It was no secret that the Baltimore Ravens were looking to add a running back ahead of the 2023 NFL Trade Deadline. Diana Russini of The Athletic shared a report over the weekend that they wanted to upgrade their backfield, which made plenty of sense.
The Ravens lost starter J.K. Dobbins in Week 1 to an Achilles injury and were seeking out options to help fill that void. Gus Edwards had a big game in Week 8 against the Arizona Cardinals, but if the opportunity presented itself to find an upgrade, they would jump at it.
One player they reportedly had their sights on was Derrick Henry of the Tennessee Titans. Entering the final season of his contract and with the Titans in position to be sellers, the Ravens pushed to acquire the former All-Pro.
Depending on who you ask, a deal was reportedly close to getting made. According to Cole Jackson, a Ravens writer, a deal was in place for Baltimore to acquire the star running back but Titans’ ownership vetoed the deal.
While that report wasn’t shared anywhere else, the timeline of events that occurred does line up with it. If the Ravens were going to pull off a trade for Henry, he would have had to agree to a restructured contract before the 4 p.m. ET deadline on Monday.
That tweet came after that deadline, which hints that a decision was made to not restructure his deal, making a Henry-to-Ravens deal virtually impossible. Because of the limited cap space in Baltimore, without a restructure, the already small chance of Henry being moved became basically zero.
That would have been a huge addition for the Ravens. An offense with Henry and Lamar Jackson in the backfield and a pass-catching group of Mark Andrews, Zay Flowers, Odell Beckham Jr., Rashod Bateman and Nelson Agholor would have been among the best units in the NFL. Throwing in a top-ranked offensive line and they could have become Super Bowl favorites in the eyes of some.
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