We knew the roster moves would be coming down today, but we just didn't know specifically what would be happening. With the placing of veteran defensive end Chris Canty on season ending injured reserve, the Baltimore Ravens made a bunch of other moves as well.
Baltimore swapped their quarterbacks, waiving second-year quarterback Bryn Renner and replacing him with former New England Patriots quarterback Ryan Mallett. Many fans were wanting to see Renner start over Jimmy Clausen against the Seattle Seahawks and will be sad to see him once again leave the roster. Renner will be a great candidate for the practice squad though, as he has been bounced on and off there all season long.
The move to add Mallett is an interesting one given that the Ravens have rarely carried three quarterbacks in a season and this could indicate a more severe injury to Matt Schaub. While head coach John Harbaugh said on Monday that they would be making a decision on who to start at quarterback based on who gave them the best chance to win, but that Schaub was getting healthy and could potentially start.
Definitely. I think Matt feels like he can play this week. We’ll have to see how it goes. He has to be able to move and function, and that just wasn’t there yet. We went out there … He threw pretty well last week for being on air, but to put him in a game … We looked at it Friday, we looked at it again Saturday and just didn’t feel like he was going to be able to really play at a high level and avoid pass rush and all those kinds of things. We have to make a decision about that. If he’s at 100 percent, and he’s ready to go – or close to it – and you feel like he can go out there and win for us, then he will play. If we feel like it’s a better option to go with Jimmy [Clausen], then we’ll do that. Jimmy played well. Jimmy didn’t do anything to hurt his chances of playing next week, so I feel like we have two good options there.
The Ravens also waived running back and return specialist Raheem Mostert. Mostert was a non-factor as a running back this season, but did take over kick return duties for the Ravens after they parted ways with Jeremy Ross earlier in the year due to fumble concerns.
In addition to quarterback Ryan Mallett, the Ravens added running back Terrence Magee, a preseason standout for Baltimore, and cornerback Jumal Rolle. Harbaugh might have slipped the signing a bit early as he made mention of some young cornerbacks that the Ravens "had," that turned out to not be on the active roster yet.
The other guys you’re looking at, you’re talking about ... Help me out, now." (Reporter: "Carl Davis.") "Oh, Carl Davis yes, but he’s a defensive tackle. Let’s talk cornerbacks here." (Reporter: "Shareece [Wright].") Jumal Rolle. Well Shareece, yes of course, but I’m talking about young guys now. Jumal Rolle is going to step up and get a chance. Sheldon Price is going to step up and get a chance, and those three guys will be the guys that we’ll be looking at, at corner.
Both Rolle and Price are currently on the Ravens practice squad, with Rolle getting activated to the full 53-man roster today. Based on his comments, it looks like Sheldon Price could be the next man up.