The Ravens have signed free-agent cornerback Rock Ya-Sin to a one-year contract, and the four-year veteran becomes the immediate favorite to start opposite Marlon Humphrey in the Ravens’ secondary.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed but it was reported to be worth up to $6 million.
Ya-Sin, who turns 27 this month, was a starter for the Las Vegas Raiders last year, with 45 tackles and seven passes defensed in 11 games. He missed the final five games with a knee injury. Ya-Sin was a second-round draft pick of the Indianapolis Colts in the 2019 draft and spent three seasons with the Colts, starting 29 games for them.
Ya-Sin was traded from the Colts to the Raiders last spring in exchange for defensive end Yannick Ngakoue.
According to Pro Football Focus, this past year Ya-Sin allowed a passer rating of 82.5 when targeted, the lowest of his four-year career.
Ya-Sin played three seasons of college football at Presbyterian and then played his final season at Temple.
Ya-Sin has been linked to the Ravens for much of free agency after visiting with the team in March. By waiting until after May 1 to complete the deal, Ya-Sin’s signing won’t factor in the formula used to allot compensatory draft picks.
The Ravens have an opening at cornerback after allowing Marcus Peters to hit free agency. The Ravens opted against taking a cornerback early in the draft, passing on Maryland’s Deonte Banks and Penn State’s Joey Porter Jr., among others, to select Boston College wide receiver Zay Flowers with their first-round pick.
Brandon Stephens and 2022 draft picks Jalyn Armour-Davis and Damarion “Pepe” Williams are among the in-house candidates at cornerback, and the Ravens added Kyu Blu Kelly in the fifth round of the draft. But general manager Eric DeCosta had strongly suggested during the draft that the Ravens would add a free-agent corner.
“There are a lot of potential moves for us to make,” DeCosta said on the final day of the draft, “free agents, guys that we’ve had, guys that we like who are available. … It’s an important position. What we’ve seen is you can never have enough good corners.”
The lack of cornerback depth, he added, is “a fast way to get beat.”
Peters remains on the market, and so does Kyle Fuller, the Baltimore native who played suffered a season-ending torn ACL in the season opener, his first game with his hometown team. DeCosta might not be done adding to the position.
The Ravens have begun their offseason conditioning program and will hold the first of their 10 OTA workouts on May 22. The mandatory June minicamp is scheduled for June 13-15.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Las Vegas Raiders