The situation with the Baltimore Ravens, the Las Vegas Raiders, Maxx Crosby, and Trey Hendrickson is absolutely absurd. And it only serves as a reminder that the NFL is king, no matter what time of year it is.
The Ravens have backed out of the Maxx Crosby trade with the Raiders, an extremely unpopular move to begin with, but they kept the villain arc going shortly after backing out of the trade by signing free agent pass rusher Trey Hendrickson to a massive four-year contract.
Now, the Ravens have Trey Hendrickson and their first-round picks. The rest of the league might be upset with them, but they'll have a chance to replenish the roster a lot better after losing a bunch of players in NFL Free Agency already. And the way they should invest that 1st-round pick (14th overall) is obvious.
Vega Ioane to the Ravens is back on after Maxx Crosby trade falls through
The Ravens already had issues on the interior offensive line last year at the guard positions, and now those issues could compound with the fact that center Tyler Linderbaum is off to the Raiders on the biggest contract for a center in league history.
The Ravens don't need their 1st-round pick in this year's draft to come in and sell a bunch of jerseys, but they need that first-round pick to help the guys who do. There's nobody at pick no. 14 overall who really makes more sense at this point than Penn State's Vega Ioane.
And frankly, that was the guy a lot of folks were also predicting would/should land with the Las Vegas Raiders once they acquired the pick. Ioane might be the best interior offensive lineman in this class, and we know exactly what the Ravens' identity is as a team: They are going to run the ball.
New offensive coordinator Declan Doyle is coming over from the Chicago Bears and Denver Broncos before that, where he learned very clearly how important elite offensive line play is. The Bears traded for Joe Thuney last year, and he might have been one of the best pickups of the entire offseason for any team.
The Broncos reshaped their offensive line starting in 2023 with big-money free agent acquisitions like Ben Powers and Mike McGlinchey.
The Ravens have to follow suit and invest in the offensive line with this 1st-round pick now that it's back in Eric DeCosta's war chest.