Centre Matt Birk shuns retirement plans to agree 3-year deal with Baltimore Ravens-NFL News
The centre, Matt Birk, is confirmed to have deviated from earlier reported retirement plans and agreed to a new three-year contract with the Baltimore Ravens.
A couple of media reports a week earlier had linked the player’s planned move to call it quits from the professional league, with nothing much coming out to its acceptance or denial from the management or player himself.
The player has spent last three years of his professional career at Ravens and was placed for the starting position during all this period.
Ravens were said to have become concerned about the future and started weighing options of brining home his replacement.
However, a breakthrough has now been reported between the stakeholders with the player winning a new deal from the team.
Apart from the tenure other terms of the deal including its value has not been made available by either of the parties, except for that both of them are happy over the arrangement.
The general manager, Ozzie Newsome, is especially pleased with the outcome of the negotiations with the player. He said bringing back the player was part of Ravens’ strategy to focus their offence as much as the defence.
Newsome said:
"One of the things we said earlier this offseason is that we were going to focus attention on the offensive line, and getting Matt Birk back is key for us. He is a top player, his intelligence is obvious, and he is a leader on and off the field."
It is pertinent to note here that Ravens, who have traditionally relied on their defence in their performance and wins, recently started shifting the focus on offensive department as well.
The decision has come out with the team’s failure in reaching the American Football Conference (AFC) championship and most importantly to Super Bowl in their last four successive attempts, which were the most successful runs for the team, otherwise.
In the pursuit to building a stronger offence attack, the team has recently added the fulltime offensive co-ordinator, none other than Jim Caldwell. He as a head coach of the Indianapolis Colts have trained and groomed the players like Peyton Manning.
Caldwell’s signing is expected to benefit their quarterback, Joe Flacco, and now also to Birk, who the manager said was an important figure of the team.
As a result of the new deal, Matt Birk, is returning to the squad into 15th season of his professional league career. He has started for about 96 consecutive games including those he played for Ravens.
It is difficult to determine if the player will be able to honour his commitment of playing next three seasons. He has already played a decade and half and could soon be feeling age. It can come as a hurdle in his career progression.
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