For the second season in a row, the Baltimore Ravens have decided they should keep running back Justice Hill around longer.
One of the team’s three 2019 fourth-round picks, Hill signed a two-year deal following the expiration of his rookie deal. Amid the final season of that contract, Hill agreed Friday to extend for two more years.
Hill said he was focused on the season, which is three weeks old, and wasn’t thinking about contracts, so the call surprised him.
“When I got the call, started going through the details of it, it was a good deal, so just pulled the trigger,” Hill said.
The two-year, $6 million extension goes through the 2026 season and kicks in next year. It raises his average yearly salary from $2 million to $3 million.
Hill also earned a $500,000 signing bonus and a $470,576 roster bonus, so his cap hit this season is $2,970,576.
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With a big smile, coach John Harbaugh congratulated Hill and his family, but also the Ravens, after the deal.
“Justice has become a really, really good football player,” Harbaugh said.
Though he does not have the flashiest stats, Hill was an instant contributor and has steadily improved. He is the only player in the eight-man 2019 Ravens draft class remaining on the team.
As a rookie, Hill rushed for 225 yards and made eight catches for 70 yards. With the exception of the 2020 season, when he suffered an Achilles injury, Hill’s statistics have increased every year. Hill said that, while he was fighting to come back from that second-year injury, he would have never expected to reach his third NFL contract.
“It definitely was hard,” Hill said. “There were points in there when you just didn’t know. ... I knew if I just stayed diligent, I would get rewarded. It was definitely a long journey, but we got here.”
As part of the running back rotation last season, Hill had his best year on the ground and in the pass game. He rushed for 387 yards and was given a significantly increased role in the pass game, making 28 catches for 206 yards.
Over the offseason, two of the Ravens’ top running backs left. Gus Edwards, who was the second-leading rusher, and J.K. Dobbins, who spent the year on injured reserve, signed with the Los Angeles Chargers. Rookie Keaton Mitchell was also on injured reserve following an ACL injury, leaving Hill as the only remaining running back on the roster who played significant snaps last season.
Then the Ravens made their star signing. They added running back Derrick Henry, a four-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro. Despite the addition of an all-star workhorse, the Ravens predicted Hill would play a big role.
In training camp, running backs coach Willie Taggart spoke glowingly of Hill. He mentioned his work ethic (“ahead of his years”), his teamwork (“he’s the ultimate team player”), his diverse skill set (“he can do it all”) and his consistent improvement (“off the charts”).
“This is going to be — by far — one of his best years,” Taggart predicted. “... He can run the football for us; he can block for us; he can catch passes out the backfield for us. I think you’ll see us using Justice in a lot of different ways, and I think you’ll see a young man that comes through for us, too. We call Justice the Junkyard Dog; he does everything for us.”
So far this season, Hill has eight catches for 62 yards but only five rushes for 25 yards. However, his biggest highlight might be the blocks he made on Kansas City’s Chris Jones on the final two plays of the Week 1 game, which gave the Ravens a chance to tie it. Harbaugh said with a laugh that those blocks “certainly didn’t hurt” even if general manager Eric DeCosta was working on the deal long before that.
Hill also laughed and pointed out that the call came after those blocks.
In all seriousness, pass blocking has become an integral part of his game because it allows him to get on the field in various situations. But, with strengths like those, it’s easy to get overlooked because he’s not accumulating rushing or receiving yards. That hasn’t mattered to Hill, who also found a role on special teams. He’s always been willing to do whatever it takes.
“Just to see him get that kind of a reward for everything he does, probably one of the greatest shining examples of ‘come to work every day, ready to go to work every day, be at your best,’” Harbaugh said. “[...] Nothing too big for him, nothing too small for him. Just wants to be his best and lift everybody up. To see a guy like that get rewarded, to me, is what it’s about.”
