Yanda’s ‘glowing review’ opens door
When Kevin Zeitler was listening to recruiting pitches during free agency, he got a sense for how different teams wanted to run their offense, how their coaches wanted to teach and where their franchises stood competitively.
But amid a handful of offers, one voice might’ve helped push the Ravens’ three-year, $22.5 million offer over the top: former All-Pro guard Marshal Yanda’s.
After the New York Giants released Zeitler, their starting right guard and top offensive lineman, as a cost-cutting measure last week, the Ravens started to show interest. Yanda passed along a message to Zeitler’s agent: “Hey, reach out if you have questions.” So Zeitler did, calling up the longtime stalwart whom the Ravens never sufficiently replaced after his retirement last offseason.
“He gave a glowing review of the Ravens and how it’s great to be an O-lineman there,” Zeitler said during a virtual news conference Friday. “So it was a nice selling factor, hearing it from his point of view, and it was great.”
There were other draws, of course. The Ravens run the ball more than any team in the NFL, and Zeitler is no different from Yanda or any other lineman currently in Baltimore. He likes pushing defenders backward.
“Every O-lineman you ask, ‘Hey, what do you want to do?’ They all want to be run blocking,” he said. “So that usually means you have the lead or you’re controlling the game or dominating up front. And the Ravens have established that that’s what they’re going to do, and I have a hard time believing they’re going to change that up now.”
He was also happy to be on Lamar Jackson’s team for once. In 2018, Jackson and the Ravens beat Zeitler and the Browns, in what was Zeitler’s final Browns game, to clinch a playoff berth. Last season, the Ravens easily handled the Giants in Baltimore. Zeitler also knows Ravens quarterbacks coach James Urban from his days with the Cincinnati Bengals, and he got to know kicker Justin Tucker and defensive tackle Brandon Williams on CBS’ NFL talent show, “Most Valuable Performer.”
Spurned by JuJu
Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, one of the NFL’s top remaining free agents, is re-signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he announced Friday. But they weren’t necessarily his best offer.
According to the NFL Network, Smith-Schuster turned down a one-year, $9 million offer from the wide receiver-needy Ravens, with another $4 million available in incentives. The Kansas City Chiefs’ one-year offer was worth $8 million, with $3 million available in incentives. The Steelers? Just $8 million in 2021.
“This is my home, they’re gonna need a wrecking ball to take me outta here!” Smith-Schuster tweeted Friday. “PITTSBURGH I LOVE YOU, LET’S GO !!!!! ”
Smith-Schuster, 24, averaged a career-low 8.6 yards per catch last season, but he has three 900- plus yard seasons since entering the NFL in 2017. With Dez Bryant and Willie Snead IV not expected to return in free agency, the Ravens don’ t have a player under contract who’ s reached that threshold even once.
A handful of potential starting wide receivers remain unsigned — Kenny Golladay, T.Y. Hilton, Sammy Watkins and Antonio Brown are available — but the market has thinned considerably since the NFL’s legal tampering period opened Monday.
The Ravens have had one of the NFL’s least productive wide receiver rooms since quarterback Lamar Jackson entered the NFL; last season, they were the only team with under 2,000 receiving yards at the position (137 catches for 1,729 yards ). Marquise “Hollywood” Brown has shown flashes of being a potential No. 1 receiver, and Miles Boykin and Devin Duvernay are both former third-round picks with impressive athleticism, but the team lacks a proven possession wide receiver.