Insider Shares Telling Update on Ravens TE’s Future

The questions surrounding the Baltimore Ravens’ star tight end are only growing louder.

Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews has been at the center of trade rumors throughout the entire offseason, and with the NFL Draft just one week away, the rumors only seem to be growing louder.

At Tuesday’s pre-draft press conference, general manager Eric DeCosta potentially added fuel to the fire with a non-committal answer when asked about Andrews’ future.

“I never know what’s going to happen, and I would never want to say this or that, but I can tell you this. Mark Andrews is a warrior, and he’s played his butt off for us, and his competitiveness, his talent, his attitude [and] his leadership is so valued here,” DeCosta told reporters. “He’s a great player, and we’re in the business of keeping as many great players as we can, so there’s always a lot of unpredictability with the Draft. You just never know. I don’t think we’ve traded many of our own players. Have we ever made a trade during the Draft where we traded one of our players?”

Just hours later, NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport cast even more doubt on the three-time Pro Bowler’s future with his reaction to DeCosta’s comments.

“I may give it that it is very much up in the air,” Rapoport said. “GMs talk about balls being in the air, right? The reason they say that is because there’s a lot of things that can happen. They have Isaiah Likely, really good young player, emerging young player, who, when Andrews was not on the field, looked like a No. 1 tight end. He’s going to make just $3 million next year, teams generally like to lock up these kinds of players to long-term, lucrative extensions, make sure they’re taken care of and move on from there.”

“Now, Andrews is due $11 million, no doubt he’s going to have some trade value, and in a draft where there’s not maybe a ton of really, really good, high-level tight ends, I wouldn’t be surprised, based on what I’m hearing here, if some team does come in and make an offer the Ravens can’t refuse.”

Obviously, the Ravens would prefer to keep Andrews if possible. Even with his rough showing the Divisional Round, he has been a hugely important piece of the offense throughout his entire time in Baltimore. He also had a career-high 11 touchdowns last season, so he’s still producing at a high level even as he enters his 30s later this year.

With Likely providing similar upside, though, Andrews may be more expendable than before. It’s simply not that practical to pay two tight ends big money, and considering Likely is significantly younger, he may be the better option at this point in time.

Although it would hurt to lose someone as impactful as Andrews, but it seems more possible that his days in Baltimore are indeed numbered.