Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome won't have owner Steve Bisciotti as his card-playing partner anytime soon.
For the second time in a year, Bisciotti has played his hand way too early in the coming negotiations with middle linebacker Ray Lewis, who just completed the final season of a six-year contract.
In March, Bisciotti said he expected the Ravens to outbid other teams for the services of Lewis. And Wednesday, Bisciotti said he didn't foresee the Ravens using the franchise tag on Lewis.
Ooooh.
That was interesting because Newsome, in preliminary talks before the season started, has already let Lewis' side know the general manager could use the designation on Lewis. It's the trump card the Ravens don't want to play, but it's nice to have that ace up their sleeve.
Fortunately, Bisciotti has said Newsome will handle the negotiations, which could begin as early as next week, when the Ravens start their player-evaluation meetings.
"Let's just hope that it doesn't get to that point," Newsome said of using the tag. "All I can say is that we have a process in place, and we also have a history of retaining our top players.
"In other cases, there is also a process in place where we allow free agents to test the market and then they can get back to us. We just have to see how these things play out."
Bisciotti should stay out of the negotiations. And what's this about Lewis giving the Ravens a hometown discount?
Since his rookie season, Lewis has re-signed his contract five times, getting upfront or "guaranteed" money from the organization, more than any other player.
The last one, signed in 2003, was supposed to be the final one, which would allow him to retire as a Raven.
Never once did Lewis give the Ravens a hometown discount.
Hometown discount? Now, that's funny.
Winning is everything
The Ravens' head coaching position has undergone a complete evolution, and they finally have a true football coach in John Harbaugh.
Both of Harbaugh's predecessors, Ted Marchibroda and Brian Billick, were good coaches, but they were brought in for other reasons in addition to winning football games.
Marchibroda, who was with the Ravens from 1996 through 1998, had experience. With his easygoing style, he could make the transition of moving from Cleveland to Baltimore smooth even though he had no chance of winning because of the Browns' financial situation.
