What WR Cam Meredith can bring to the Ravens

Baltimore is known for their gritty receivers. Derrick Mason, Anquan Boldin and Steve Smith Sr. all fit that description. Free agent wide receiver Cam Meredith is cut from the same cloth, at least when it comes to toughness.

Look at this physical reception by Meredith in 2016 against the Washington Redskins:

The 25-year old wide receiver was off to a good start to his career, before suffering a knee injury that put him out for the entire 2017 season. After going undrafted in 2015, Meredith had 11 receptions and 120 receiving yards in that same season. He would enter the 2016 season as the Chicago Bears’ fifth receiver, but ended up with 66 catches for 888 receiving yards and four touchdowns.

When Meredith had the ball in his hands, he had a knack for fighting through contact, running crisp routes and creating separation. Baltimore has had trouble in the past finding receivers who can do these three things in conjunction with one another. Meredith doesn’t have that issue many times and he is a receiver who had just two dropped passes all of 2016.

For example, look at this move that Meredith put on a defender from the Indianapolis Colts:

Meredith is also a home run hitter. He will take screens, slants and other short routes for deep gains. Baltimore’s West Coast offense is perfect for Meredith, as he excels at these type of shorter routes and can make the most out of them. When he does go deep, Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco can get him the ball downfield.

The other key to Meredith’s game is his height. Standing at 6-foot-3 and 207 pounds, Meredith isn’t afraid to use his height to his advantage by skying over smaller defenders. Flacco could use a receiver that has an expanded catch radius, like Meredith, to bail him out of some of his poorer throws.

Meredith was offered the lowest tender by the Bears, sitting at $1.907 million. The Ravens could go above that amount of money, as they have $10,412,764 in cap space, according to OverTheCap.com. The Ravens have already signed receivers Michael Crabtree and John Brown, which has shown that they want to make improvements to the nucleus of Mike Wallace (free agent), Jeremy Maclin (released) and Breshad Perriman.

If they sign Meredith, he doesn’t have to be the number one or two receiver. As a number three, he is extremely deadly and Baltimore hasn’t had a situation where their number three wide receiver is much of a threat in the past, along with the probability that they could draft another receiver in the early rounds.

It gives them options and possible mismatches across the board at receiver and that’s good situation to have for a club that finished 29th in passing yards (3,030), 29th in passing yards per game (189) and 23rd in passing touchdowns (20). Baltimore wouldn’t have to rely on Perriman, Chris Moore, Tim White or Quincy Adeboyejo to produce for them in 2017, if Baltimore signed Meredith.