Haloti Ngata wants to be a ‘Raven for life’
By Hayden Kane
The Baltimore Ravens reached out to star defensive tackle Haloti Ngata about a contract extension this off-season. The team’s interest in such a deal, besides keeping Ngata in town for the long haul, was some immediate relief from the $16 million cap hit Ngata carries with him this season.
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Ngata turned down that offer, but this week he insisted that he intends to remain with the Ravens for a long time. As reported by Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com:
"“I would love to be a Ravens for life,” Ngata said after the first day of Ravens’ minicamp on Tuesday.“If we can get something done, that’d be great,” Ngata said. “We’ll just let my agent and Ozzie [Newsome, general manager] take care of that business off the field.”"
Hensley also notes that this situation will truly come to a head next off-season. At that point the Ravens could save themselves $8.5 million by cutting Ngata, so that might be the catalyst that truly gets talks going in the right direction. But for now, for whatever nice things Ngata has to say about staying in Baltimore, he appears to be perfectly happy collecting his $16 million check in 2014.
While Ngata might not show up in the highlight reel the way that edge pass rushers might, he is one of the most dominant defensive players in the NFL. He is on the very short list of interior lineman who are known to have such a huge impact on any given game.
The money makes things a little dicey for now, but the Ravens know better than anybody that Ngata is a singular talent. Here’s betting that makes both sides motivated to get a deal done…just maybe not this season.