Reports began to surface last month that Baltimore tackle Jared Gaither would be available for less than a first-round pick if a team wanted to make the Ravens an offer. But those reports may have simply been a motivational tool used by the team.
Mike Preston of the Baltimore Sun reports that trade talk was a ploy to get Gaither to start attending offseason workouts in Baltimore with the rest of the team.
Workouts are voluntary, but sometimes if players think their jobs depend on attending workouts, that makes them more likely to report. Whatever the case, Gaither did start working out with the team.
However, that doesn’t necessarily mean Gaither will be a Raven in 2010. Preston suggests that Gaither could still be traded during the draft, possibly for a second-round pick plus a conditional 2011 pick.
The Ravens acquired Gaither with a fifth-round pick in the 2007 supplemental draft, and tendered him at the first-round level this year. Gaither started 11 games in 2009.