OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) The Baltimore Ravens have built their roster around Lamar Jackson on offense and Roquan Smith on defense, and they've paid both players accordingly.That means having to cut corners elsewhere.You cant have 10 players making $20 million a year. You just cant do it on a $258 million salary cap, general manager Eric DeCosta said. "Every team operates with a different strategy how they pay players, whats important to them. We try to be balanced acro s the board, and we try Ahmarean Brown Jersey to pay our best players as much as we can, understanding that sometimes we just cant keep every single player. If we could, the roster would be different. But its not, and we understand that. It is challenging, sometimes, to let really good players leave, but thats the busine s were in.DeCosta took questions from reporters Thursday, a week before Baltimore's season opener at Kansas City. It was a tough offseason for the Ravens to navigate. They did manage to and extend receiver Rashod Bateman. Baltimore also gave defensive lineman Justin Madubuike a , but the team lost linebacker Patrick Queen and edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney. Three starters on the offensive line are also gone.ADVERTISEMENT The Ravens are trying to replace those offensive linemen with internal options, with guards Andrew Vorhees and Daniel Faalele potentially playing bigger roles. They also drafted tackle Roger Rosengarten in the second round.You just simply cant pay everybody, and we made the decision that we were going to go young on Wyatt Davis Jersey the offensive line as best as we could, DeCosta said. Weve had a lot of succe s developing offensive linemen in the past. I could give you a bunch of players that we took in the draft or even got off the streets, and those guys became good players for us."DeCosta acknowledged there could be some hiccups but Ben Petrula Jersey said a year from now, the offensive line could be in a great place.The Ravens needed to retool a bit on the fly at a time when there's still pre sure from fans for the team to reach a Super Bowl with Lamar Jackson at quarterback. Baltimore was dominant in the regular season in 2023, posting the league's best record, but the Ravens lost at home to Kansas City in the AFC championship game.DeCosta indicated if he were ranking the best Ravens teams, he'd put the famous 2000 championship team with its incredible defense in the mix, but he also mentioned teams from 2006, 2011, 2019 and 2023 that didn't make the Super Bowl.As for the 2012 team that did win it all: We got hot late, he said.My goal is to build a team that has talent at every position, that is flexible enough to withstand injuries, that we have depth to get us Duke Johnson Jersey through a long season and to make the playoffs and to be sort of ascending at that point, DeCosta said. Its really hard to project whats going to happen, and its mentally challenging, too, for me.It may be difficult for the 2024 Ravens to prove anything until the playoffs, but DeCosta doesn't really accept the notion that the Super Bowl is the sole arbiter of a good season.I think weve maybe had the best record twice in the last five years, and we didnt make it to the end. Thats tough, but I am proud of our team, what weve accomplished, DeCosta said. "We havent accomplished our ultimate goal, but I dont really subscribe to the idea that your season is a failure if Marcus Haynes Jersey you dont win the Super Bowl. I know a lot of people do. If I did that, Id probably be in a mental institution. So, I dont feel that way. I measure succe s of a season in a lot of different things Super Bowl being one of those things, but certainly not the only criteria that I would use to judge a season.___AP NFL: