BALTIMORE — Free-agent edge rusher Justin Houston agreed to a one-year deal Saturday with the Ravens, a team-friendly acquisition that should bolster the defense’s overhauled pass rush.
The deal is worth up to $4 million, according to ESPN. Houston reportedly turned down “significantly more money” from other teams to join the Ravens’ push for a Super Bowl title. The four-time Pro Bowl selection visited the Ravens in April, but he remained unsigned throughout the offseason.
“I feel like he’s a proven player,” coach John Harbaugh said after the team’s practice at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday night. “I had a chance to talk to him a lot in the last number of months. He really wanted to be here. He wanted to be here months ago.”
Houston, 32, was perhaps the NFL’s top pass rusher still on the market, with four straight seasons of at least eight sacks. Last year, he had eight sacks, 12 quarterback hits and two safeties in 16 games with the Indianapolis Colts. Houston’s deal is contingent on a physical, but Harbaugh said it would be “a while” before he’s cleared to practice. As an unvaccinated player, Harbaugh said, his onboarding process takes longer than normal to complete.
Houston’s arrival will help soften the blow of the offseason departures of Pro Bowl outside linebacker Matthew Judon and Yannick Ngakoue, who combined for nine sacks in 23 games in Baltimore last season. It could also ease the pressure on first-round pick Odafe Oweh and fifth-round pick Daelin Hayes while pushing third-year edge rusher Jaylon Ferguson to the roster bubble.
In recent years, the Ravens have entered the season with five outside linebackers or edge rushers on their 53-man roster. Tyus Bowser and Pernell McPhee are the early favorites to start on the edge. Oweh and Hayes have impressed in camp. Coaches have praised Ferguson’s mental growth. And now Houston will have to fit in somewhere, too, the latest and maybe greatest addition at a position considered a serious weakness entering 2021.
“I think we have a plethora of talent — guys that are very, very gifted in a lot of places who are going to have to step up and make big plays for us,” defensive end Calais Campbell said in June. “Our outside rush is where we lost the most, and I see some of our young guys who can really move, and they’re really just super gifted. And so, now it comes down to just getting them prepared, getting them ready, helping them develop as quickly as possible, because we’re going to have to depend on them.
“This is one of those teams where we’re going to have to depend on some young guys to step up and make some plays for us. But I think we’ve got a really good group of young [players] who are going to be able to develop and become really good football players in this league.”