The Baltimore Ravens on Saturday morning reached a four-year contract agreement with unrestricted free agent defensive tackle Sam Adams, who played his first six seasons with the Seattle Seahawks.
The Ravens, who had been marketing the No. 5 pick -- and had extensive trade conversations with Green Bay, Oakland and the New York Jets -- eventually settled on Tennessee running back Jamal Lewis.
Adams, 26, visited with Ravens officials on Friday and, after the two sides could not strike a deal, was scheduled to fly to Green Bay on Saturday morning. But the Ravens raised the stakes and kept him from boarding the plane. A Green Bay official told SportsLine.com they were informed by agent Angelo Wright that Adams was going to sign with the Ravens.
All Adams would about his decision not to keep his appointment with
Green Bay was this:
"We're at the point now where I'm a Baltimore Raven," Adams said at the
team's training complex. "So that's in the past."
Adams was rated by some as the best defensive tackle in the free-agent pool but commanded little interest in the market. Wright had been negotiating on and off with the Packers for more than a month. Details of the contract with the Ravens were not yet available, but Wright was seeking a contract that will pay Adams a total of $3 million in 2000 between signing bonus and salary, and $1.8 million in 2001.
"They can stretch the contract as long as they want to if it will help them with the salary cap, but I want to get nearly $5 million for Sam the first two years," Wright said.
The Ravens are thin at defensive tackle, with
Larry Webster expected to be suspended the entire 2000 season after a fourth violation of the NFL's substance policy and Tony Siragusa seeking a contract extension.
SportsLine staff writer Mike Lurie contributed to this report.