Baltimore Ravens tight end Dennis Pitta has signed his second-round tender worth a reported $2.023 million dollars and is now under contract for the 2013 season.
Pitta, 27, helped the Ravens win their 2nd Super Bowl Championship and set personal bests for himself in his 3rd season as one of Joe Flacco‘s favorite targets. Pitta caught 61 passes for 669 yards and seven touchdowns which put him 2nd behind Torrey Smith for most caught last season.
He also hauled in 14 passes for 163 yards and three touchdowns in the post season, providing the team with tough catches on 3rd downs.
Pitta received interest from teams like the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers initially in free agency, but nothing materialized. The team made Pitta a second-round restricted free agent tender back in mid March.
According to Matt Zenitz of the Carroll County Times, after signing the tender, Pitta is now eligible to participate in Ravens’ offseason workouts.
The next step in the Ravens plans will be to sign Pitta long-term to a contract extension as he’ll become an unrestricted free agent after the 2014 season. Pitta clearly has become an integral part of the offense heading into his 4th season after the depature of Anquan Boldin and the team not signing his replacement.
Matt Lund is a contributor for BaltimoreSportsReport.com and co-host of the BSR Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @MattCLund.
They will need Pita due to the inexperience with the WR’s. Hopefully they can get Dixon to be a contributor as well. Dixon got all the hype when they were both drafted but Pitta has been the more consistent player.