If Derrick Mason Doesn't Come Back, Ravens Are Stuck

If Derrick Mason has retired as a negotiating ploy, his hand just got a whole lot stronger. The announcement that his replacement Drew Bennett has also retired means that once again, the Ravens are faced with arguably the worst receiving corps in the league.

You could argue that adding Bennett didn't do a whole lot to change that, but without Mason and Bennett, the Ravens are left with Mark Clayton and very little else.

It's hard to think of a receiver more important to his offense than Mason. He was Joe Flacco's target on 121 passes last year -- the rest of the receivers on the Ravens' 2008 roster were targeted for only 110 combined passes. According to Football Outsiders' stats, Clayton was the target for 82 passes, No. 3 wide receiver Demetrius Williams was thrown 23 balls and Yamon Figurs, a kick returner who occasionally will get a play at wide receiver, saw five balls.

That would be bad enough, but Baltimore really didn't do anything during the offseason to try to fix the problem. The Ravens didn't draft a wideout this year, and the only "significant" free-agent wide receiver they picked up was Kelley Washington, a 30-year-old wide receiver who has one catch in the past two years.

There is no replacing Mason from the bargain bin of receivers who are still free agents. The best available wide receivers are Amani Toomer, D.J. Hackett and Matt Jones, although the Ravens are most rumored to be going after Joe Horn, a once Pro Bowl-caliber receiver who caught 27 passes in 2007 and none last year.

In Flacco, Baltimore has a very promising young quarterback. They protected him a lot last year by running a lot of two tight end, unbalanced line and other run-heavy formations, which meant that they didn't need more than two solid wide receivers. Usually teams open up things more for a second-year quarterback, but unless Mason comes back or the Ravens can swing a trade, Baltimore's likely to have no choice but to rely on the running game and defense again this year. It got them to the AFC Championship last year, but that was with Mason there to move the chains on third down.

It's hard not to think about the 2006 Patriots. That New England team was talented enough at every position but one to go to the Super Bowl. But they tried to rely on Troy Brown, Reche Caldwell and Jabar Gaffney as the top three wide receivers, which wasn't enough come playoff time. A year later, New England corrected the problem by acquiring Randy Moss and Wes Welker. Baltimore made it deep into the playoffs last year with only two established wide receivers, but instead of getting extra help, six months later it now finds itself much worse at its weakest position.