OWINGS MILLS — The Ravens have officially parted ways with star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.
Beckham was released on Thursday. Otherwise, his $50 million salary would have become fully guaranteed in 2025 and the Ravens could not afford that type of salary-cap hit.
The Ravens still must carry $2.767 million dead money — a salary cap charge for a player who is no longer on a team’s roster — for Beckham this season and $8.3 million in 2025.
Beckham signed a one-year deal worth up to $18 million last offseason and finished with 35 catches for 565 yards and three touchdowns over 14 games.
Earlier this offseason, general manager Eric DeCosta had expressed optimism that the team could negotiate a new deal with Beckham, who will now test the free-agent market.
“Odell a great, great guy. I love Odell,” DeCosta said. “He’s become a great friend of mine and a friend to the Ravens, and I think we’ll just kind of assess and see what happens over the next couple of weeks.”
The Ravens are a bit thin at wide receiver. The team has Rashod Bateman, Zay Flowers, Tylan Wallace and Nelson Agholor, who signed a one-year extension last month.
Flowers led the team with 77 receptions for 858 yards and five touchdowns, followed by Agholor (35 receptions, 381 yards, four touchdowns) and Bateman (32 receptions, 367 yards, three touchdowns). Wallace made most of his plays on special teams as a returner and had just one reception for 11 yards.
DeCosta will likely add a free agent or two and could also select several players in the NFL draft, which starts April 25th.
For now, he likes the potential of the players on the current roster,
“I love the guys we have coming back,” DeCosta said. “I think ‘Bate’ is going to have a great season, and we have Zay [Flowers]. We’ll talk to guys and look at potentially bringing guys back, but I feel really good about where we are. …. We have a lot of guys that can make plays and, watching Zay this year and just picturing Zay and ‘Bate’ out there next year is very exciting, and we’ll see where that leads.
“We’ve also got the draft, and like I said, we’ll have conversations with our free agents, as well, and we’ve already started those conversations in some cases. So, I would expect the receiver room to be very strong next year and very productive.”
