Malik Cunningham explains why he decided to leave Patriots and join Ravens

BOSTON -- The Ravens reached out to Malik Cunningham this week to express their interest in signing him. Cunningham didn't have to sign that deal, but once he was told that the Ravens viewed him as a quarterback, he didn't hesitate to make the move.

"When he told me that, I was all ears," Cunningham said, per BaltimoreRavens.com, on his initial contact with Baltimore. "I was like, 'Yeah, I'm sliding. I ain't going to stay.'"  

Cunningham, who played quarterback in college and never played receiver in his life, was signed by the Patriots to play receiver as an undrafted rookie. Cunningham looked like a person who's never played the position when he got an extended run at receiver in the team's preseason game in Green Bay, and he never got a chance to make an impact for the Patriots during the regular season, playing just six snaps and spending most of the year on the practice squad.

In Baltimore, though he's now on a depth chart with four quarterbacks. While he'll continue working the same roles he filled in New England this year, the Ravens intend to eventually use him at his natural position.

"From a quarterback perspective, it's a future type of a move," Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said. "It's going to be really interesting to see how he develops. He's a quarterback; there's no doubt about that. He's here to develop as a quarterback. This is an opportunity. I think when you're a general manager, you've got to look for all those opportunities, and Eric [DeCosta], he's the best, so he does that."

Bill Belichick admitted on Wednesday that the Ravens "sold" their offense to Cunningham, and that the fit in Baltimore was better than possibly anywhere else in the NFL.

Cunningham also addressed the outpouring of support from his former teammates in New England, many of whom were disappointed to see him leaving the organization.

"A lot of those guys knew I was capable of going out there and making plays and helping the team compete," Cunningham said. "You just have to take it with a grain of salt with the coaching and what the coaches want for the best of the team, which was to put somebody else in. But I knew and my teammates knew I should have had a chance to be out there."

Between Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe, the Patriots have gotten some of the worst quarterback play in the entire NFL this season. Despite that, Cunningham never got a chance during the regular season to even try to play the position. He barely got a chance to replicate his preseason performance after he shined in his one drive against the Texans, for that matter.

Now on a depth chart behind Lamar Jackson, Tyler Huntley and Josh Johnson, Cunningham may still not get that opportunity this season. But he's now part of a winning team that's in first place in the AFC and has clear intentions of developing him at quarterback, thus making his decision to leave New England an easy one.