The Ravens have released safety Marcus Williams, ending a strange three-year tenure with the team that began with much hype and promise but deteriorated to the point that Williams was a high-priced spectator at the end of the 2024 season.
Williams’ departure was viewed as a foregone conclusion after he was benched and the team reworked his contract this winter, creating about $9.9 million in cap space. By making Williams a post-June 1 release, they will gain another $2.1 million in cap space at that time.
The Ravens are still on the hook for roughly $6.8 million in dead money in 2026 according to Over the Cap, which tracks player contracts, as they ease away from one of the most disappointing signings of Eric DeCosta’s tenure as general manager.
The Ravens signed Williams to a five-year, $70 million deal in 2022 as their signature move of that free-agent season. He was viewed as a young, durable star after five standout seasons with the New Orleans Saints during which he missed a total of five games. Five weeks after signing Williams, the Ravens drafted Kyle Hamilton, and it appeared the Ravens had solidified their safety position for years to come.
Williams totaled three interceptions in his first two games as a Raven, but then he suffered a wrist injury that sidelined him for much of the 2022 season. He then dealt with a shoulder injury in 2023 that limited him to 11 games, and when he was on the field, the physical shortcomings were apparent, as he often tried to tackle without engaging his injured shoulder.
Williams returned this past season as the Week 1 starter, but problems persisted throughout the first half of the season, during which the Ravens ranked last in the league in pass defense. In one particularly glaring situation, Cincinnati receiver Ja’Marr Chase blew past Williams, who was badly out of position, for a 70-yard touchdown.
That game against the Bengals came two weeks after Williams had been benched for a game at Cleveland in what head coach John Harbaugh described as a “personnel decision.”
At the time, Harbaugh professed confidence in Williams and vowed that he would continue to be a key part of the defense, but Ar’Darius Washington soon supplanted Williams as the starter. With no role on special teams, Williams spent the final five games of the season as a healthy scratch while carrying the third-highest cap hit on the team at roughly $18 million.
After the season, Harbaugh acknowledged it had been a “tough season” for Williams.
“I admire the way he handled it,” Harbaugh said at the team’s season-ending news conference. “He faced a lot of adversity that just kind of came with the production at the end, and also the performance. You never pin it on one thing. … There are a lot of factors in there. But I know this: I was impressed by the way Marcus handled himself through all of that.”
Williams’ Ravens tenure ends with 149 tackles, five interceptions, 18 passes defensed and two fumble recoveries in 32 games.
Washington was given a low restricted free-agent tender by the Ravens March 12. But beyond that, the safety position lacks depth, with Sanoussi Kane and Maryland product Beau Brade playing just a handful of snaps as rookies in 2024.
The Ravens like to use three safeties at times, so adding to the safety group through the draft or free agency seems almost certain.
As of now, the Ravens have 11 picks in the upcoming draft, beginning with No. 27 overall in the first round. The Ravens have been linked to several safeties in mock drafts, including Nick Emmanwori of South Carolina, Malaki Starks of Georgia and Xavier Watts, Hamilton’s former teammate at Notre Dame.
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