Mccrary Expected To Accept Ravens’ $6 Million Offer

Michael McCrary’s frustration is about to end.

After not receiving an offer from another team in the first seven weeks of free agency, the dynamo defensive end who collected a conference-high 13-1/2 sacks for the Seahawks last season is expected to sign a three-year, $6 millon contract today with the Baltimore Ravens.

“Michael is anxious to sign,” Michael George, McCrary’s agent, said yesterday. “He was a little stressed and frustrated by the experience. I felt badly for him because he was really getting worried.”

McCrary visited six teams early in the free-agent signing period, but no one was willing to offer the $2.5 million to $3 million per year that he was seeking.

The Ravens entered the picture last week, and McCrary and George met with Ravens owner Art Modell and coach Ted Marchibroda on Friday. George continued the negotiations while McCrary flew to Wilson, Ark., to appear at a football camp hosted by Seahawks defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy.

An agreement was reached Saturday on a three-year deal that includes a $1.9 million signing bonus. There also is a four-year, $9 million offer on the table.

“The numbers are set on the three-year deal, but we haven’t agreed 100 percent on the structure,” George said. “I don’t think the four-year deal will happen.”

The deal falls short of what McCrary and George were initially asking, but it is a substantial boost for a player who took a pay cut to $225,000 last year to help ensure he would make the Seahawks’ roster.

“It was a bad free-agent market. This is the best deal we could get,” George said.

Philadelphia and Houston also remained interested, George said, and the Eagles wanted McCrary to make a second visit on Monday. But McCrary prefers Baltimore because he grew up in nearby Virginia, likes the fact that the Ravens play their home games on a grass field and heard the right things about his role from Marchibroda.

“Michael was telling me all along that it wasn’t so much a money thing with him,” George said. “He told me, ‘I just want to get signed so I can start working in the offseason program.’ Guys just don’t say that nowadays.”