Ravens Ink DT Ngata To A Five Year Deal
Added on Sep 20, 2011 by Jack Thurman in
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Although Ray Lewis remains the emotional leader of the Baltimore Ravens defense–as well as its best known member–football experts have started to consider defensive tackle Haloti Ngata as the current best player. That fact has not been lost on the team, and on Tuesday they announced that they’d signed Ngata to a five year deal valued at $61 million.
Ngata’s agent Mike McCartney said that the timing of the deal was due to a deadline and his client’s impressive performance against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 1 of the NFL campaign:
“The two things that brought this together was a deadline and domination. Today was the deadline to sign franchise players and there’s no doubt that when the Ravens saw Haloti dominate against the Steelers, they wanted this deal done. Deadlines and domination got this done.”
Ravens’ GM Ozzie Newsome had this to say about Ngata:
“He’s a player who commands an offense’s attention every single play, and his presence allows us to play a variety of effective defenses. Teams have to prepare for Haloti every week. Opposing coaches game-plan on Tuesday with Haloti in mind. They know he can dominate, and they know he is going to play at a very high level.”
For his part, Ngata is happy to be staying in Baltimore:
“You rarely see players around the league play with one team their entire career. For me to be here another five years is great, and I’m thankful for the opportunity the Ravens have provided me. Hopefully, I can retire here.”
Ngata finished the 2010 season with 65 tackles, a career-high 5½ sacks and earned a second straight Pro Bowl berth. He’s also known for his durability–he’s missed only two games in his NFL career.
The Ravens will try to bounce back from a loss to the Tennessee Titans as they head to St. Louis to take on the Rams this Sunday. The Rams will be looking for their first victory of the season after losses to the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants to start the 2011 campaign. Baltimore has been installed as a -3′ point NFL betting favorite with the total set at 41.
