harbaugh put the Ravens through contact practices as often as NFL rules allow, and that by the end of the season players were exhausted from the wear and tear on their bodies.
“Full pads all the time,” Flowers said. “However many practices in pads you can get, every single one. We’re doing one-on-ones in Week 17. Week 17, we’re doing one-on-ones, everybody out there, we’re tired, we’re still going.”
Asked how the players manage that workload, Flowers answered, “We don’t.”
“That’s why we had a lot of injuries,” Flowers continued. “Because of how we practiced, how we went. The load was heavy.”
Flowers said that in his first conversation with Minter, who was a Ravens assistant before Flowers was drafted, he asked for reassurance that the team would be more cognizant of taking care of players’ bodies.
“Yeah, I talked to the new coach,” Flowers said. “He worked with Harbaugh in 2017, so he knows how it was, how we worked with Harbaugh. So he says, ‘You’re going to get your work, but it’s going to be a little easier on your body. You’re going to be fresher for the game.’ That was the first talk I had with him: How’s practice going to look?”
Ravens players will be glad to hear Flowers’ comments. Giants players may be in for a rude awakening.
The Ravens unveiled the most extensive changes to their uniform sets on Thursday, with PSL holders getting the first look at “The Next Flight” collection.
“Evoking a raven primed to attack, the uniforms carry the Baltimore name, hints of the flag, and signature phrases, weaving in the team’s history while building a look for the future,” the Ravens said on their website. “The Ravens threaded the needle between maintaining their signature look while introducing new, eye-catching elements.”
The Ravens have two new helmets: A matte black helmet, the “Darkness Helmet,” features black talon stripes and a two-toned front-facing Ravens logo with piercing red eyes, also seen above the player tunnel at M&T Bank Stadium.
The team also changed its “Purple Rising” helmet, which the Ravens first introduced in 2024 with their alternate purple uniform. it now has the primary Ravens logo, which will allow it to be worn with additional uniform combinations. The helmet still features a metallic-purple-painted shell with gold talon stripes down the middle and a gold facemask.
Designed to emulate the iridescence of a raven’s feathers, this color-shifting material radiates purple in the light, revealing darkness when it fades. Each jersey number now includes a midnight purple stroke, while the iridescent color also appears in the shield patches on the sleeves, the back collar of three jerseys and along the talon stripes across all pant varieties.
The pattern featured on the collar depicts a raven’s wings spread wide in a threat display.
Instead of a straight line down the pants, the new pant design imitates the claws of a raven, comparable to the stripes on the top of the helmets. They also have a diagonal cut to represent the Calvert crest seen in both the Baltimore and Maryland flags.
The new collection has altered jersey numbers, with the drop shadow removed from all jerseys. The gold trim has been replaced with the midnight purple stroke in all three primary jersey colors.
The sleeve shields have evolved, with each of the three shield patches featuring midnight purple.
The team’s jersey has always had “Ravens” on the front of the jersey under the collar and above the number. Now the team’s white jerseys, usually worn for road games, will say “Baltimore” instead.
The back collars of the purple, black, and Purple Rising jerseys also include “Baltimore,” meaning every jersey the team wears will now showcase the name of the city.
“Play Like a Raven,” “Purple Rising” or “Darkness There and Nothing More” will be stitched into the inside of the collar.
The NFL has announced the names of the current and former players that will take part in next week’s draft by announcing second-round picks.
The list includes players associated with all 32 teams, including Cardinals running back James Conner. Conner has strong ties to the Pittsburgh area after playing for the Steelers and attending Pitt, which likely made him an easy choice as the Cardinals’ representative.
Former Bears tackle Jimbo Covert, former Cowboys running back Tony Dorsett, former Chiefs defensive lineman Bill Maas, current Vikings tackle Brian O’Neill, former Jets running back Curtis Martin, and former 49ers punter Andy Lee are other Pitt alums who are set to take part.
The hometown team will be represented by four players. Former Steelers Jerome Bettis and John Stallworth will be joined by Joey Porter Sr. and Jr. next Friday.
The other players taking part and their team affiliations appear below:
Falcons: Michael Turner
Ravens: Mark Ingram
Bills: Shane Conlan
Panthers: Jake Delhomme
Bengals: Ken Anderson
Browns: Phil Dawson
Cowboys: Drew Pearson
Broncos: T.J. Ward
Lions: Calvin Johnson
Packers: John Kuhn
Texans: Billy Miller
Colts: Pat McAfee
Jaguars: Paul Posluszny
Raiders: Matt Millen
Chargers: Shawne Merriman
Rams: Tavon Austin
Dolphins: Dwight Stephenson
Patriots: Deion Branch
Saints: Marques Colston
Giants: Osi Umenyiora
Eagles: Brian Westbrook
Seahawks: Cliff Avril
Buccaneers: Ronde Barber
Titans: Jeffery Simmons
Commanders: Mark Rypien
Reports last month indicated that the Ravens have increased optimism about defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike will be able to return from the neck injury that kept him out for the final 15 games last season, but the team has offered no concrete word about his outlook for the coming season.
That didn’t change at Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta’s press conference on Wednesday. While DeCosta didn’t provide clarity about the veteran’s chances of playing this fall, he did say that any uncertainty will not be a major factor in how the team approaches the draft next week.
“I would say that Nnamdi’s status doesn’t really affect us that much in terms of like what we’re going to do in the draft at the defensive tackle position,” DeCosta said. “So, as you know, we just try to rank the board, and then whoever the best player is at that point in time. Certainly, we would love to get a young defensive lineman if we can. I think it’s important to try and do that every single year if we can. It’s an important position. We want to get better up front, certainly, on both sides, offense- and defensive-line-wise. It’s a priority for us, I think, and getting a younger player in there who’s a talented younger player would be ideal, and it just depends on how the board falls and who’s available at that time.”
Travis Jones, Broderick Washington, John Jenkins, Aeneas Peebles, C.J, Okoye, and David Olajiga are the other defensive linemen currently on the roster in Baltimore.
