Pitta, Arthur Jones, and Ed Dickson are all pretty certain to be on the roster next season playing under RFA (restricted free agent) tenders. Pitta, and Art Jones will likely receive 2nd round tenders, which costs roughly $2.023M against the cap. Ed Dickson will likely receive a low tender, which will cost roughly $1.303M against the cap. So in total, that's around $5.349M to re-sign all three for another year.

We also have three other RFAs that aren't quite secure. Ramon Harewood, David Reed, and Morgan Cox. Morgan Cox is a long snapper, and IMO, it just doesn't make sense to pay a long snapper more than what most of you're rookies are earning. Then there's Harewood, and Reed to consider, and both don't seem likely to be anything other than depth players. Assuming the Ravens give low tenders to all three of them, that's going to cost around $3.90M against the cap. Lets just say you let all three walk, and sign an UDRFA long snapper in the offseason, which would be a significantly cheaper option, and replace Harewood and Reed with low round/undrafted rookies. You could be saving roughly $2.685M doing it that way. I know that's not much, but every little helps this year for us. It could be the difference of being $4.394M under the cap going into FA (BEFORE cuts, extensions, or restructures worked out.), and $1.709M under.

It could possibly be the difference of for example re-signing Ellerbe. Would you take Ellerbe over Morgan Cox, Ramon Harewood, and David Reed? I sure as hell would.