{"id":60172,"date":"2019-03-05T19:08:25","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T00:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=60172"},"modified":"2019-03-05T19:08:25","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T00:08:25","slug":"safety-eric-weddle-released-baltimore-ravens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2019\/03\/05\/safety-eric-weddle-released-baltimore-ravens\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety Eric Weddle Released by Baltimore Ravens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the integral leaders of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/ravens\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Baltimore Ravens<\/a> defence will not be back next season as it was announced that <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WeddEr99.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eric Weddle<\/a><\/strong> has been released by the Ravens. The news comes just one day after the Ravens neglected to place the franchise tag on inside linebacker <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/MoslC.00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">C.J. Mosley<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and is likely a move to free up money for the upcoming\u00a0free agent\u00a0period. Releasing Weddle will open up $7.5 million in cap space for the Ravens. He was set to make $9 million in the final year of his four-year deal.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Source: The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Ravens?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Ravens<\/a> have cut Eric Weddle. Wow.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RapSheet\/status\/1103062391225491456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 5, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Weddle is a two-time All-Pro and six-time Pro-Bowler, making the all-star game each of his three years in Baltimore.<\/p>\n<h2>Safety Eric Weddle Released by Baltimore Ravens<\/h2>\n<p>The cutting of Weddle will come as a surprise\u00a0to some because he played pretty well again in 2018. Weddle, now 34 years old, registered a sack, two QB hits, 68 tackles, and three pass defences last season. The most alarming statistic, however, was that Weddle failed to register an interception on the season after grabbing six just a year ago. He also graded out as Pro Football Focus&#8217;s 10th ranked safety of 2018 and missed just five of his 78 tackle attempts.<\/p>\n<p>Before coming to Baltimore, Weddle had a storied career as a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/chargers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Diego Charger<\/a>. He played nine years for the Bolts and racked up 70 pass defences, 6.5 sacks, 847 tackles and 19 interceptions. His relationship soured with the team after a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/eric-weddle-agent-goes-off-on-twitter-over-chargers-fine-2015-12\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">couple of incidents<\/a>\u00a0and got his initial revenge when the Ravens defeated his former team 22-10 week 16 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>Weddle initially said that if the Ravens were to release him he would walk away from football but something changed in his mindset just a few weeks back. &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/25836008\/eric-weddle-open-playing-other-team-baltimore-ravens-cut-him\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">So, if (I&#8217;m released), we both move on, and we&#8217;ll see if I&#8217;ll play somewhere else or hang &#8217;em up<\/a>&#8221; Weddle stated according to ESPN&#8217;s Jamison Hensley.<\/p>\n<h3>Last Word<\/h3>\n<p>General manager <strong>Eric DeCosta<\/strong> has been very clear about working diligently under the salary\u00a0cap and moving on from Weddle was the third move to this offseason to\u00a0continue to open up cap room. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CrabMi00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Crabtree<\/a><\/strong> was also cut prior to the free agency period. DeCosta has also <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/2019\/02\/13\/denver-broncos-and-baltimore-ravens-agree-on-joe-flacco-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">agreed to trade<\/a> quarterback <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/F\/FlacJo00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Flacco<\/a><\/strong> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/broncos\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Denver Broncos<\/a>.\u00a0The three moves have opened up a total of $22.67 million in cap space for the Ravens to use when the league&#8217;s new year begins March 13th.<\/p>\n<p>The Ravens will now likely turn to the draft or one of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/E\/ElliDe02.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DeShon Elliot<\/a><\/strong> or <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/ClarCh00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chuck Clark<\/a><\/strong> to fill Weddle&#8217;s\u00a0spot.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"hbFzlS5dTjlQEITPx5f4fg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1064821402\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'hbFzlS5dTjlQEITPx5f4fg',sig:'g7BC_gPMucDEMswNtiSCnYXq0w82KvgC2SKlKZAmogs=',w:'594px',h:'416px',items:'1064821402',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the integral leaders of the Baltimore Ravens defence will not be back next season as it was announced that Eric Weddle has been released by the Ravens. The news comes just one day after the Ravens neglected to place the franchise tag on inside linebacker C.J. Mosley\u00a0and is likely a move to free [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2823,"featured_media":60182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,36],"tags":[4547,174,800,4481,787,40],"class_list":["post-60172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ravens","category-nfl-news","tag-2019-nfl-season","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-c-j-mosley","tag-eric-decosta","tag-eric-weddle","tag-nfl"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2823"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}