BALTIMORE, Md. — There is one certainty that comes with every NFL off-season.
Change.
The Ravens roster will look different when the footballs fly once again in the fall.
We’ve already seen the Ravens cut ties with some players, including running back Mark Ingram, and there are other big decisions to be made. Linebacker Matthew Judon is set to become an unrestricted free agent. He was on the franchise tag this season.
"I don’t know what’s going to happen next year. I don’t know what’s going to happen in my future," he said. "The past five years have been a hell of a ride."
"I want everybody back but you can’t get everybody back but I want Matt Judon back," said Head Coach John Harbaugh. "Matt had a great year. [He's an] all-around player. He rushes. He plays the run. He drops. He plays special teams."
Reliable veteran receiver Willie Snead’s contract is up.
"We endured a lot this year but I wouldn’t want to do it with any other team," he said. "I love these guys in this locker room and these last three years have been an incredible journey."
Defensive end Yannick Ngakoue will be a free agent. He underwhelmed after he was acquired mid-season from the Vikings. Harbaugh said don’t judge him by his 2020 Ravens role.
"Going forward, if he chooses and we work it out and he’s here, it will be a little different because he’ll be here from the beginning and he’ll get a lot more snaps than he got," said Harbaugh.
On the coaching side Harbaugh expects both Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman and Defensive Coordinator Don Martindale to return. He also expects Steve Saunders back. The strength and conditioning coach served a month-long suspension during the season for his role in the team’s COVID-19 outbreak. The suspension was for failing to report coronavirus symptoms and for not following protocol within the facility.
"Steve, I guess, it appears that he’s the guy who everybody thinks about, but we all had issues – players and coaches and staff – with the protocols, at times. Everybody in the league did, when masks were down, or guys were too close to one another," said Harbaugh. "And every player, and every coach, and every scout, and every administrator would be, ‘quote unquote,’ guilty of that.
"Steve, he came back, and he was great. He went to everybody, apologized to numerous players, apologized to coaches. He felt really bad about it. And he felt like he just really needed to make sure everybody knew that he just wanted to do better, and he didn’t want to put anybody in that position and learned a lot from it – and all those different things – and I really appreciated him for doing that. He went right back to work, and the guys went right back to work with him. They know he’s great at what he does. We’ve been a team, in the last four years, that has had … We haven’t had a lot of injures, and there’s a reason for that, and our strength and conditioning program is a big part of that. So, he hit the ground running when he got back, for the last couple weeks of the season."
Defensive line coach Joe Cullen is on his way out. He is reportedly the new defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
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