{"id":767113,"date":"2026-02-21T16:50:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T16:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/767113\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T16:50:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T16:50:26","slug":"isaiah-likely-gets-honest-about-future-with-ravens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/767113\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah Likely Gets Honest About Future With Ravens"},"content":{"rendered":"

The writing has been on the wall that Baltimore Ravens<\/a> talented young tight end Isaiah Likely <\/a>would be heading elsewhere in free agency for months. Ever since the team inked his friend and veteran mentor, three-time Pro Bowler Mark Andrews<\/a>, to an extension during the 2025 regular season, the former fourth-rounder’s departure felt inevitable.<\/p>\n

With the franchise tag for tight ends being north of what Andrews is already making and the Ravens having more pressing needs than ensuring they maintain arguably the best duo at the position in the league, Likely recently admitted to knowing that is time in Charm City is most likely coming to an end.<\/p>\n

“I love Baltimore,” Likely said in an interview on Gruden Goes Long<\/a>. “They took a chance on me when all 31 didn’t, so like, the end day, I tell everybody, like, Baltimore’s home for me. But at the end day, business is business. So I’m just really just seeing what’s gonna happen.” <\/p>\n

The Ravens are already paying one tight end $10-plus million, just extended former first-round wideout Rashod Bateman last offseason, and still need to work on extensions for two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson, three-time Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum, and the franchise’s first homegrown Pro Bowl receiver, Zay Flowers.<\/p>\n

While spotrac.com<\/a>‘s market value projection has Likely slated to receive a two-year deal with an average annual salary of just $8.8 million, given his age at just 25 years old and the dynamic playmaking ability he’s displayed when healthy, the price he actually ends up signing for will almost certainly be substantially higher.<\/p>\n

Likely has already been in talks with his agent about the approach he wants him to take in free agency to ensure he lands in a place where he feels like there’s an opportunity for him to blossom into an upper echelon player, his tape and ability reflect after learning what that looks like as Andrews’ understudy to begin his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s taught me everything to be a star caliber tight end, to the point where it’s like, now I feel like I just want to be on a team that where I could just get out there and help a quarterback, help a team be able to put as much points on the board as possible,\u201d Likely said. \u201cJust giving that information to my agent and letting him basically go to the teams and be an agent.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did it get here?\"Baltimore<\/p>\n

Nov 27, 2025; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely (80) attempts to make a catch against the Cincinnati Bengals during the first half at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images | Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Through the first three seasons of his NFL career, Likely was steadily on the rise to stardom, showing promising, explosive flashes as a fourth-round rookie out of Coastal Carolina in 2022 and posting better numbers in each of the following years.<\/p>\n

Heading into a 2025 season in which he and every other member of his position group on the team were set to play on the final year of their respective contract, he was poised to break out in an even bigger way and potentially even usurp Andrews as the new No. 1. <\/p>\n

In typically Ravens fashion, they tried to get ahead of the curve with negotiations and reportedly offered Likely an extension before the season, but he wanted to play the year out and try to further bolster his rising stock.<\/p>\n

A broken fifth metatarsal in his foot caused him to miss the first three games, and the absence of franchise quarterback Lamar Jackson upon his return delayed his reemergence further, resulting in him finishing with career low numbers across the board with 27 catches for 307 receiving yards and just one touchdown.<\/p>\n

Despite the less-than-ideal start to his contract year, the prevailing thought was that the Ravens would still wind up picking Likely over Andrews when it was said and done, but it didn’t prove to be the case.<\/p>\n

What’s next and will the Ravens regret letting him go?\"Baltimore<\/p>\n

Sep 28, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Baltimore Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely (80) on the sidelines against the Baltimore Ravens during the game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images | Denny Medley-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

In Baltimore, Likely was nearly the offense’s equivalent to All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton in the sense that he excelled as a versatile chess piece that was deployed as tight end, wide receiver and lead blocker. Wherever Likely lands, he wants to continue to be utilized in a multitude of ways that highlight his versatility as a playmaker and contributor in other aspects of the game.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s something I\u2019ve developed and pride myself on, being able to be put anywhere on the field, whether it’s in the slot, in line, out wide, in the backfield, anywhere, and just letting me, you know, help the team as much as possible,\u201d Likely said. \u201cI feel like that’s just something I’ll go and look for.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are plenty of teams with a need for a dynamic and explosive player at the tight end position, and would not only love landing one still entering his prime but have more than enough cap space to outbid the Ravens and most other teams for his services.<\/p>\n

One such team that falls into that category is the one he grew up rooting for and just represented the AFC in the Super Bowl with the New England Patriots. They were Likely’s favorite team growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and currently are slated to have the 11th most effective cap space when the new league begins in a few weeks at $36.4 million, according to overthecap.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another couple of possible destinations could see him follow one of his coaches from his time in Baltimore, as former Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken and head coach John Harbaugh were hired to lead the Cleveland Browns and New York Giants, respectively. He was asked about both possibilities and didn’t slam the door on either as a viable option.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Monk,\u201d Likely said. \u201cI feel like they got a really good tight end, the young tight end that they have over there in [Harold] Fannin, especially what he’s done his rookie year. But, I mean, there’s a lot of places. Baltimore, split up everywhere. We got Harbs out there in New York, Monk out there in Cleveland. So who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n

Make sure you bookmark Baltimore Ravens On SI for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The writing has been on the wall that Baltimore Ravens talented young tight end Isaiah Likely would be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[184,117,2282,7,6,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-767113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-baltimoreravens","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-ravens"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116109656593878695","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}