Would Ravens trade Orlando Brown Jr. to Chiefs in hindsight?

When the Baltimore Ravens first traded Orlando Brown Jr. to the Kansas City Chiefs, it felt like they were working from a position of strength. The Ravens had Pro Bowl talent at both bookend positions with Ronnie Stanley and Brown on the left and right, respectively, with an entire offseason to plan for create a pipeline for the future as well—including an upcoming draft class.

Two months into the regular season and the narrative has changed completely.

On Tuesday, Stanley finally decided to undergo season-ending surgery on an ankle that was clearly not right at any point since last season, despite his best efforts to return to the field in 2021. It made official what analysts had guessed for some time—that the Ravens would not see Stanley as their blindside protector for a while given that he’d played in only a single game in 2021 thus far—back in Week 1.

Would the Ravens trade Orlando Brown Jr. again knowing how Ronnie Stanley would fare?

Stanley’s issues date back to last season when, shortly after signing an extensive contract extension, he went down with a season-ending ankle injury in Week 8. From there, Stanley faced considerable rehabilitation just to be able to play again in Week 1, but something clearly was not right. Yet spirits were higher in the offseason when there were months of runway ahead of Stanley, a span of time in which he could rest, recover, and get back into game shape.

In that span, the Ravens knew they had a window within which to trade Brown for significant assets in return. Brown wanted a big payday in free agency the following year and he wanted to stay at left tackle instead of moving back to the right side when Stanley was back. Instead of forcing him to play out his rookie deal and figure things out as they went, the Ravens swapped Brown to the Chiefs in exchange for multiple draft picks.

At the time, the move gave the Ravens another first-round pick to use as they wish, and certainly they have to love the early returns of Odafe Oweh. However, the team downgraded to Alejandro Villanueva as a free agent fill-in in the interim and made no further efforts to bolster the offensive tackle spot with high-level assets via the draft—even in a loaded class. Instead they went pass rusher and wide receiver with their two first-round picks.

Now it’s Villanueva and Patrick Mekari and, yeah, that’s just not a combination that anyone in Baltimore likely wanted to see in a year in which they’re thinking Super Bowl. The team is performing well and the Ravens are succeeding at present, but at some point, this lack of top-end talent and overall attrition has to take its toll, right?

All of this makes us wonder if the Ravens would redo the trade with the Chiefs knowing all of this in hindsight? Would they still take the leap for a first-round return (really, the Chiefs got Creed Humphrey in the deal as well so it wasn’t quite the return that it initially seemed on paper) or would the Ravens rather have kept Brown for such a time as this?

If the Ravens still had Brow, he’d be playing out his rookie deal while giving them predictably high-level play at either tackle spot, the sort of rare security for a loss so substantial that few teams can ever enjoy. Now it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Ravens pull off a deal to bolster the offensive line, although to be fair, they’re going to have to bid a bit higher than they might expect given the number of other teams also in the market for help up front.

My guess is that the Ravens would have held on to Brown had they taken a more worst-case scenario view on Stanley’s recovery as a front office, which means either Rashod Bateman or Oweh would be with another team right now. Instead, the Ravens are now going to hope these present measures can hold up over the course of a long season and postseason run.