The Ravens have signed wide receiver Nelson Agholor to a one-year contract extension, the team announced Feb. 18. Agholor brought veteran leadership to the wide receiver group and was one of several Ravens receivers headed to free agency next month.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Agholor’s contract was set to void Feb. 19 and would have meant $1.6 million in dead money toward the Ravens’ 2024 salary cap.
In his first season with the Ravens, Agholor, 30, caught 35 passes for 381 yards and four touchdowns. He played in all 17 games and his veteran presence showed up in more than just his statistics.
Late in the game against the Los Angeles Rams, Agholor was seen on camera discussing something in the huddle with quarterback Lamar Jackson. On the play, Jackson threw a 21-yard touchdown to receiver Zay Flowers, and Jackson later said Agholor told him in the huddle that if Agholor ran his pattern a certain way, the safety would follow and Flowers would be left open. The Ravens ultimately won that game in overtime.
“‘Nelly’ has played that way all season,” head coach John Harbaugh said the next day. “He played that way the whole game. He flies around. He plays so hard. Every route, he plays just as perfect as he can. … He’s one of those leaders that leads by example.”
The Ravens originally signed Agholor to a one-year, $3.3 million deal last March, and he slotted as a complementary addition to an overhauled receiver room that featured All-Pro Odell Beckham Jr. and first-round pick Zay Flowers.
Agholor was the only Ravens receiver to appear in all 17 games and caught at least one pass in 13 of them. He had a season-high five receptions in three different games.
The Ravens’ receiver room could face more turnover this offseason, with Beckham and Devin Duvernay both headed to free agency in March, but general manager Eric DeCosta expressed confidence in a group headlined by Flowers and Rashod Bateman. The late-season emergence of tight end Isaiah Likely also adds another element to the passing game.
“We’ll talk to guys and look at potentially bringing guys back, but I feel really good about where we are,” DeCosta said at his season-ending news conference. “We have a lot of guys that can make plays. … I would expet the receiver room to be very strong next year and very productive.”
This figures to be an extremely busy month for DeCosta. Beckham and Duvernay are among more than 20 players who are set to hit unrestricted free agency, a list that also includes guard Kevin Zeitler, defensive tackle Justin Madubuike and linebacker Patrick Queen, all three of whom went to the Pro Bowl.
The free agency group also includes running backs J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards, safety Geno Stone, cornerbacks Arthur Maulet and Ronald Darby and edge rushers Kyle Van Noy and Jadeveon Clowney.
Zeitler is one of several players who, like Agholor, had void years added to his contract as a way to lessen the 2023 cap hit. If Zeitler is not re-signed by Feb. 19, his void dollars (roughly $4.26 million) will be charged against the Ravens 2024 cap and Zeitler will become a free agent. Edwards and cornerback Rock Ya-Sin are also in that boat, although the dead money in those cases, about $1.8 million and $1.6 million respectively, is not as substantial as in Zeitler’s case.
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