Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta’s assessment of the team’s quarterback situation starts with QB1.
“Well, we have an MVP,” DeCosta said Thursday, “so I think we’re pretty happy there.”
The summer’s bigger worries were over QB2. Josh Johnson had an up-and-down training camp and preseason. The 38-year-old has started just nine games in his career, with the last coming in 2021, when he stepped in for an injury- and coronavirus-decimated Ravens team.
Johnson finished 20-for-30 for 253 yards and two touchdowns in the preseason, easing some concerns about his viability if Lamar Jackson is unavailable this season. Speaking to reporters ahead of next Thursday’s season opener, DeCosta said the Ravens would “continue to evaluate” the position but seemed content with the status quo.
“With Josh, we have a really experienced guy,” DeCosta said. “He’s like having another coach, and he’s great with Lamar. Players love him. He’s highly respected. He’s a talented player. So we love Josh.”
Sixth-round pick Devin Leary struggled in camp and the preseason, finishing 15-for-28 for 95 yards and two interceptions. He was released during Tuesday’s roster cut-down — the team’s only 2024 draft pick who did not make the initial 53-man roster — and was signed to the practice squad Wednesday.
“With Devin, we have a young player,” DeCosta said. “And he had his moments. And there’s certainly, as we’ve seen with quarterbacks, a lot of things he can improve on and get better at. We believe he will. But, yeah, we like the room. Doesn’t mean that we won’t add another guy, which we could do at some point. You know, it’s like any position on the team.”
The NFL Players Association’s decision to maintain last season’s emergency-quarterback rules, nixing a league-approved rule allowing an emergency third QB to come from the practice squad with unlimited call-ups, caught coach John Harbaugh by surprise this week. But DeCosta said the Ravens’ front office was informed in July that teams’ roster flexibility would remain limited.
“In the end, we have three QBs,” DeCosta said. “We just have one on the practice squad. And we have a mechanism for getting that player up if we need to get them up [with game day elevations]. So I guess the one scenario would be if both QBs got hurt in a game, and we’ve dealt with that. We’ve dealt with that for years, up until last year. So we’ll be ready to go regardless.”
