Baltimore Ravens Acquire a Center, Likely Taking Them Out of the Alex Mack Consideration

One of the teams who had been rumored to have an interest in trying to make a play for C Alex Mack were the Baltimore Ravens. More evidence of that fact came down today, when they acquired center Jeremy Zuttah from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick. After the trade was completed, Aaron Wilson of Ravens Insider reported that the team would have liked Mack, but thought it would have been too difficult to pull off:

Sources say Ravens have high opinion of Alex Mack, but thought all along it would be too complicated and expensive to pull it off.

— Aaron Wilson (@RavensInsider) March 23, 2014

That's why the Jeremy Zuttah trade was a much more attractive option for the Ravens to do. Has been in the works for over a week per sources

— Aaron Wilson (@RavensInsider) March 23, 2014

What is interesting though is this tweet from Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports, who says that the Browns were a team that was also interested in acquiring Zuttah:

Other teams have been interested in Zuttah as well (CLE for one) for his versatility. He's in final yr of his deal and TB reworking its OL.

— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) March 23, 2014

I wouldn't take that as a sign that the Browns were looking to replace Mack this year, but they could have viewed Zuttah as a possible starting guard and future center if things didn't work out with Mack. The fact that they were trying to acquire a guard/center means that with all of the draft picks they have remaining, they could be looking to make a deal with another organization before the draft.