One of the harsh realities of the Baltimore Ravens going from preseason Super Bowl contenders to having a 1-5 record headed into a Week 8 home game against the Chicago Bears is that any future we may have once envisioned for the team is probably 1 or 2 more losses away from disappearing forever.
Part of that dismantled future could mean the Ravens becoming sellers leading up to the November 4 trade deadline, where Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox thinks veteran tight end Mark Andrews could be sent to the suddenly resurgent Carolina Panthers in exchange for a 2026 fifth round pick.
“(Andrews) is a player for whom the timing might be right for a change of scenery,” Knox wrote on October 22. “He turned 30 in September and will be a free agent in 2026. The Ravens have a younger tight end in Isaiah Likely, who will also be a free agent in the spring, and are likely to favor the latter if they re-sign either … Expect Andrews to be a top target of tight-end-needy teams.”
Andrews is due approximately $11 million in salary in 2025, where he’s in the final season of a 4-year, $56 million contract extension, meaning the Panthers would probably only be on the hook for about $5.5 million of that money.
Through the first 6 games, Andrews has 21 receptions for 174 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Andrews Finds Playoff Failure Tough to Shake
It’s been hard for the Ravens fan base – and Andrews — to shake off arguably the worst playoff choke job in franchise history to end last season.
Andrews had been one of the NFL’s elite tight ends for most of the last decade with 3 Pro Bowls and an NFL All-Pro nod in 2021, when he had 107 receptions for 1,361 yards and 9 touchdowns, but it’s what happened in the AFC Divisional Round against the Buffalo Bills that has seemed to hang over his head.
Those accomplishments have mostly been forgotten because of how last season ended.
In an AFC Divisional Round loss to the Buffalo Bills, Andrews not only lost a fumble in the fourth quarter that set up a score, he dropped an easy catch on a 2-point conversion that would have tied the game with 1:33 left in the game.
“Even though the shock and disappointment are unlike anything I’ve felt before, I refuse to let the situation define me,” Andrews wrote on Instagram a few days after the drop against the Bills. “I promise that this adversity will only make me stronger and fuel us as we move forward.”
Ravens Have Elite, Young TE Behind Andrews
Even without his playoff failings and even without the Ravens’ 1-5 start to the season, Andrews was likely expendable before either one of those things happened.
That’s because the Ravens have one of the NFL’s elite young tight ends in Likely, who has been slow to recover from a fractured foot suffered on July 30 in training camp.
Likely is in the final year of his 4-year, $4.16 million rookie contract, and while Spotrac projects he’ll receive a 3-year, $30.7 million contract, that number seems low. He should be in line for something closer to the 4-year, $52 million contract extension recently signed by Dallas Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson.
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