When wide receiver Mike Wallace broke into the NFL with the Steelers, he quickly became one of the league’s best deep threats while running down balls thrown by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
A desire for a bigger contract helped lead Wallace to Miami, where he didn’t enjoy the same success on the receiving end of Ryan Tannehill’s throws. Things weren’t any better with the Vikings and Teddy Bridgewater last season, leading the Vikings to release Wallace rather than pay him $11.5 million for the 2016 season.
Wallace signed with the Ravens on Tuesday for two years at the same $11.5 million in salary and said at a press conference that he’s looking forward to playing with Joe Flacco, whose years with Baltimore have featured plenty of deep balls that turned into catches or pass interference penalties.
“You have a quarterback that can really sling the ball,” Wallace said, via Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun. “That’s what I need.”
There are a lot of question marks in the Ravens receiving corps, but things should look a lot better than they did this year if Wallace revive his deep threat credentials while Steve Smith and Breshad Perriman return from injuries in good form.