The NFL’s new league is less than a week away. With the legal tampering period scheduled to start on Monday, Baltimore will look to retool on defense while making cost-effective decisions.
All-Pro pass defensive tackle Justin Madubuike is the biggest concern this offseason after getting the franchise tag, but the Ravens must also navigate 26 looming free agents.
GM Eric DeCosta has clarified that he’s prepared to lose several key starters and retool via the draft with a handful of 2025 compensatory picks.
The formula is simple.
If you lose more unrestricted free agents than you sign, you are eligible for that many compensatory selections. What round they come is determined by how big their contract is.
DeCosta and other general managers can take advantage of the rule by signing players released before their contract expires. Those players don’t count toward the formula.
According to Over The Cap, plenty of players who can help the team and not detract from the formula will be available.
Here are 15 players Baltimore could sign that wouldn’t count against 2025 compensatory picks.
DB Jordan Poyer
Poyer finished the 2023 regular season with 101 total tackles, including 1.0 sacks, four passes defensed and one forced fumble over 16 games.
Bills are releasing All-Pro safety Jordan Poyer, per source.
Free-agent safety market grows. pic.twitter.com/nOcqJk1KA8
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 6, 2024
CB Keion Crossen
Crossen signed a three-year deal with Miami before the 2022 season and his release saves $3 million.
Crossen played in 16 regular season games for the Dolphins in 2022 and made 32 tackles while seeing time on defense and special teams. He had three tackles in their playoff loss to the Bills and then missed the entire 2023 season after being placed on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury in August.
Crossen has also played for the Patriots, Texans and Giants since entering the league in 2018.
CB Isaiah Oliver
The 49ers released Oliver on February 23, and the reserve cornerback could find a role quickly.
The move saved $2 million in salary cap space.
Oliver appeared in all 17 games last season but did not play a single down on defense in the postseason. He saw action on 35 special teams snaps.
He totaled 58 tackles, two passes defensed, one interception, and one fumble recovery in 2023.
DB Tracy Walker
Detroit recently cut the six-year NFL.
Walker started 43 out of a possible 79 games, totaling 398 tackles and three interceptions.
The 2018 third-round pick was one of two players in the NFL to accumulate at least 300 tackles and 15 special teams tackles from 2018 through 2021.
RB Mohamed Ibrahim
Ibrahim was placed on the Lions’ practice squad injured list in October due to a hip issue. He appeared in one game for Detroit during the 2023 campaign, logging six snaps on special teams as a rookie.
In his last season at Minnesota, Ibrahim earned First Team All-Big Ten and Second Team All-American honors after rushing for 1,665 yards and 20 touchdowns over 12 games. He broke multiple school records over his college career, including most career rushing yards (4,668) and career rushing touchdowns (53).
DB Rayshawn Jenkins
He started every game he played for the Jaguars, logging 101 tackles, a sack, two interceptions, and nine passes defensed in 48 regular season games.
Releasing Jenkins cleared over $5 million in cap space while leaving over $7 million in dead money.
OT Chukwuma Okorafor
Okorafor, 26, had been with the team since the Steelers drafted him in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft out of Western Michigan.
A native of Ibadan, Nigeria, Okorafor was a starting offensive tackle until midway through the 2023 season when Okorafor was benched in favor of first-round draft pick Broderick Jones.
Okorafor’s release saves the Steelers $8.75 million in 2024 salary cap space while incurring a $3.08 million dead cap hit.
DE Emmanuel Ogbah
The Dolphins released Ogbah, two years after signing him to a four-year, $65 million contract.
Ogbah signed with Miami in 2020 and posted 18 combined sacks in 2020 and 2021. However, a triceps injury limited him to just nine games in 2022.
Ogbah logged 5.5 sacks last season, but his release will save the Dolphins $13.7 million in 2024.
DB Jamal Adams
The Seahawks released Adams and Quandre Diggs and tight end Will Dissly on Tuesday, the team announced.
Adams, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, was set to make a nonguaranteed $16.5 million in 2024 and count $26.9 million against the salary cap — untenable amounts for a player who has been unable to stay on the field or get to the quarterback since his stellar Seattle debut in 2020.
Releasing Adams wipes the $16.5 million off the Seahawks’ books and the $17.5 million (also nonguaranteed) he was scheduled to make in 2025, the final year of his contract.
Over four years in Seattle, Adams missed 33 possible 67 regular-season games. He recorded 9.5 sacks (all in 2020), 19 quarterback hits, 22 tackles for loss, 11 passes defended and two interceptions.
RB Alexander Mattison
The replacement for Dalvin Cook, Mattison was unable to lead the Vikings rushing attack.
The 2023 campaign was Mattison’s fifth season with the Vikings and first as the team’s starter at running back. Mattison started 13 of 16 games played in 2023, recording 700 yards on 180 rush attempts (3.9 yards per carry) but did not score a rushing touchdown.
He added 30 receptions for 192 yards and three scores on a career-high 44-targets.
OL Mason Cole
Cole was the team’s starting center the last two seasons (2022-23). He started a total of 34 regular season games, 17 each season during that time.
He also started the Steelers Wild Card playoff game in 2023.
Eric Kendricks
The Los Angeles Chargers released linebacker Eric Kendricks on Tuesday, the team announced.
Kendricks signed a two-year, $13.25 million contract with the Chargers last offseason. He was due a $1.25 million roster bonus if he was on the roster on the third day of the new league year (March 15).
Kendricks, 32, was a captain in 2023 and finished second on the team with 117 tackles.
TE Jonnu Smith
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the tight end visited the Miami Dolphins on Tuesday and is negotiating a contract with the team.
The Atlanta Falcons announced they released Smith on Feb. 27 in a move that saved them $6.5 million towards the salary cap.
Smith played just one season with the Falcons, posting 50 catches for 582 yards and three touchdowns.
The catches and yardage totals were both career-high numbers for Smith.
TE Will Dissly
Dissly, Seattle’s 2018 fourth-round draft pick, logged 127 catches for 1,421 yards and 13 touchdowns in six seasons with the team. His release was also considered likely given that he was set to count for $10.1 million against the cap in the final year of his deal after catching only 17 passes last season.
DT Folorunso Fatukasi
Releasing Fatukasi, who turned 29 on Monday, saved the Jaguars $3.5 million against the cap, with $9.269 million in dead money.
Fatukasi signed a three-year, $30 million contract with $20 million guaranteed in 2022.
With the Jaguars, Fatukasi had 48 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 5 tackles for loss and 5 quarterback hits.
WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling
Valdes-Scantling had 63 receptions, 1,002 yards and three touchdowns in two seasons for the Chiefs, helping them win back-to-back Super Bowls.
LB Jerome Baker
Miami released the linebacker in the latest of several moves the Dolphins have made this offseason to regain financial flexibility.
Baker was the team’s third-round pick in 2018 and has started 82 games in his six NFL seasons.
The starting inside linebacker was entering the final year of a three-year, $37.5 million contract he signed in 2021; releasing him saves Miami $9.8 million against the salary cap this season.
DB Quandre Diggs
Diggs was acquired in a 2019 trade with the Detroit Lions.
He was selected to three straight Pro Bowls (2020-22) with the Seahawks and had 18 interceptions in his time with the team.
The 31 year old was set to count for $21.3 million against the cap in the final year of his contract.
He posted a career-best 95 tackles last season and had 324 in 72 games with the Seahawks.
CB J.C. Jackson
Jackson played in nine games (six starts) for the Patriots last season and ended the year on the reserve/non-football injury list because of what his agent described as “mental health issues.”
In all, Jackson has played in 77 career regular-season games, totaling 26 interceptions, although just one of those came over the past two seasons.
DB Eddie Jackson
The 30-year-old Jackson has been regarded as one of the NFL’s top safeties and was a 2018 All-Pro selection, which accompanied one of his two Pro Bowl nods. However, battling a foot injury, he missed ten games over the past two campaigns.
A foot injury shortened each of the safety’s past three seasons, and his $18.1 million cap hit was the third-highest on the Bears roster.
Jackson, 30, has had a career that includes 15 interceptions, 44 passes defended, 10 forced fumbles, and 459 tackles. He is tied for third in franchise history with six career defensive touchdowns, five of which came in his first two seasons.
