Ravens keep suffering free-agent losses, but Derrick Henry represents one big gain.
For the Baltimore Ravens, the highs and lows that accompany the first week of NFL free agency were encapsulated in a roughly 90-minute span on Tuesday when they got a running back they’ve long coveted and lost an inside linebacker they would have loved to keep.
Up until that point, the Ravens had experienced mostly free-agent departures during the two-day negotiating window. The shine of a late Monday morning news conference, touting the four-year, $98 million contract extension signed by ascending defensive lineman Justin Madubuike, had faded, replaced by the inevitability of Baltimore’s airtight salary-cap situation and a high-quality free-agent class.
Running back Gus Edwards, who had a team-high 13 touchdowns last season, was the first to depart, joining Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman with the Los Angeles Chargers. Safety Geno Stone was next, taking his AFC-leading seven interceptions in 2023 to Cincinnati to play for a divisional rival.
By Monday evening, wide receiver/return specialist Devin Duvernay (Jacksonville Jaguars), 17-game starting left guard John Simpson (New York Jets) and cornerback Ronald Darby (Jaguars) had joined the exodus. When reserve linebacker Del’Shawn Phillips, the team leader in special teams snaps, agreed to a deal with the Houston Texans Tuesday morning, that increased the tally of departures to six, while Baltimore’s only move was getting part-time starting linebacker Malik Harrison to re-sign.
Yet, just after 12:30 p.m. ET Tuesday came news that felt like four and a half months in the making and overshadowed everything else that had happened for Baltimore: Derrick Henry was set to be a Raven.
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- The Ravens nearly traded for the Tennessee Titans star running back before the Oct. 31 trade deadline in 2023. There was a point when the Ravens were reasonably confident they’d land a player affectionately known as “King Henry” in exchange for draft capital. However, the Titans got cold feet and decided not to move the face of their franchise, who was a pending free agent.
General manager Eric DeCosta, however, knew he’d get another shot at wooing Henry. With the running back market sufficiently and surprisingly picked through, and most of the teams comfortable with their lead backs, the Ravens and Henry finally found each other. The two sides agreed to a two-year, $16 million deal that includes $9 million guaranteed and an additional $4 million in incentives.
Just like that, the Ravens had their lead back and Lamar Jackson, the game’s most dynamic running quarterback since he became a full-time starter in 2018, would share a backfield with the league’s most proficient running back during that same span. The Ravens, who have finished with the NFL’s top-ranked running game in three of the past five seasons while taking a running back-by-committee approach for most of the years, were adding a four-time Pro Bowl selection and former Offensive Player of the Year.
It was a development in the negotiation window worth celebrating for Ravens fans, who once watched Henry almost single-handedly stiff-arm their top-seeded team out of the AFC playoffs following the 2019 regular season.
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But the excitement for many was short-lived. Less than 90 minutes later came news that arguably Baltimore’s top remaining unrestricted free agent was primed to sign with its fiercest rival.
Inside linebacker Patrick Queen, the Ravens’ first-round pick in 2020 who was named to his first Pro Bowl last season, was heading to the Pittsburgh Steelers on a three-year deal and joining a defense that has given Jackson more problems than any other. There have been plenty of players that have represented both teams during their careers, but it’s hard to come up with a more prominent example, given Queen’s age (24), popularity in the locker room and importance to Baltimore during his young career.
It’s not that the Ravens expected Queen to stay. There was no evidence that they even made him a contract offer since the 2023 season, Queen’s best, had ended. His early 2024 departure seemed close to inevitable after Baltimore acquired Roquan Smith before the 2022 trade deadline and made him the league’s highest-paid middle linebacker a little more than two months later. Paying two inside linebackers at or near the top of the market always felt too prohibitive to building a deep and balanced roster, especially when you already have the second contract for a franchise quarterback on your payroll.
But the team may not have anticipated that Queen, who was part of just one Ravens win in eight tries against the Steelers, was going to join Baltimore’s biggest rival.
“You’re dead to us, Queen,” Jackson joked on X. “Good luck, you’re dead to me.”
Jackson went with the same approach a day earlier when Stone agreed to terms with the Bengals. Predictably, many Ravens fans didn’t find Queen’s selection of his new team very funny. They would have preferred Queen reuniting with his former Baltimore defensive coordinator, Mike Macdonald, in Seattle, where Macdonald is now the head coach.
Patrick Queen, who agreed to a deal with the Steelers, has started every game for the Ravens since they drafted him in the first round in 2020. (Kathryn Riley / Getty Images)
Perhaps, the totality of the team’s losses over the past two days — long snapper Tyler Ott became the eighth former Raven to find a new team when he agreed to terms with the Washington Commanders Tuesday afternoon — added to the collective angst.
