It didn't take long for Ravens free agent guard Ben Powers to find a new home.
According to multiple reports, Powers agreed to terms on a deal with the Denver Broncos less than an hour after the NFL's legal tampering free-agency window opened.
It's a reported four-year deal worth $52 million, making it an average of $13 million per year. Powers put pen to paper Thursday.
Besides Lamar Jackson, Powers was the Ravens' hottest unrestricted free agent and it was long expected that he had priced himself out of Baltimore with a breakout fourth season.
Powers went from a player competing for a starting spot and potentially on the roster bubble in last year's training camp to one of the league's top guards.
He had the second-highest pass blocking grade of any guard in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus, and was a major reason why the Ravens yet again were one of the league's best running teams. He played all 1,096 snaps, as Baltimore's only offensive player not to miss a single snap.
"Ben has probably improved as much as anybody on our team. He had a phenomenal season this year – started every game," General Manager Eric DeCosta said in January. "Ben is a guy who we'd love to keep. My feeling is Ben is probably going to be sought after in free agency, based on the way he played this year.
"I'm just really happy and proud of Ben for the way that he played and the way that he's really come on and matured over his time with us. I'm very happy for him and his family. They put themselves in a great position, and he's a player that I think is going to do really well."
Powers was a Ravens fourth-round pick in 2019, DeCosta's first year as general manager. If the Ravens do not cancel out the signing with an unrestricted free-agent signing of their own, Powers is projected to deliver a fourth-round compensatory pick in next year's draft, per OvertheCap’s Nick Korte.
Powers will be forever linked to Baltimore sports fan icon Mo Gaba, the child who announced the Ravens' pick of Powers. The two forged a bond before Gaba's passing in July of 2020.
The Ravens will be looking for a new starting left guard, which as of now, appears to be a competition between Patrick Mekari, Ben Cleveland, and John Simpson, a former Raiders starter who Baltimore added late last year. The Ravens could also add another interior lineman in the draft to compete.
