It’s official! Former Baltimore Ravens defensive end, Brent Urban, signed with the Tennessee Titans on Friday. Urban entered the market as an undrafted free agent in March. Despite assumption, the Ravens elected not to re-sign him. Urban dealt with many injuries throughout his five years in Baltimore. After four years of dealing with the injuries, Baltimore offered Urban a one year prove it deal last offseason. Urban took advantage of this opportunity. He started every game of the regular season and started in Baltimore’s first-round playoff loss to the Chargers.
Urban waited a long time to land a new home. The class of defensive ends in this year’s market was deep, and teams had options. The Ravens signaled that they would officially exit the contest to re-sign Urban by showing interest in Ezekiel Ansah. Baltimore invited the former Lions edge rusher to work out before the draft, but the Ravens made no signing. Baltimore will likely wait until after May 7, as it would prevent the Ravens from losing a compensatory pick in 2020. This is important, as it gives Baltimore extra selections in the draft, a major part of the draft strategy laid out by Ozzie Newsome, and now Eric DeCosta.
None of the details about the recently signed contract are known. Urban visited with the Titans earlier this month, and Tennessee obviously liked what they saw in Urban at that visit. Urban will be reunited with the former Ravens defensive coordinator, Dean Pees, who is currently the defensive coordinator of the Titans. Pees planned to retire last year but was lured out of retirement by Titans head coach Mike Vrabel. Pees is coaching under Vrabel, but above his son, who is an assistant coach in Tennessee. Urban will benefit from the familiarity and relationship he already has with Dean Pees.
