Ravens were willing to make Kelechi Osemele the highest paid guard in the league

Despite the fact that Oakland snagged Kelechi Osemele rather easily, that didn't mean that the Ravens let their star guard go without a good effort to keep him around.

At a coaching clinic this Friday, Head Coach John Harbaugh revealed just how big the Ravens' "aggressive offer" was.

"We offered him $8.5 million dollars, a year, to come and play for the Ravens. He would have been the highest paid guard in football. It wasn’t enough."

While this offer was enough to make him the wealthiest at his position, it simply wasn't enough to match the Raiders' grand offer. Their five-year $58.5 million dollar deal gives Osemele an average of $11.7 million per year, making him one the league's five highest-paid offensive linemen.

As for the Ravens' future without their prized guard, Harbaugh made it clear that he sees only silver linings.

"Now we’ve got an opportunity to build an offensive line another way, and we have that money to spend somewhere else,"

How the Ravens rebuild in the wake of Osemele's departure is still very unclear. The Ravens' next men up, John Urschel and Ryan Kensen, are far from reassuring. The veteran Eugene Monroe could also play Osemele's part, but he may be out of Baltimore as well. It's clear that the Ravens better put the money earmarked for Osemele back into their line.