The Future of Marquise Brown With the Ravens

Brown had 1,000 yards receiving last year.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Ravens wide receiver Marquise Brown will be with the team through the 2023 season. 

From there, his future is uncertain.

Brown is in the final year of his rookie contract. Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta confirmed the team will pick up his fifth-year option in 2023 worth $13.4 million.

However, that's where the situation gets tricky.

Would the Ravens be willing to spend close to $20 million per year to keep Brown in Baltimore? 

“First of all, Marquise was my first pick, and I think very highly of Marquise," said DeCosta, who took over as GM in 2019. "I think he’s a talent. I love his personality and his competitiveness and his passion. I think he had over 90 catches (91) this year and just over 1,000 yards (1,008). But I like his energy that he brings, and quite honestly, for his skill set, for what he brings to the table, the fifth-year option, in my mind, if you look at receivers and what they’re making now, it looks like a bargain. 

"He’s just a nice piece, and honestly, if we didn’t bring him back, we’d be trying to find another receiver."

As a rookie with the Ravens, Brown caught 46 passes for 584 yards with seven touchdowns despite being hampered by a foot injury.

The following year, he caught 58 passes for 769 yards with eight scores.

Brown is a hard worker in the offseason, and thiswill be another crucial year for him.

Brown and tight end Mark Andrews each eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards last year. It was just the second Ravens tandem to reach the 1,000-yard mark in the same season, joining Michael Jackson and Derrick Alexander who accomplished that feat in 1996.

“I feel like I had a weak 1,000 yards, but I’m grateful, [I’m] thankful," Brown said. "But [that was] definitely not how I wanted to end the season. We started the season off good. One of the key things I talked about was consistency, and I feel like the later half of the season wasn’t that consistent."

However, Brown can be disappointing with his drops and he has also expressed disappointment at times with the Ravens for not getting enough targets. 

In February, Brown deleted all of his Ravens pictures on social media, which ramped up speculation about his future with the team. He did not elaborate on why he took down the photos so everything is conjecture at this point.

At this point, Brown's future with the Ravens is a guessing game too.