Ravens left tackle Ronnie Stanley knows what he has around him in Baltimore. From two-time NFL Most Valuable Player and quarterback Lamar Jackson to five-time Pro Bowl selection and second-team All-Pro running back Derrick Henry to a defense that over the second half of last season was one of the best in the league, it’s a trove of riches, even without a Super Bowl trophy to prove it.

It’s the collection of those players, he said Monday, that was the “biggest driver” behind his decision to forego a likely even more lucrative payday in free agency and instead re-sign with the Ravens earlier this month.

Make no mistake, Stanley, a two-time Pro Bowl selection, including last season, did not come cheap, but he was relatively inexpensive at $60 million over three years with $44 million guaranteed in the first two. He was also willing to give Baltimore “first dibs” when it came to a new contract “out of respect” for being the team that drafted him sixth overall out of Notre Dame in 2016.

“I knew I was going to give Baltimore the best bargain that I offered any other team,” he said in a video call with reporters in his first comments since re-signing with the Ravens. “But that being said, I still wanted to be happy with what I’m making and getting the value that I feel like I deserve.”

That has him tied for the ninth-highest-paid left tackle in the NFL in terms of annual average value ($20 million), with the Detroit Lions’ Taylor Decker, according to Over The Cap.

It also means the Ravens could keep intact the majority of an offensive line that helped pave the way for the most yards per game (426.5) and yards per play (6.8) in the NFL last season. With only starting left guard Patrick Mekari and reserve guard/tackle Josh Jones having departed in free agency, Baltimore will return four of its five starters from this past season.

That includes left guard Andrew Vorhees, who was a starter the first three games of the 2024 season before suffering an ankle injury and being replaced by Mekari the rest of the way, as well as second-year right tackle Roger Rosengarten, who settled in at the position after some early hiccups as a rookie.

As for Stanley, his legacy has also come to be important. Baltimore is the only NFL team he has played for and there’s a sense of “unfinished business.”

“I’m realizing how rare of a thing it is,” he said of being with one team for what will be his 10th professional season this year. “I think it’s just a really cool thing to be able to spend 10 years of my career-plus with the same team I got drafted with.”

Still, Stanley’s curiosity was piqued by outside interest.

The Kansas City Chiefs, Washington Commanders and New England Patriots were among the teams reportedly interested in signing Stanley if he hit the open market. Things never got that far along where he thought he might leave, he said, but he considered the options.

“I was open to whatever was going to happen,” Stanley said. “I knew the cap situation we were in and how many players we need to pay, current and future younger guys, so I knew it wasn’t going to be a personal thing.

“It ended up working out for the best.”

Now Baltimore hopes it can say the same.

Last season, Stanley, who turns 31 on Tuesday, played every game for the first time in his career and was on the field for a career-high 1,089 snaps. But his injury history is well-documented with 36 games missed since 2020.

But when he has been healthy, he’s been among the game’s best at his position.

There’s also the matter of getting to and winning a Super Bowl. Only once during Stanley’s tenure have the Ravens advanced past the divisional round of the playoffs, losing to the Chiefs in the AFC championship game at M&T Bank Stadium in January 2024.

This past January, the Buffalo Bills knocked them out of the playoffs in the divisional round for the second time in five years in a familiarly mistake-filled game in which Baltimore turned the ball over three times in the 27-25 defeat that also included a dropped game-tying 2-point conversion by tight end Mark Andrews with 1:33 remaining.

“Definitely took me a minute to get over that,” Stanley said of the loss. “Those type of games stick with you for a while, even a lifetime.”

What will it take to get over that proverbial hump?

“I think it’s as simple as [executing better in the playoffs],” he said. “I think it’s just getting out of our own way a little bit, not beating ourselves.”

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