Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith will either re-sign with the team prior to free agency or hit the open market on March 10th.
Without knowing what attention Smith might draw from other teams should he be given the option to test the free agency, the powers to be in Baltimore are worried he might possibly drive up a price tag which the Ravens do not necessarily want to pay moving forward.
Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome, who has expressed interest in retaining Smith, indicated recently that the team wouldn’t break the bank to re-sign him.
We have a history of retaining our players, especially players that have been productive. But also, we have a history of allowing our players to go out and maximize themselves in the market and go and play for other teams.
Ravens’ owner Steve Bisciotti shared a more open attitude as it relates to Smith and a potential evaluation of the money game.
Do you hope that Torrey doesn’t break the bank out in the open market so we can get him for our number? That’s a hard thing to say. I care about the kid, I want to maximize his earnings,” he said. “… some of the numbers thrown out there we can’t match. We don’t have that kind of space…
However, it would appear if Smith is interested in anything near what Miami Dolphins’ wide receiver Mike Wallace is collecting, that he might move on from Baltimore. Wallace signed a five-year, $60 million contract with the Miami Dolphins back in 2013.
Bisciotti further elaborated:
The difference between what we can pay Torrey and what he gets on the open market, umm, Mike Wallace got $10 million. I don’t think anyone thinks that was a good deal. And so there is always a team that has lots of money that wants to bring in playmakers and those guys are going to get those deals.
This leads to the conclusion that the Ravens need to find out exactly what type of a number Smith has in mind. Obviously this will be a fine line for the Ravens to draw over the next few weeks.
Since entering the NFL in 2011, Smith has tallied 213 catches for 3,591 yards and 30 touchdowns in four seasons.
As it relates to the Ravens, they are currently just $2.8 million under the cap. The team would need to re-work some veteran deals and potentially release Haloti Ngata in order to even compete for Smith’s services on the open market.
Photo: USA Today