© Mark Konezny-USA TODAY SportsBaltimore Ravens running back Gus Edwards (35)
The Ravens' ground game has been dynamic over the past couple of years, and they're not going to let a key piece of that get away. Baltimore placed a second-round tender on restricted free agent Gus Edwards, a source told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
The second-round tender will be worth around $3.4M this year, so it's a nice payday for Edwards. It also means that any team that wants to sign Edwards to an offer sheet would have to give up a second-round pick, which virtually guarantees he'll be back with the Ravens next year. Since Edwards is a former undrafted free agent, had they tendered him at the original-round level, opposing teams wouldn't have had to give anything up to poach him.
That original-round tender would've paid about $2.1M, so it's a better than 50 percent increase for Edwards. The Rutgers product started off on the practice squad in 2018 but quickly moved up to the active roster and even started six games that year.
Impressively, he's averaged at least 5.0 yards per carry in each of his three pro seasons while carrying the ball at least 133 times in each of those. This past season in 16 games and six starts, he rushed 144 times for 723 yards and six touchdowns. With Mark Ingram out of the picture now, Edwards will be back splitting carries with second-year player J.K. Dobbins in 2021.
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