The Baltimore Ravens have played in the Super Bowl twice since their founding in 1996. They defeated the New York Giants 34-7 in Super Bowl XXV for their first Lombardi Trophy. Their second triumph came in Super Bowl XLVII – also known as ‘The HarBowl” – when John Harbaugh’s crew beat Jim Harbaugh’s San Francisco 49ers 34-31.
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Wide receiver Anquan Boldin played a massive role in Baltimore’s second Super Bowl run. Many of his 22 playoff receptions were contested catches against tight coverage in key situations.
Boldin recorded 380 yards (17.3 yards per reception) and four touchdowns on those grabs. Despite these impressive contributions, the Ravens traded him to the 49ers just five weeks after winning their second championship.
Baltimore’s current general manager, Eric DeCosta, was the Ravens’ assistant general manager back then. He spoke about Boldin’s trade on Wednesday’s episode of The McShay Show. DeCosta detailed how that choice, made by his predecessor, Ozzie Newsome, was the “toughest lesson” he learned from Newsome before stepping into the GM slot.
“Sometimes [you] do what’s right for the organization even though you know it’s the wrong thing to do… we had a player that, historically, was one of the great Ravens of all time in Anquan Boldin… [he] epitomized what it meant to be a Raven… and we had to trade him… it was a horrible football decision, but we had to do it… sometimes, you have to just accept that you have to make the hard decision.”
Baltimore was “in a bad [salary] cap situation” following the Super Bowl XLVII victory. Joe Flacco, their quarterback and the game’s MVP, was a pending free agent. The Ravens inked him to a six-year, $120.6 million contract on Mar. 4 and traded Boldin seven days later.
Anquan Boldin “shocked” by trade from Ravens
It’s rare for an organization to decide to part ways with a superstar player after winning a championship. And the Ravens have never been known for wide receiver development.
Zay Flowers became their first-ever Pro Bowl wideout this year. Them sending Boldin cross-country on their own accord was surprising to everyone, including Boldin himself, per NFL.com.
“It was an initial shock because I had no clue that I was going to be traded… but I mean it, for me it is also a good thing. When I look at [San Francisco’s] organization and what they’re about … and as a football team, the talent that they have … I think it’s good, a good place for me to be.”
Boldin somehow wasn’t even the most inconceivable departure for the Ravens that offseason. Hall of Fame safety Ed Reed – considered by many to be the greatest safety in NFL history – left Baltimore after the Super Bowl as well. He signed a three-year, $15 million deal with the Houston Texans in free agency.
Those losses were tough for DeCosta to stomach, but as he mentioned, he treasures the experience of them. They showed him the approach he needed to maintain once he replaced Newsome as GM in 2019. Had he not witnessed the Boldin and Reed moves, his tenure as GM may have gotten off to a drastically different start.
“[I] got to the first day of the new league year, and we lost Za’Darius Smith, Terrell Suggs, Eric Weddle and… C.J. Mosley. Four legit Pro Bowl players. We couldn’t sign them back… and I was just getting crushed… ‘what the hell is this guy doing?!’… I could have finagled a way to keep some of those guys… but it wasn’t the right thing to do… for the club. So I had to just eat it.”
Baltimore went 14-2 in DeCosta’s first season as GM. The Ravens have won double-digit games in five of his six years. The lone time they didn’t (2021) was when Lamar Jackson hurt his ankle in Week 14 and missed the remainder of the season. Baltimore lost its final six games – five by three points or less – that year.
Nine Ravens players earned Pro Bowl bids in 2024. Two others – Ronnie Stanley and Kyle Van Noy – made the exhibition event as alternates. In other words, more than 20% of DeCosta’s roster is top-shelf talent. He has performed his duties to such an exceptional degree that he’ll have his own Boldin-like decisions to make in the future. And as tough as those may be, he’d rather face them than pick early in the NFL Draft.
