For a guy who was tweeting about being gone fewer than 30 hours ago, Ravens left tackle Bryant McKinnie said he was content with the way things worked out.
“I don’t have no problem,” McKinnie said Wednesday, via Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun. “If anything in business, you can’t get too many emotions tied up in it when you know you have to deal with business at the same time.
“It was business on their end, it was business on our end and we took care of it.”
The Ravens took care of it all right, squeezing a million bucks out of McKinnie because they could.
They dropped his base salary from $3.2 million to $2.2 million. He can earn the original number back in incentives, but that’s not guaranteed.
But a day ago, when he saw coach John Harbaugh’s number pop up on his phone, he thought he was an ex-Raven.
“At that point, I thought I was already gone,” McKinnie said. “I was surprised to get a phone call. I thought it was a farewell phone call.”
McKinnie said he wasn’t sure what prompted the discussions, but swore he was past the back-and-forth of the day before.
“There was a lot of change in emotions, swinging back and forth because you thought you were gone and then they’re back. I’m here now so I can focus on the Bengals,” he said. “I was a little bit confused but we managed to get through it and I’m still here. It was confusing, but we were able to work it out. That’s the only thing that matters really.”
Well, that and the Ravens saved some money, and proved yet again which side has the hammer in such negotiations.