Journeyman defensive tackle John Jenkins achieved something he hasn’t in his entire 13-year career: a contract extension. The Ravens announced the extension on Friday.
A former third-round pick of the New Orleans Saints in 2013, Jenkins has bounced around the league with seven teams, signing 11 different one-year contracts after his rookie deal. With several question marks along the defensive interior, the Ravens committed to keeping the veteran around.
“Man, I’ve been on—I want to say 11 single contracts, right? One-year deals,” he said. “So, yeah, I was surprised.”
Jenkins was drafted by the New Orleans Saints with the 82nd overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft. He played three seasons in New Orleans but was released midway through the final year of his rookie contract.
He signed with the Seattle Seahawks a week after his release and played the rest of the season there. He signed with the Chicago Bears in the 2017 offseason, then signed another one-year deal in 2018, but was released before the season.
Jenkins signed with the Giants three days after his release from Chicago. Again, he signed a second one-year deal, and again, he was released before the start of the season. He signed a deal with the Miami Dolphins and played the 2019 season with them.
Jenkins returned to the Bears in the 2020 season, then went back to the Dolphins in 2021. He returned to Miami for another year in 2022. He signed with the Las Vegas Raiders in 2023, then re-upped for another year in 2024 before signing with Baltimore in 2025.
A reporter asked Jenkins what about the organization drew him back in, but he countered that the Ravens were the ones who wanted him back.
“I think you should ask them, because they’re the ones that believed in me to give me the opportunity in the first place,” he said.
“And then to say, ‘hey, we want you to come back.’ Right? So I’m here, I’m just doing my job and trying to be the best vet I can, but it takes two to tango in regards of, ‘hey, I want you to stay here and I love the way you present yourself, and you’re a good value to our organization,’ which, I appreciate that, and I’m very grateful for that.”
In fact, Jenkins recounted the conversation he had with some members of the front office.
Jenkins has taken to thinking about life after football after 13 years in the pros and was talking about it with the front office staff when one of them said he still had some good play left in him, which led to him signing the extension.
Jenkins, Jones, and Broderick Washington stepped up to fill the void left by Nnamdi Madubuike after he went down early in the season with a neck injury. The injury has ended Madubuike’s season, and while head coach John Harbaugh has refused to give details, his non-answer answers seem to indicate that the injury is serious and potentially career-ending.
Jenkins said he earned his opportunity by playing well along the weakened D-line depth chart.
“Unfortunately, when the things happened, what the other guys: Broderick, ‘Beeks’, and all that, they believed in me to not bring somebody else in,” he said. “That says a lot when things like that happen.”
He recounted how, in his rookie season, his Saints teammate, Brodrick Bunkley, was injured in the first game, and told Jenkins at the time not to give the team a reason to sign someone else. He expressed his gratitude to the Ravens for giving him a similar opportunity.
