The Ravens aren't in the business of shipping out good players. Mark Andrews is certainly a good player.
That doesn't mean, however, his future in Baltimore is guaranteed.
The Ravens have found success with another tight end, Isaiah Likely, and the fashion in which Andrews performed in Baltimore's season-ending playoff loss to Buffalo -- a game in which Andrews crucially fumbled away possession and dropped what would have been a game-tying two-point conversion in the game's final minutes -- combined with the $11 million in cap space occupied by Andrews in 2025 have motivated many to believe he may be wearing a different uniform before long.
Remaining as coy as possible with little more than a week to go before the 2025 draft, general manager Eric DeCosta didn't outright commit to retaining Andrews when speaking with reporters Tuesday.
"I never know what's going to happen, and I would never want to say this or that, but I can tell you this: Mark Andrews is a warrior, and he's played his butt off for us, and his competitiveness, his talent, his attitude [and] his leadership is so valued here," DeCosta said, via team transcript, of the three-time Pro Bowler and 2021 first-team All-Pro selection. "He's a great player, and we're in the business of keeping as many great players as we can, so there's always a lot of unpredictability with the draft. You just never know. I don't think we've traded many of our own players. Have we ever made a trade during the draft where we traded one of our players?"
To answer DeCosta's question: Yes, the Ravens have traded a notable player during the draft. They shipped receiver Marquise Brown to Arizona during the first round of the 2022 draft in exchange for a pick that was packaged for the selection that eventually became center Tyler Linderbaum. But DeCosta clarified he had actually agreed to that trade at the start of draft week in 2022, managing to keep it under wraps until the first round began.
Moving Andrews during the draft would be an unusual act, then, and if John Harbaugh has his way, Andrews isn't going anywhere. The coach told reporters at the Annual League Meeting that he's been in contact with the tight end, who reportedly had his $4 million roster bonus picked up by the Ravens with the passage of the fifth day of the new league year in March.
Essentially, that date served as a de facto deadline to move Andrews in order to maximize financial savings. Baltimore didn't do so, increasing the chances Andrews would remain with the team in 2025.
It's not a guarantee, but judging by Harbaugh's comments, it'll take some convincing to sell Harbaugh on the idea the Ravens are better off without the seven-year veteran.
"Yes, we've been in contact, back and forth," Harbaugh said in March. "It's not like guys want to hear from me every day, any of them. 'Coach, you're calling me again?' But, Mark is in a good place. He's working really hard. I do fully expect him to be playing for us next year. He's just too good a player.
"Obviously, with any player, there's always that -- probably any player -- it's just coaches [and] players ... It's the National Football League. That's part of the deal, with things happening, so I never could say anybody ... but Mark would be one of the few guys I would expect to be here, so we'll see what happens. My plans are that we've got Mark, we've got Isaiah [Likely], we've got Charlie [Kolar, and] we've got Pat Ricard all in place doing all those jobs."
Baltimore is well stocked in the running and passing game and would survive just fine without Andrews, but moving him quickly would overlook the valuable role he's played in the evolution of the Ravens' offense since the arrival of quarterback Lamar Jackson. For a healthy portion of Jackson's career in Baltimore, Andrews was his most productive and reliable target in the passing game. Yes, the Ravens have graduated to a modern passing game that utilizes a number of different pass-catchers -- including the blossoming of wideouts Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman -- but they likely never reach this point without the contributions of Andrews.
It sounds as if the Ravens are aware of this reality and won't willingly part with a consistently productive player like Andrews just to save a small chunk of cap space -- regardless of how cavalier DeCosta delivers his answers with the draft approaching.
