Thursday, February 14, 2013
McKinnie's 2013 team
By Tim Kavanagh
Veteran OT Bryant McKinnie had a rough time last offseason, and he was ultimately benched heading into the regular season, owing to his difficulty in assimilating into the Baltimore Ravens' new fast-paced offensive system. However, he took back his job, and in the playoffs, he was a rock despite lining up against top-level pass-rushers in Dwight Freeney, Elvis Dumervil and Aldon Smith. He's an unrestricted free agent, however, and the Ravens have a tight salary cap situation, so will he be back?
If it's up to him, he sure would be. "Bryant would want to come back," his agent Michael George indicated this week, per the Baltimore Sun. "He likes it there. He likes the situation, the way it is now. He's a free agent, so it's up to the Ravens what happens next obviously. The intention is to see what the market says. If the Ravens want to do something, we're definitely open to that. Obviously, it has to be right numbers for both sides."
There are a number of veteran OTs potentially hitting the market this offseason -- Ryan Clady, Branden Albert, Andre Smith, Jake Long, Gosder Cherilus, Will Beatty, Sebastian Vollmer, Phil Loadholt, Sam Baker and Jermon Bushrod, to name ten -- though some will surely be back with their incumbent team either on a multi-year deal or a franchise tag. So there's certainly a strong reason for McKinnie to want to stay with Baltimore as opposed to throwing himself into the buyers' market in FA.
