Ravens WR Rashod Bateman signs contract extension, keeping him in Baltimore through 2026

BALTIMORE — When Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta was asked two weeks ago about wide receiver Rashod Bateman’s fifth-year option, he noted that he had about a month to make a decision and that he’d probably have more to say about it after this week’s NFL draft.

He didn’t wait that long.

On Wednesday, the team announced a contact extension with Bateman that keeps the 2021 first-round draft pick in Baltimore through the 2026 season. No terms were disclosed.

The deal comes just over a week before a May 2 deadline for the Ravens to pick up or decline the receiver’s option at a projected cost of $14.3 million. Declining it would have made Bateman, 24, a free agent after the 2024 season.

But Baltimore has long believed in keeping as much of its homegrown talent in-house as possible, and after Bateman had a fully healthy season for the first time in his career, DeCosta wanted to make sure he stuck around.

“Congratulations to ‘Bate’ and his family,” DeCosta said in a statement. “This is a good day for the Ravens.”

Now the Ravens hope Bateman can deliver on the promise they saw in him when they drafted him 27th overall three years ago out of Minnesota. It’s a risky but calculated bet.

In three years in Baltimore, Bateman has had just one fully healthy season, which came last year when he had 32 catches for 367 yards and only one touchdown.

In 2022, he missed all but six games because of Lisfranc surgery on his left foot, an injury that lingered well into last spring and led to concern that another season-ending procedure would be necessary. The previous year, groin surgery caused him to miss the first five games of his rookie season.

He also at times last season looked out of sync with quarterback Lamar Jackson, though not all of that should be pinned on Bateman. Among 109 wide receivers with at least 30 targets in 2023, Bateman ranked 31st in ESPN’s “open score,” which uses player-tracking data to assess the likelihood a receiver would’ve been able to complete a catch if targeted. And according to Pro Football Focus’ separation grades among receivers, Bateman was one of the best in the league. In other words, he was open often but the ball wasn’t always thrown his way or delivered accurately.

Still, Bateman has played just 34 career regular-season games and has 93 catches for 1,167 yards and four touchdowns, hardly the kind of numbers that, if viewed in a vacuum, would have a lot of teams jumping toward an extension.

But beyond Bateman, second-year receiver Zay Flowers, who led the team in catches and receiving yards last season, and veteran Nelson Agholor, Baltimore’s receiving corps gets very thin very quick. The only other receivers on the roster are Tylan Wallace, who plays mostly on special teams, and second-year pass catcher Sean Ryan, who didn’t play a snap last season.

The Ravens could draft a receiver — and likely still will — but finding an immediate contributor is anything but a guarantee.

Meanwhile, declining Bateman’s option would have signaled they were ready to move on from him and left him potentially disengaged. There is also upside to extending Bateman that goes beyond the organization showing it continues to believe in him.

When healthy, Bateman has shown flashes of brilliance across each of his three years in the NFL. With the top seed in the AFC on the line in Week 17 last season, he had a season-high six catches for 54 yards in a 56-19 blowout of the Miami Dolphins. In a 2022 loss to Miami, he had four catches for 108 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown in which he raced away from the defense. Three years ago as a rookie, he had four games of at least five catches, including a seven-catch, 108-yard outburst against the Cleveland Browns.

He also accomplished something new for the franchise: Among the five receivers the Ravens have drafted in the first round, Bateman is the first to get a second contract with the team.

“I think Rashod Bateman is going to take a big step,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said in February at the NFL scouting combine. “Rashod is going to get opportunities this year. He ran routes really well. He worked super hard. He was healthy for the first time — even as the year went on, he got healthier, and you could see it in his play. The ball got to him, [and] when it did, he made some great plays. The ball is going to get to him a lot more next year. He’s going to be ready to go.”