Back in Baltimore?

Contract work remains if Grbac is to remain with Ravens

Quarterback Elvis Grbac and the Baltimore Ravens remain a likely pairing for 2002. But don't take that to the bank just yet.

With the cap-strapped Ravens desperately needing to restructure Grbac's contract before they would owe him a $6 million option bonus Friday, there's plenty of hard negotiating to be done before Grbac's future with the team is assured.

For the first time Monday, those close to the situation admitted that Grbac returning to Baltimore is no sure thing.

"Right now it's 50-50," said Jim Steiner, Grbac's St. Louis-based agent. "It could go either way. We really haven't gotten into the details yet. But that being said, we don't have a deal, and we've just got some work to do.

"It'll probably go down to the last hour Thursday night."

Contacted Sunday night and Monday morning, neither Ravens head coach Brian Billick nor senior vice president of football operations Ozzie Newsome expressed pessimism that the two sides won't be able to strike a deal this week. But both men were cautious enough in terms of Grbac's negotiations to leave themselves prepared for the unexpected.

"I don't perceive this is as much of a problem, but if it became one then we'll deal with it," Billick said. "If Elvis and Jim wanted to use this situation as leverage to be pushed out onto the market, they could. But I have no reason to think that they want that. Is there the potential for them to do something else? Yes. But we've been given no indication that it's heading in a direction they're not comfortable with."

Said Newsome: "We're in the middle of proposals at this point. We want to have something done by the time I get on the plane Thursday [for Indianapolis and the NFL Scouting Combine]. But we don't know anything yet."

The restructuring of Grbac's contract, specifically the $6 million bonus, is at the heart of the work the Ravens must do this week in order to be under the league's $71.1 million salary cap by Friday. Besides working on Grbac's situation, Baltimore is trying to clear up cap room by extending the contracts of linebackers Ray Lewis and Peter Boulware, as well as offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden.

It is thought that all four veterans must cooperate with the team's cap needs in order for the Ravens to have any realistic shot at making a successful offer to cornerback Duane Starks, the club's top priority in terms of its own unrestricted free agents. And that already takes into account the cap savings that the Ravens will realize this week with the expected release of veterans like tight end Shannon Sharpe, defensive ends Rob Burnett and Michael McCrary, and safety Rod Woodson. Defensive tackle Sam Adams also must restructure his contract if he wants to retain his roster spot.

Steiner said there have been no philosophical changes on the club's part that would change his client's desire to return to Baltimore. But he did mysteriously allude Monday to "an event that occurred that just made the process" of restructuring Grbac's deal "more difficult." Steiner would not elaborate.

Billick traveled to visit Grbac at home in Cleveland early last week, a meeting in which Billick said he felt his quarterback out on all the changes that the team's roster will undergo this offseason.

"I just basically talked to him about what we're doing and made sure he wanted to still be around for this stage of rebuilding," Billick said. "We just talked football. Just cleared the decks. I wanted to tell him what's going on and make sure he was comfortable with it all. We didn't even begin to talk numbers, but there was no hesitation on his part."

It's likely that Grbac realizes his inconsistent first season in Baltimore would not set him up to do better in the free agent market than he would by restructuring his Ravens deal. Grbac signed a five-year, $30 million contract last March. The deal committed the Ravens to paying Grbac $13 million in its first two years, but for cap reasons, Baltimore after the first season built a clause into the deal that required it to pick up the option for Grbac's final three seasons (2003-2005) by March 2, 2002.

The contract calls for a $6 million payment if the Ravens pick up the option, or a $6 million buyout clause covering the final three seasons of the deal. But either way, that figure is too large for Baltimore's tight cap constraints, meaning the two sides have to negotiate a way to spread those dollars out over the course of the contract.

If Grbac and the Ravens should fail to reach a new contract agreement and part ways, the name of New Orleans veteran quarterback Jeff Blake has surfaced as one potential starting option in Baltimore. Thanks to the development of quarterback Aaron Brooks last season, Blake is on the trading block.

Another option would be the elevation of Ravens reserve quarterback Chris Redman to the No. 1 job. Baltimore officials, however, would like to see their 2000 third-round pick first firmly establish himself as the team's No. 2 quarterback, before any thoughts of making him the starter took root. Veteran QB Randall Cunningham remains a candidate to return to Baltimore in a backup role, Billick said last week.

Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.

 

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