Ravens waive veteran inside linebacker Jake Ryan
Before he even got to suit up for his first practice or let the ink dry on his contract, veteran inside linebacker Jake Ryan got the boot. He was waived by the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday in a move that makes the competition at the position heading into training camp next month—hopefully—a bit thinner and expresses their growing confidence in the pair or rookies that they drafted back in April.
Ryan agreed to a contract in principle with the Ravens the week of the draft and the signing was made official about a week later on March 4th. He was originally drafted in the fourth round of the 2015 draft by the Green Bay Packers out of Michigan in 2015. He played in 43 games for the Pack from 2015-2017 and missed the entire 2018 season after tearing his ACL in training camp.
He was a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2019 but spent the majority of the season on reserve/non-football injury list. He missed all but two games in the month of December before getting placed back on the list. In 45 careers games, Ryan has made 27 starts (all with the Packers) and recorded 213 total tackles, 15 tackles for loss, one sack, one forced, fumble, one recovery, three pass breakups, and eight quarterback hits.
The Ravens used a middle linebacker by committee rotation last season after losing four-time Pro Bowler CJ Mosely to the New York Jets last March in free agency and while the collection of Josh Bynes, Patrick Onwuasor, LJ Fort and others did an admirable job filling in, the need to upgrade at the position heading into this offseason was clear.
Bynes signed with the Cincinnati Bengals in free agency and Onwuasor became one of the latest former Ravens to defect to the Jets while Ryan was more of a depth move than a potential long-term answer at the position. The timing of the original announcement was probably the team scooping up some insurance before the mad scramble for mid-level veteran free agents that ensues after the draft.
Speaking of the draft, the Ravens were fortunate enough to land two potential day-one starters at the position in the first three rounds. In the first round, LSU’s Patrick Queen fell right into their laps at the 28th overall pick and in the third round they doubled down with Ohio State’s Malik Harrison. They have complementary skillsets that the coaching staff can’t wait to unleash and give the defense great flexibility and playmaking potential with Queens speed and Harrison’s physicality.
“Those two guys will kind of be roaming in there at those two linebacker spots, both base, and sub, and we’ll just see how much playing time they earn,” Harbaugh said of Queen and Harrison via the team’s official website. “We expect them to play a lot of football this year. We’re really fired up about those two guys.”
Ryan’s release doesn’t come with any cap casualties for the team since there was no guaranteed money in his deal and he never counted against the compensatory pick formula because the Jaguars declined his contract option for 2020. With their pair of rookies, Fort and former undrafted free agents Chris Board and Otaro Alaka, the Ravens have a solid and diverse group at inside linebacker.
