The Ravens have traded rookie fifth-round draft pick Shaun Wade to the New England Patriots for a pair of future draft picks, a deal first reported by The Athletic. In exchange for Wade, the Ravens will receive a seventh-round draft pick next year and a fifth-rounder in 2023.

Wade, who turns 23 next month, had a quiet training camp as a rookie and struggled to find a role in a deep group featuring Marlon Humphrey, Marcus Peters, Tavon Young, Jimmy Smith and Anthony Averett. Chris Westry has outperformed Wade in training camp, and Westry and Nigel Warrior were both battling Wade for what figured to be a final roster spot at cornerback.

Head coach John Harbaugh has acknowledged that the Ravens face tough decisions in the secondary as they prepare to trim the roster to 53 players by Aug. 31 at 4 p.m.

“It’s a great problem to have,” Harbaugh said last week. “It’s a problem you work very hard to have.”

Former Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome was fond of saying, “You can never have too many corners,” and current GM Eric DeCosta has echoed that, but there was no way to hold on to all of them on the initial 53-man roster.

Essentially, rather than let one of them go for nothing, DeCosta recoups a pair of future draft picks.

Wade had been viewed as a potential first-round talent after his junior season at Ohio State, where he excelled as a slot corner. He didn’t hold up as well as an outside cornerback in 2020, and he saw his draft stock drop.

Not long after being drafted, Wade had said he dealt with injuries and a death in the family in 2020, which affected his performance, and he acknowledged that his draft slide was frustrating.

He said he was eager to display his “first-round talent” on the field for the Ravens. Now, he’ll try to do that in New England instead.

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Bo Smolka

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