It's beginning to look like the Baltimore Ravens free agent LB Bart Scott may return to the team after all. It has always be assumed that the Ravens were more interested in re-signing center Jason Brown and losing Scott due to salary cap restrictions. Once DE/LB Terrell Suggs was given the Franchise Tag last week, it appeared that Scott's days wearing purple and black were over. Everyone thought the next moves were to re-sign MLB Ray Lewis to his final contract and then focus on re-signing Brown to be the fixture over the ball in front of QB Joe Flacco for the next five or six years at the least.
Now it appears the team and Brown's agent are at odds over what position his salary should be based on. The team sees him as the center he's been all of last season while his agent thinks he should be paid as a guard. The difference is reported to be huge, around $2 million per year, which over the course of a multi-year contract, is a lot of cash. I don't understand his agent's logic, other than trying to get his client the most money. He states that Brown is an offensive lineman and should be paid like one, which would get him more if he received the average of what tackles, guards and centers get paid. However, something tells me if Brown was a tackle, that philosophy wouldn't help him and the agent wouldn't want that same logic applied at that point.
Therefore, if other teams are willing to pay Brown as a guard and the Ravens are not willing to budge from the center pay scale, then I personally wouldn't want to empty the bank on him at that cost. Thus, the re-emergence of the possibility of bringing back Bart Scott. Ironically, the agent for Jason Brown is,...yes indeed, Bart Scott's agent as well. Either way, the agent gets his cut and figures to get his percentage wherever his clients sign and the more they get, the more he does, so loyalty is out of the window from the agent's perspective.
The way I'd look at it under these new circumstances, let Brown go, re-sign Bart, then focus on getting Ray back for the remainder of his illustrious career. If Jason Brown can get a huge payday as a guard elsewhere, then go for it, Jason and good luck. The Ravens can then focus on either putting backup Chris Chester into that position or spending "center-only" bucks to bring in a free agent to replace Brown.
At the same time, I'd still like to see former (?) Steeler CB Bryant McFadden here, although many of you obviously think otherwise, as noted in your comments on yesterday's post. If we could follow my directions, that would be a great off season and set us up for a nice wideout with our first pick in April's Draft. Ozzie, give me a ring, we can discuss it further!