Ravens Deemed Trade Deadline Winners Despite Standing Pat on Deadline Day
The only deal made by a Baltimore professional sports team on trade deadline day was the Orioles reuniting with reliever Andrew Kittredge in a trade with the Chicago Cubs.
While the Ravens stood pat on deadline day, General Manager Eric DeCosta did make three trades over the past four weeks, and there's much to like about all of them. Though Baltimore didn't make as big a splash as some other teams, ESPN’s Ben Solak listed the Ravens among the trade deadline winners.
Solak noted that last month's trade, in which the Ravens acquired safety Alohi Gilman and a 2026 fifth-round pick from the Los Angeles Chargers in exchange for outside linebacker Odafe Oweh and a 2027 seventh-round pick, immediately paid dividends for Baltimore.
"Since Week 6 – when Gilman entered the starting lineup – the Ravens are second in points allowed per game, seventh in EPA per play and ninth in success rate," Solak wrote. "Gilman has been solid. He forced a fumble and recovered another against the Dolphins last Thursday, but his greatest value has been in the unleashing of Kyle Hamilton."
Bringing in Gilman has allowed Hamilton to play closer to the line of scrimmage, where he thrives.
"Before the Gilman trade, Hamilton spent over 70% of his snaps playing safety, according to NFL Next Gen Stats positional data. That means he was off the line of scrimmage and in the middle of the field, playing in space," Solak wrote. "After the Gilman trade, Hamilton is back where he belongs. He has lined up at a safety position only six times in three weeks (3.4% of his snaps). He has been in the box on 56.9% of his snaps and has spent another 36.2% at slot corner.
"The ultimate Swiss Army knife, Hamilton can be an outside linebacker-esque edge setter on first-and-10, a suffocating slot corner on second down and a devastating blitzer mugged up in the A-gap on third down – all while Gilman and rookie safety Malaki Starks occupy the defensive backfield."
Bolt Beat’s Jason Reed said that while the trade benefited both teams – Oweh has four sacks in four games with the Chargers – the Ravens were "the big winner."
Reed reasoned that the Ravens acquiring versatile outside linebacker Dre'Mont Jones from the Tennessee Titans on Monday for a 2026 conditional fifth-round pick gave them a replacement for Oweh without costing much draft capital.
"The Ravens wound up with the same number of fifth-round picks, added Gilman, who has thrived in Baltimore to this point, and replaced Oweh with someone who is on the same tier," Reed wrote. "The only outgoing piece of capital that wasn't recouped is the 2027 seventh-round pick. Baltimore essentially made a lateral move at edge rusher and added Gilman for a future seventh-round pick. That's exceptional value."
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler expressed a similar opinion.
"How Baltimore played the plus-minus game was noteworthy," Fowler wrote. "So, while the Ravens' trades weren't flashy, they signaled sound decision-making from a team that usually makes sound decisions."
Regarding the addition of Jones, Solak wrote: "While I like the theory of that trade, we haven't seen Jones take a snap in a Ravens uniform yet. … Baltimore has been thin along the defensive line all season, and Jones will provide snaps on both the edge and in the interior. But even if that's the ceiling on the acquisition, and all he provides is depth, the Ravens are still deadline winners for the impact of the Gilman trade."
The Ravens' other trade, which saw them send cornerback Jaire Alexander and a 2027 seventh-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles for a 2026 sixth-round pick over the weekend, also has been praised by pundits such as ESPN’s Seth Walder, who said the move allowed the Ravens to "gain a little draft capital for a player who wasn't playing for them anyway."
The addition of veteran pass rusher Carl Lawson, who was signed to the practice squad two weeks ago, also should not be overlooked when assessing how the Ravens have improved their roster. Lawson could be elevated for Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings.
Jeff Zrebiec Says Ravens Trading for Quinnen Williams Was Never Realistic
There was speculation leading up to the deadline that the Ravens could make a play for New York Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, but The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec said such a splash move was never going to happen because of the draft capital it would require.
The three-time Pro Bowler ended up being traded to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a 2026 second-round pick, a 2027 first-round pick, and defensive tackle Mazi Smith.
"The Ravens were never going to be involved in a deal that required them to give up their top future assets for a well-compensated veteran," Zrebiec wrote. "Particularly not mere months before they face a major salary-cap crunch that will almost certainly force them to say goodbye to a few of their roughly two dozen pending unrestricted free agents whom they'd prefer keeping."
Zrebiec said it was business as usual for the Ravens at the deadline and no one should be surprised.
"Nobody who has even a slight awareness of how the organization does business expected the Ravens to trade multiple Day 1/2 draft picks for a player," Zrebiec wrote. "For all the fans' cries for the team to go all in, there's still the matter of dollars and sense. Adding another big contract would have been prohibitive ahead of an offseason where the Ravens will want to pay center Tyler Linderbaum, nose tackle Travis Jones, tight end Isaiah Likely and several others.
"Quarterback Lamar Jackson's rising salary-cap number — it goes up to $74.5 million over the next two seasons — also makes the Ravens' early draft picks more important than ever. Baltimore will badly need to add talented young players on affordable contracts to balance the team's top-heavy salary structure."
Should Ravens Have Made More Moves?
Zrebiec said that while the Ravens made "a few solid and selective additions while not sacrificing any future assets," it's fair to question whether they should have done more.
"It seemed a reasonable expectation for the Ravens to at least add offensive or defensive line depth at the cost of a Day 3 draft pick or two," Zrebiec wrote.
The Baltimore Sun’s Brian Wacker shared that opinion, writing that "it was surprising that Baltimore did not address its needs on the interior defensive line or along the offensive line, particularly at guard."
The Baltimore Sun’s C.J. Doon said it wouldn't have been wise to overpay for Williams like the Cowboys did, "but surely there was a starter-level interior defensive linemen to be acquired somewhere … right?"
Perhaps. Or perhaps not, which Doon acknowledged.
"It's easy to sit back and say the Ravens should have been more aggressive to repair a beat up and underperforming roster during Lamar Jackson's prime, especially when the needs were so obvious along the trenches," Doon wrote. "But rival front offices know what the Ravens need, too, perhaps making a fair deal hard to put together.
"The Ravens have always preached 'right player, right price,' and for the most part, those logical transactions don't happen at the deadline. You have to pay to play, and the Ravens are still weighing the future and health of the organization above any immediate win-now moves. That's both admirable and frustrating for a fan base with such high expectations."
Derrick Henry Backs Jackson's Decision to Remove Locker Room Games
It's a safe bet that no one had "ping pong" on their Ravens headline fodder bingo card before the start of the season, but it did indeed become a talking point when it was reported two weeks ago that a ping pong table and other recreational staples were removed from the locker room after the Ravens' loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 4.
Jackson later confirmed that the removal of the entertainment came upon his request in an effort to keep everyone focused on the task at hand – winning football games, not playing games.
Running back Derrick Henry said on ESPN's "The Rich Eisen Show" that he is fully on board with Jackson's initiative.
"Yeah, we needed it," Henry said. "That's what we needed to focus [on]. We can do all of that ping pong stuff later. We've got a job to do. … I was a hundred percent behind it."
Henry agreed with Eisen's suggestion that the adversity of a 1-5 start has sharpened the Ravens, who are on a two-game winning streak.
"I think it's prepared us for the rest of the season," Henry said. "We got some of the kinks out early. Some guys went through some injuries, and I think the bye week and us having another mini-bye week has helped guys get rested, everybody refocused, refreshed, and ready to take it week by week. Being 1-0 every week, that's the focus."
