Stanley, Nuk, & More: A Look at the Ravens’ Initial Roster Moves of 2025

The Ravens took care of their most pressing piece of offseason business over the weekend by ensuring that Ronnie Stanley would protect Lamar Jackson’s blind side in 2025. The team was then quiet on Monday, but sprung into action on Tuesday, re-signing Patrick Ricard, adding DeAndre Hopkins, and releasing Marcus Williams and Arthur Maulet.

Let’s break down Baltimore’s first moves of the new league year.

Signings

LT Ronnie Stanley

New contract: $60 million over three years ($20M APY, $44M fully guaranteed, $5.8M 2025 cap hit)

Acquired via: 2016 first-round pick (#6 overall), signed 5-year extension in 2020

2024 cap hit + role: $17,168,250 for 1,089 snaps at LT

Analysis: This was Baltimore’s biggest offseason priority by far, and there was never any doubt that Eric DeCosta would find a way to get the deal done. Stanley’s new contract came in just above my projection with a similar amount and structure of guaranteed money.

Will Ronnie Stanley Re-Sign in Baltimore?

His $20 million APY looks even better after Dan Moore Jr. signed with the Titans for $21 million, a clear overpay in a scarce market. Stanley still gave the Ravens a handsome hometown discount, as Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer indicated that the Commanders and the Patriots were willing to offer upwards of $24 million per year. The Chiefs would have matched the Ravens’ offer while still giving Stanley a clear shot at a Super Bowl. Instead, he chose to stay home in Baltimore, where he is respected in the locker room and an excellent fit in Todd Monken’s offense. Stanley will only count for $9.9 million against the 2026 cap and his $24.1 cap hit in 2027 may even become reasonable if the cap continues to skyrocket.

FB Patrick Ricard

New contract: $2.9 million over one year ($2.9M fully-gtd, $1.44M 2025 cap hit)

Acquired via: 2017 UDFA, signed 2-year extension in 2019, re-signed in 2022

2024 cap hit + role: $5,155,000 for 435 snaps as a versatile blocker

Analysis: Project Pat is back for more pancakes! He combined with Derrick Henry to form the league’s heaviest backfield in 2024 and also spent plenty of time as an inline blocker. He’ll continue that role in 2025, likely with a ~40% snap share similar to the last two years in Monken’s system. The departure of Malik Harrison freed up the 4-year Qualifying Player benefit (explanation here) to be used on Ricard, allowing the Ravens to pay him $2.9 million in cash while accounting for roughly half that on the 2025 cap. He’ll make less than his last contract, but the Ravens may have looked into a reunion with Kyle Juszczyk if Ricard didn’t accept the veteran benefit deal. This also signals that Baltimore will go forward on a year-to-year basis with Ricard and potentially look for a younger replacement in the future.

WR DeAndre Hopkins

New contract: $5 million over 1 year (up to $6M, other details unknown)

2024 stats: 56 catches on 80 targets for 610 yards and 5 touchdowns

Last team + contract: Titans, $26 million over 2 years (trade to Chiefs at 2024 deadline)

Analysis: After a few close calls and no shortage of fan demand, the Ravens have finally acquired DeAndre Hopkins. He’s no longer a perennial Pro Bowler, but he still brings a proven pedigree to Baltimore’s receiver room. Hopkins has size, too; his 13 contested catches in 2024 were more than any Ravens receiver, per Pro Football Focus. He’ll be 33 when the season starts, so $5 million is an appropriate value that Hopkins could certainly outplay with a solid season. Crucially, he’s coming off two fully-healthy seasons, unlike a few of the other available veteran WRs. The one-year length doesn’t preclude the Ravens from drafting another young wideout, either. It’s entirely possible that Hopkins doesn’t thrive in Baltimore, but there’s no denying that this is an exciting signing of a long-coveted player.

Cuts

S Marcus Williams

Cap savings: $2.1 million in 2025

Dead money: $6.7 million in 2025, $6.7 million in 2026

Analysis: Dead money is never ideal, but this is the best the Ravens could do after Williams’ spectacular, somewhat inexplicable regression last season. His five-year, $70 million contract felt great in 2022, but he missed 13 games due to injury in his first two years in Baltimore. In 2024, he fell apart before being benched alongside Eddie Jackson with Ar’Darius Washington and Kyle Hamilton finishing the season at safety. Williams will likely have to take a ‘prove-it’ deal in 2025 in the hopes of signing another multi-year deal before he turns 30.

CB Arthur Maulet

Cap savings: $2.25 million in 2025

Dead money: $250,000 in 2025

Analysis: This is an interesting one. Maulet impressed as the Ravens’ slot corner in 2023 and looked fantastic in training camp before suffering the first of multiple injuries that limited him to three games in 2024. A $2.5 million cap hit is relatively inexpensive for a veteran nickel who can also play special teams, but Maulet will be 32 when the 2025 season starts. He wasn’t in the team’s long-term plans, and they needed the cap space. They’ll also need to add secondary depth this offseason. Maulet will likely also be seeking a chance to re-prove himself in 2025.

Remaining Moves

The Ravens had just $5.58 million in cap space before re-signing Patrick Ricard and adding DeAndre Hopkins, per RSR’s Brian McFarland. Here’s where they are today:

Finally! The teams adjusted Cap is the league wide Cap ($279.2M) plus the carryover of any excess 2024 Cap space ($2,136,843) plus/minus 2024 inventives/other adjustments (-2,898,276). I had been estimating -$2.95M for the adjustment, so it was a slight bit less. https://t.co/LjLi2Cjpbo

— Brian McFarland (@RavensSalaryCap) March 12, 2025

The team still needs to place an RFA tender on Ar’Darius Washington. That will cost another $3.26 million for the right-of-first-refusal tender, though a multi-year extension would result in a lower 2025 cap hit.

The Cowboys signed pending RFA safety Markquese Bell to a three-year, $9 million deal with $6.2 million fully-guaranteed and a maximum value of $12 million. That could be a blueprint for Washington’s deal, as both safeties originally went undrafted and struggled with injuries to start their careers. Here’s what that could look like for the Ravens:

Washington’s 2025 cap hit would be $1 million less than the RFA tag, and he’d be under contract for two more years. In return, he gets an extra $2 million in guaranteed money, along with the opportunity to earn another $1 million per year in incentives. Washington played 64.17% of the Ravens’ defensive snaps in 2024, so Baltimore could add NLTBE incentives worth $250,000 each for reaching 65%, 70%, 75%, and 80% snap shares. Baltimore could also use a more aggressive structure with void years and/or an option bonus to reduce Washington’s 2025 cap hit even more.

It’s theoretically possible to structure the contracts of Hopkins and Washington to stay under the 2025 cap by the start of the new league year at 4:00pm ET, but the Ravens will need to make room for other signings and their rookie class anyway. An extension for Derrick Henry was made more expensive by Saquon Barkley’s new deal, but that could free up to $6.2 million in space. Trading Mark Andrews before March 17 would wipe his $4 million roster bonus and $7 million salary off the ledger, but the Ravens may not want to move on from their longtime TE without appropriate compensation. Instead, they could ask to add void years to his contract to drop his 2025 cap hit as low as $9.1 million. That would leave $7.8 million of dead money in 2026, but as it stands, the Ravens are paying Andrews that money anyway.

After All-Pro seasons, extensions for Lamar Jackson and Marlon Humphrey may take too long to negotiate with a hard deadline on cap-compliance. A unilateral restructure would open up enough space to move forward, even with another free agent or two if the Ravens can find the right player at the right price. DeCosta will likely want to reserve some space for his annual summer signings as well.

The post Stanley, Nuk, & More: A Look at the Ravens’ Initial Roster Moves of 2025 appeared first on Russell Street Report.

Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2025/03/12/street-talk/ravens-signings-cuts-stanley-hopkins/