Long-Term Deal for Suggs Could Help Baltimore Nab Wide Receiver

A little more than four months have passed since Terrell Suggs expressed his desire for a long-term contract, telling the Ravens in February, "If you want me on your team, then do something about it."

Baltimore responded by slapping the franchise tag on Suggs. Since then, no one's seen or heard much from Suggs -- he skipped all of the Ravens' offseason activities. But the talented defensive star finally broke his silence in an an interview with Mike Duffy of BaltimoreRavens.com:

"I feel like we're getting close," Suggs said.

This is great news for the Ravens. Not just because Suggs is a key component in their stout defense, but also because Baltimore signing him to a multi-year contract would almost certainly help the team finally land another wide receiver.

Baltimore has until July 15 to get Suggs inked to an extended deal. If there's no movement by then, the two sides must then wait until after the 2009 season to negotiate, and Suggs would have to accept his $10.17 million franchise tender.

While it's hard to scoff at that amount of money, that's a negative for both parties. Suggs doesn't want to play under the franchise tag for a second straight year, and the Ravens don't want to commit $10-million-plus to him this season.

As it is, Baltimore is up against the wall, with somewhere in the vicinity of $4 million in cap space available if Suggs winds up being franchised. That number sort of ties the Ravens' hands -- while it would leave enough to bring in, say, Brandon Marshall at a little more than $2 million next season, doing so would give Baltimore almost no flexibility when it came to juggling the roster for injury or performance concerns in-season.

If the Ravens can come to terms with Suggs on a long-term contract, however, they can provide themselves more maneuverability in '09.

The idea would be to backload Suggs' contract. For example, give him, say, $5 or $6 million in 2009, then steadily bump that up over the life of the contract -- until you're in the six-year, $72 million range that Dwight Freeney received from Indianapolis in 2007. Suggs reportedly wants to be right around those numbers.

Should Baltimore talk Suggs into the "less money now for more in the future" idea, it immediately frees up several million in cap space. Then, the Ravens essentially have their pick of the wide-receiver litter, without having to worry about juggling other roster spots.

"I just hope we can get [the contract] done in time for training camp," Suggs told BaltimoreRavens.com.

It would behoove everyone involved to make that happen.