"With little more than an hour remaining before the deadline to accomplish one of their top priorities, the Ravens on Tuesday reached agreement on a five-year, $61 million deal with Haloti Ngata, ensuring that one of the game's most dominant interior linemen will be a fixture on their defense for the foreseeable future.

Ngata's deal runs through 2015 and includes $40 million over the first two years that is essentially guaranteed. The pact makes Ngata one of the highest-paid defensive linemen in the NFL and shares some similarities with the five-year, $68 million ($40 million guaranteed) contract Ndamukong Suh got after the Detroit Lions picked the defensive tackle second overall in 2010.

"This is a great feeling, and I can't explain how many different emotions I have," Ngata said in a statement released by the team. "What I want to do now is continue to get better every year and help the team get better. Our goal is to win Super Bowls, and I want to do my best to help us make that happen.""