Rosenhaus

Starks watch: Rookie cornerback Duane Starks' holdout has reached two weeks. The Ravens and agent Drew Rosenhaus continue to negotiate, and the team is considering a variation on its five-year, $8.5 million offer. The Ravens already have offered a signing bonus of up to $3.9 million and a first-year salary of $630,000. But, since they doubt how effective Starks can be as a rookie with all the camp time he has missed, they may want to lower his first-year salary and bonus and shift that money to the back end of the deal.

The Ravens have reached agreement in principle on a contract with No. 1 draft pick Jonathan Ogden, a source close to the team confirmed last night.Details of the contract were not available, but the deal is believed to be for six or seven years. Ogden, the left offensive tackle from UCLA, was the fourth player chosen in the NFL draft.According to the source, only minor details of the contract need to be completed before it is signed by Ogden, who will report Monday with the other rookies for camp at Western Maryland College.

While the Ravens and the agent for their top draft pick, cornerback Duane Starks, continue efforts to reach agreement on a contract that will get Starks into training camp on time, the team most likely will not see center Wally Williams at Western Maryland College when veterans report Thursday.Williams said yesterday that he will sit out for about two weeks unless the team and his agent, Tom Condon, begin talks before camp about a long-term contract.Judging by team owner Art Modell's comments, Williams is headed for a holdout.

ORLANDO, Fla. - The NFL meetings quickly turned into a Ravens farewell party. In what has been a slow and stingy free-agent market, the Ravens could only watch as their top priority, cornerback Duane Starks, and their leading receiver, Qadry Ismail, signed lucrative deals with different teams within hours of each other yesterday afternoon. The Ravens attempted to talk Starks into waiting until the team could free up some salary cap room in a couple of months, but he didn't pass up a five-year, $23 million deal from the Arizona Cardinals that includes a $5 million signing bonus.

ASHBURN, Va. - He entered the NFL with a reputation for laying down hard hits and making big plays. So far, however, Sean Taylor's rookie campaign with the Washington Redskins has been marked more by what he has done off the field instead of on it. After disputes with agents and a prank gone awry, Taylor's latest problem occurred last Thursday morning when he was arrested on the Capital Beltway in Virginia on a drunken driving charge. Redskins coach Joe Gibbs deactivated Taylor for last Sunday's home game against the Green Bay Packers and banished the safety from the team's practice facility until this past Monday.

The Ravens and starting center Steve Everitt have reopened negotiations, with the team offering Everitt a five-year contract worth nearly $9 million, almost $6 million short of the deal Everitt wants, according to sources from both sides in the negotiations.Also, the Ravens have an interest in possibly signing veteran cornerback J. B. Brown, a former University of Maryland standout who was released by the Miami Dolphins on Monday. A source close to the team also confirmed the Ravens have an interest in outside linebacker Chad Brown, an unrestricted free agent, who led the Pittsburgh Steelers in sacks last season with 13.Everitt's agent, John Macik, confirmed that he had spoken with Ravens vice president David Modell yesterday afternoon and that an initial offer had been made.

By Mike Preston, The Baltimore Sun Former Ravens tight end Shannon Sharpe has failed to make the Hall of Fame class for the last two seasons, but if Ravens general manger Ozzie Newsome had a vote, Sharpe would have been inducted. Newsome should know a little bit about tight ends. After playing the position for the Cleveland Browns for 13 years, Newsome was inducted in the Hall of Fame in the Class of 1999 after catching 662 passes for 7,980 yards and 47 touchdowns.

Rookie fullback Steve Lee's hunger can be satisfied in two ways. Give him a plateful of steak and potatoes, and put a linebacker or a defensive back in his path.Lee likes to tear through each of them. His appetite has helped him attain a bulky, 6-foot-1, 257-pound frame, which features calves that would fit the league's bigger linemen. His willingness to throw his body around unselfishly, clearing the way for ball carriers with crunching blocks, is the reason the Ravens made him a sixth-round draft pick.

Errict Rhett was ahead of his time in the frenetic world of high finance, squeezing a nice profit from the newest innovation.In the bottom-line business of football, he was running late, buried under a cloud of innuendo and suspicion.This season, football caught up to finance for the Ravens' running back. A free agent as recently as last April, a special- and scout-teamer as recently as Week 1, Rhett leads the AFC in rushing one-quarter of the way through the season with 350 loud yards.His football stock, almost worthless a month ago, is soaring, just as it did when he posted back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1994-1995.

Here's a look at where selected Ravens players are now: Sam Adams: Owned National Indoor Football League franchises in Cincinnati and Everett, Wash., before giving up control in 2007 Robert Bailey: President of Rosenhaus Sports Representation Orlando Bobo: Died of heart and liver failure at age 33 in 2007 Peter Boulware: Member of the State Board of Education in Florida O.J. Brigance: Ravens senior adviser to player development Cornell Brown: Defensive line coach for Calgary Stampeders (Canadian Football League)