Long-term left tackle contracts come with mixed results in recent years

Ronnie Stanley, Baltimore Ravens

If there’s a single contract that makes general managers shake at the idea of offering up any long-term deal, it’s the five-year contract given to Ronnie Stanley by the Baltimore Ravens.

At the end of October of 2020, the Ravens were enamored with the work of Stanley on the left side of the offensive line and wanted to retain him as their franchise left tackle going forward with Lamar Jackson at the helm. They rewarded him with a lucrative five-year deal that made him the NFL’s highest-paid lineman at the time at $98.75 million. Unfortunately for everyone, during Stanley’s very next start, he was forced to leave the game on a medical cart with an ankle injury that would prematurely end his season there and then.

Since that ankle injury, Stanley has played in exactly one game for the Ravens and he needed subsequent surgery last year in order to get right for the long term. Ja’Wuan James is in the fold in case Stanley is out for a third season due to injury—or if there are any complications at all—but Stanley’s presence was the very reason why the Ravens traded Orlando Brown Jr. to the Chiefs in the first place. Brown wanted a long-term hold on a left tackle role and Baltimore didn’t have one available.

The sad thing here is that everyone did the right thing. Stanley was worthy of such an investment, and the Ravens paid the market rate for a young tackle coming into his prime. There are no risk-free deals in the NFL, however, and this illustrates how things can collapse quickly, especially when tied to big money. Stanley’s presence and the price tag have kept the Ravens from moving on in any way and it even forced them to trade away a solid Plan B in Brown. Even 2022 will be another season heavily affected by it all.