The Baltimore Ravens have been relatively quiet in NFL free agency, choosing to watch from the sidelines as the biggest names, like their very own Kelechi Osemele, dashed off after big-money deals. Instead, GM Ozzie Newsome and head coach John Harbaugh waited the market out, pick over the second-tier players available and fill what few holes were left on their roster after last season's disappointment with a handful of shrewd signings like Eric Weddle, Benjamin Watson and Mike Wallace.
But not everything was taken care of by Newsome. And while Baltimore owner Steve Bisciotti offered a strong vote of confidence for Eugene Monroe as the team's starting left tackle for 2016, a recent report makes it sounds as though Newsome and Co. would jump at the chance to add talent to the position and, if possible, upgrade on Monroe.
Per the report, the Ravens are "monitoring" players like Denver's Ryan Clady and New York's D'Brickashaw Ferguson as potential replacements for Monroe.
"He is our left tackle going into next year," Bisciotti said, while speaking to reporters at the NFL's owner's meetings last week. "You have to know what you get out of the guy, and Eugene has been a pretty durable player these last couple years. But nobody works out harder than he does. I just feel bad. I think a lot of the speculation about us moving on from him clearly comes down to the fact that he's been hurt a lot, because he's played pretty well when he's been in there."
Monroe, talented and capable though he may be, is not, despite Bisciotti's comments, a durable player. He's missed 20 games of his Ravens tenure and started and finished just six contests in the lost 2015 season.
Despite being just 28, Monroe has the body and maybe the attitude of a player several years his senior. That Newsome and Co. would want to upgrade him isn't surprising - that Bisciotti would throw all of his support behind a guy considered a potential cap casualty is.
Interestingly though, it doesn't sound like the Ravens will be trading for either Clady, the former starting left tackle for Peyton Manning and the Broncos, or Ferguson, who has manned the blindside in New York for every game since he was drafted in the first-round of the 2006 NFL Draft.
Clady, 29, would seem a more attractive option from an age and ability standpoint. Ferguson is now 32 and entering his 11th NFL season. But Ferguson has never missed a start, while Clady lost almost the entirety of his 2013 season only to then miss all of the Super Bowl-winning 2015 campaign.
Both players have two years remaining on their deals at cap hits that the Ravens likely consider prohibitive - Clady ($10.1 million and $10.6 million) and Ferguson ($14.1 and $14.3).
It's a virtual certainty that Newsome won't want to take on either of those contracts in trade, but if the Broncos or Jets decide to cut either player loose or are willing to do a cheap deal in order to unload them and the player is then willing to restructure, it wouldn't be surprising to see Clady or Ferguson become a Raven this offseason.
