Ravens looking to add safety Jayron Kearse

Yesterday, the Baltimore Ravens listed free agent S Jayron Kearse as a personnel notice. According to The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec, this means he’s started COVID protocols for the Ravens to sign him.

There’s no surprise Kearse was receiving interest from the Ravens, seeing as he implied possible interest from the team in a tweet.

I reached out to SB Nation’s Pride of Detroit to find out who Jayron Kearse is and why would the Ravens be interested in him. Managing editor of Pride of Detroit, Jeremy Reisman, was gracious enough to respond.

“Jayron Kearse is a solid depth player that can come in and immediately provide some special teams skills, if needed. As a safety, he does his best work closer to the line of scrimmage as an aggressive tackler and a physical force in coverage. Ideally, he’d just be a rotational player on defense while bolstering your special teams unit, but in Detroit he was forced to become a starter. That left some glaring holes in his game, especially in coverage. Still, he was one of the Lions’ better defensive backs on a unit that really struggled all season.”

I also asked why Kearse was released.

“As for why he was released, at first interim head coach Darrell Bevell said simply that the team was hoping to get a closer look at their younger players in the secondary. That proved to be only part of the story, as reports surfaced that Kearse broke team rules by leaving the team hotel without permission and breaking curfew. When asked about that specifically, Bevell did not deny that report, saying, ‘I don’t know if I even want to comment on that. But I will just say that everything matters.’”

With the secondary depth depleting nearly weekly, this is a smart move to land a player with upside who could come in and make a play or two if called upon.