Thursday Night Football delivered a major blow to the Baltimore Ravens wide receiver corps. Michael Campanaro suffered a season-ending injury and leading receiver Steve Smith broke multiple bones in his back. The injuries have forced Baltimore to bring in more help at wide receiver, acquiring Chris Givens from the St. Louis Rams.
Givens fell out of the receiver rotation in St. Louis, seeing his role and production decrease after he put up 42 receptions, 698 receiving yards and three touchdowns in his rookie season. He is largely relied upon as a deep threat, a role the Ravens were hoping Breshad Perriman would play this season, but Perriman had another setback with his knee.
Given how banged up the Ravens' depth is at wide receiver, Givens could play fairly significant snaps early on in his time with Baltimore. He could offer some of that deep threat the team lost when Torrey Smith signed with the San Francisco 49ers in free agency.
It's a pretty understandable and solid deal for the Ravens to make, addressing a need at wide receiver and getting a young, cheap deep threat to fill in to that offense. Meanwhile, the Rams pick up a seventh-round pick for a wide receiver they were not using this season.
Givens should still remain off the fantasy radar, though he is closer to the radar screen now than he was one day ago.