OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Baltimore Ravens continued a busy second wave of free agency, striking deals Friday with two former first-round picks in pass-rusher Shane Ray and wide receiver Michael Floyd.
Floyd signed with the team Friday, it was announced. Ray’s deal is pending a physical, a source told ESPN. Both are expected to be one-year deals. This comes one day after the Ravens brought back Pernell McPhee to help last year’s top-ranked defense get to the quarterback.
Pass rush and wide receiver are considered the two biggest needs for the defending AFC North champions. Before they added Ray and McPhee, the only player currently on the Ravens’ roster with more than seven career sacks was Matthew Judon (19).
Floyd will add competition to an extremely young wide receiver group, which had only three wideouts who had caught an NFL pass. The 29-year-old Floyd, the 13th overall pick in the 2012 draft, is on his fifth team in as many years.
He had 10 catches for 100 yards and one touchdown last season for Washington.
The Ravens lost Za’Darius Smith and Terrell Suggs, their top two sack leaders, via free agency this offseason. Baltimore had shown interest in Justin Houston and Ezekiel Ansah before they signed elsewhere.
Ray’s time with the Broncos, which began with such promise, ended on a sour note, as he was a game-day inactive for the final three games of the 2018 season.
He played just 33 percent of the Broncos’ defensive snaps last season, finishing with one sack. That came on the heels of 2017, when Ray had three surgical procedures on his wrist before going on injured reserve after 11 games.
Ray, who turns 26 on Saturday, has had just 26 tackles and two sacks in 19 games over the past two seasons.
His vocational life changed plenty as soon as Denver drafted Bradley Chubb with the No. 5 overall pick in 2018. Chubb was quickly put into the starting defense, opposite Von Miller, during training camp, and there were few snaps left behind.
“I still have a lot of football left in me,” Ray said after the season. “I think some of my best football is still in front of me.”
Ray, a first-round pick (23rd overall) in 2015, will have to prove whether those wrist surgeries have robbed him of the ability he showed in 2016, when he had 48 tackles and eight sacks in part-time duty. After that season, he was expected to team with Miller as the Broncos’ top pass-rushing tandem following DeMarcus Ware’s retirement.
ESPN’s Jeff Legwold contributed to this report.
Source : ESPN
