The Ravens are more pot-committed than ever in terms of payroll for this upcoming season.
It’s a brave new horizon for owner Steve Bisciotti and the rarest of instances in which he is spending in the top 10 of the NFL two straight years. But as we pointed out when deconstructing where the money is being spent, there are some cautionary tales within. It’s where the bulk of the money is being spent that could prove problematic, as the highest contracts for this team in 2026 – the ones earning $10M or more per year– are going to aging players, many of whom have been in decline in recent years.
There are plenty of options for this exercise, and reasons to believe that Ronnie Stanley ($22M) might be nearing the end and hitting the wall and we have hard time buying Mark Andrews will be worth essentially the same new money guaranteed at signing as Isaiah Likely, who left Baltimore as a free agent.
But there is one contract that looks especially egregious right now, especially considering the player’s absence through most of the offseason program perhaps speaks to some underlying tension here.
In full context, and full disclosure, Marlon Humphrey’s contract aged pretty damned poorly in 2025, and they is little reason to believe he will perform like anything close to a $19.25M corner in 2026. Or even, really, half that.
The Ravens already put themselves in a bind here by executing his early-offseason roster bonus for $4M; he opted to stay away from voluntary offseason activities. If they allow him to play for this bloated amount, he would be the ninth-highest paid corner in the NFL on cash basis in 2026 per Spotrac.com).
That’s kinda shocking considering, by a lot of metrics, he was like the 70th-best coverage guy on the league last year, allowing big plays at a staggering rate. If you need a brief reminder of jut how bad Humphrey was last year, this will do the trick.
Of course, the fact the team has done nothing to address the corner position this offseason save for drafting a small slot guy in the fifth round seems to bode pretty well for Humphrey. Like most of their highest paid guys, 2027 almost certainly beckons for them finding a replacement. And as able and brilliant as head coach Jesse Minter is as a defensive coordinator, getting $19M out of this corner next season would require a magician’s touch.
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