Baltimore Ravens work out Shea Patterson before facing Kansas City Chiefs

The Baltimore Ravens are working out former Chiefs quarterback Shea Patterson.

On Tuesday, the Baltimore Ravens are expected to spend part of the day hosting a free agent quarterback for a visit and workout. That in itself wouldn’t be newsworthy, especially for Kansas City fans, except it’s interesting that the player is former Chiefs quarterback Shea Patterson and the visit comes less than two weeks before the franchises meet in the NFL’s most anticipated game of the entire season.

Even before the 2020 regular season began, most NFL fans circled the Ravens and Chiefs in Week 3 as the game of the year. The AFC rivals were the best two teams in football last year—with apologies to the San Francisco 49ers who actually made the Super Bowl—and this season, both teams began the year with dominant showings in Week 1.

The Ravens might very well be interested in bringing in a developmental quarterback at this point onto their practice squad, and maybe Patterson is a player who has been on their radar all along. However, it’s impossible to not notice the fact that the Ravens are bringing in a player who spent a couple months with the Chiefs this summer.

Patterson was signed by the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent this spring but was cut before the preseason began. The Chiefs decided to move forward with Jordan Ta’amu as their only developmental arm and instead leaned on multiple veterans behind Patrick Mahomes heading into the regular season in both Chad Henne, on the active roster, and Matt Moore, who is on the practice squad.

There’s no major edge to be earned here, and no one should suggest as much. Patterson was let go in mid-July before training camp even began. Even if he’d stayed until final roster cuts, bringing in such a player will only take a team so far with any “insider” knowledge. The Ravens are a tremendously talented team who are very well coached, so no one is leaning too much into what Patterson would have to say anyway. The Ravens are capable of winning on their own.

That said, it’s at least interesting to see the move given the timing and the player. It’s good to see Patterson earning another chance to keep his NFL dream alive after a nice career at the University of Michigan. For the Ravens, he might also provide just a bit more insight they can use to help in a battle that will be one of the NFL’s best contests of the entire season—and maybe a preview of things to come in January.