There were other teams interested in Jeremy Maclin. But the Ravens quickly emerged as the favorite, at least based on Maclin’s gut feeling.
“With me coming here and what was already here, I felt like this was a team that could definitely win and definitely build something special,” Maclin said, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com. “From a football standpoint, it made the most sense.”
So that led him to ignore interest from the Bills and Eagles, and join up with Baltimore.
The Ravens put the full-court press on the veteran wideout, with Joe Flacco texting him while he was visiting Buffalo, to safety Tony Jefferson inviting him to his home to watch basketball to retired wideout Steve Smith recruiting him during his visit.
(They also offered him a two-year, $11 million contract, which didn’t hurt. And the free crab cakes definitely didn’t.)
Perhaps the warm feelings made up for the chilly treatment he got from the Chiefs, who released him last week rather than earlier in the offseason, which would have made for an easier market.
“Of course it hurt a little bit, just kind of how it went down and it just being so unexpected,” Maclin said. “But at the same time, it’s a business. You understand how things work. So there was only one choice but to pull it together and get things back on track.”
And Baltimore’s the place he thinks that’s going to happen.