That this was even a conversation merely reflects how far removed from reality we are when it comes to the subject.
In his season-ending press conference Feb. 4, Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta confirmed that team intended to pick up wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown’s fifth-year contract option for the 2023 season. And you could tell how much consternation went into the decision, since DeCosta was forced to throw out this unwieldy answer to the question.
“I do.”
Wow. You have to hope the general manager has been able to get at least a little sleep of late while struggling with this decision.
To be clear, this is not a knock on the person who asked the question. The Ravens needed to make the decision formal even if there was no public debate. But the existence of that public debate has been at best ponderous and more realistically preposterous.
In what world would it have made sense for the Baltimore Ravens to NOT pick up Brown’s fifth-year option? The option is set to cost the team $12.9 million for the 2022 season. There are 20 wide receivers in the NFL whose contracts are currently higher than $12.9 million per season. The next three highest receiver contracts in terms of average annual value belong to Corey Davis ($12.5 million), Curtis Samuel ($11.5 million) and Nelson Agholor ($11 million).
The list is likely to grow a good bit beyond 20 before the 2022 season begins. While I would stop short of agreeing with DeCosta that the number is a “bargain” for the team, the evidence is nearly overwhelming that the number is quite fair for a productive player.
It’s just that, well, we’ve never been all that reasonable when it comes to discussing Brown. I mean, even Joe Rogan fanatics think we’re a bit delusional about the subject.
Hollywood Brown is … a good football player. He’s been increasingly productive in each of his three NFL seasons and may have been in line for a wildly successful 2021 campaign had everything not gone to hell for the Ravens’ offense in the second half of the season. Brown has played a significant role in some of the best offenses in team history (despite those units being more run dominant) and has, in particular, proven to be a quality downfield threat.
So why would we ever think the Ravens wouldn’t choose to pick up his fifth-year option? How in the world would that make even the slightest lick of sense? And more directly, why do we talk about him as if he were Breshad Perriman?
That’s the infuriating part about all of this. There is a reasonable conversation to have about Brown! We all know that in addition to his productivity and moments of brilliance, Brown has also mixed in some untimely drops and occasional critical mistakes. After three years in the NFL it is of course fair to say that those things are a part of his professional football story. But such issues are certainly not unique to Brown, and many players who suffer those errors don’t offer nearly the level of productivity that Brown does.
Our judgment of Brown is less sensical because it feels as though we’re really trying to vent our frustration about what Brown could have been. We are all quite aware that the list of receivers selected after Brown (the first receiver to have his name called) in the 2019 draft includes Deebo Samuel, A.J. Brown, DK Metcalf, Terry McLaurin, Diontae Johnson and Hunter Renfrow.
There is reasonable debate to be had about what those players might look like in a Baltimore offense or what Brown might look like in their respective systems. They’re not all definitely better than Brown. But they were all drafted later and some (Samuel, Metcalf, A.J. Brown in particular) appear to have separated themselves in terms of being truly transcendent talents.
As always, the nuanced take is boring. “Hollywood Brown is a really good football player but to this point hasn’t quite proven himself to be in the definite top echelon of players at his position.” And while we all think very highly of Rashod Bateman’s talent and potential, at least for now Brown remains the most reliable receiver on the roster. Even if Bateman pans out the way many of us believe he’s capable of, it would seem as though the duo would make a pretty long-term pairing!
And there’s a next level to the conversation. There is truly fair debate to be had about what the Ravens should do about Brown long term. He still has time to prove himself worthy of a big-money contract. But there is also the possibility that the Ravens get to the end of the 2022 season and believe the market for Brown (given how few quality receivers typically reach free agency) will exceed what they’ll be willing to pay the player.
If that’s the case, there is absolutely room to consider whether the team should trade him before that fifth year in an attempt to recoup as much value as possible.
But that brings us back to a wide receiver need. For the Baltimore Ravens. You know how we all think the Cleveland Browns couldn’t possibly pay Baker Mayfield and need to move on because he’s not worth the huge money quarterbacks tend to get? Not every Browns fan necessarily agrees. They’ve seen the quarterbacks the Browns have trotted out since their return to the league. Mayfield, for his deficiencies, is by far the best of the bunch. If he’s not the quarterback, they feel no guarantee that the guy under center will definitely be better.
Brown might not yet be definitively better than Torrey Smith, but he’s certainly in the discussion for the best receiver the Ravens have drafted in their history. If the team ultimately moves on from him, just how confident are you that they’ll replace him with something better?
That’s a conversation for another day. For now, the decision to pick up Brown’s fifth-year option was absolutely no more than a formality. And in honor of the halftime show headliner Feb. 13, we need to get “back to reality” in the way we discuss the Ravens’ top wide receiver.
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