rashod bateman

Cardinals WR Hollywood Brown Stands Up for Former Teammate Rashod Bateman After Calling Out GM Eric DeCosta

Hollywood Brown took up for former Ravens teammate Rashod Bateman, who publicly called out Baltimore’s general manager via social media.

Yes, it was a rowdy Thursday morning, following comments by General Manager Eric DeCosta, who spoke the day before at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis.

At issue? Wide receivers and whether the team is doing a good job drafting them. Both Hollywood Brown and Rashod Bateman are former first-rounders. Brown is now with Arizona.

Hollywood Brown and Rashod Bateman were teammates on the Ravens. Both were first round picks. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

This All Started When Ravens GM Dissed the Wideouts

Let’s set up what happened. A reporter asked DeCosta about drafting receivers. The Ravens ranked only 28th in passing amongst the 32 NFL teams in 2022. Maybe the team isn’t identifying the best prospects?

“If I had an answer, that would probably mean I would have some better receivers,” DeCosta told reporters. “We’re going to keep swinging. There have been some guys (who) have been successful players for us that were draft picks. We’ve never really hit on that All-Pro type of guy, which is disappointing, but it’s not for a lack of effort.”

And he added: “It’s one of those anomalies that I really can’t explain, other than to say that we’re not going to stop trying. We’re going to keep swinging and hopefully at one of these points, we’re going to hit the ball out of the park.”

DeCosta has worked with the Ravens since 1996. He stepped into the general manager role in 2019. So he was responsible for drafting both Hollywood Brown and Rashod Bateman in the first rounds of 2019 and 2021. And he traded Brown to the Cardinals last offseason.

Hollywood Brown Applauded Rashod Bobino for a Critical Tweet

Bateman saw the comments from the GM and shared his disapproval on social media. He tweeted “How ’bout you play to your players’ strengths and stop pointing the finger at us and No. 8. (Lamar Jackson). Blame the one you let do this. … We take heat 24/7. … And keep us healthy. … Care about us and see what happens. Ain’t no promises, though. … Tired of ya’ll lyin’ and cap’n on players for no reason.”

Bateman eventually deleted the tweet. But not before Brown replied “let him cook.” The tweet no longer is on Bateman’s timeline. And he apologized with a hug emoji. But enough people screen-shotted the exchanges so that all the words live on.

Bateman has all sorts of promise. But a foot problem and a groin pull caused him to miss about half of Baltimore’s games the last two seasons. He’s played in 18 games, with nine starts. And he’s responded with 61 catches for 800 yards and three touchdowns.

Neither Rashod Bateman or Hollywood Brown mentioned the strength and conditioning staff. Coach John Harbaugh recently fired head strength coach Steve Saunders. Earlier this week, the NFLPA released the results of a players survey who were queried on a variety of subjects. The Baltimore strength and conditioning staff received a grade of F minus. And the score ranked dead last in the NFL.