nj_ravens

We could fill absolutely no holes because of the dead money we would incur. Even if the front office agreed with you, they literally cannot do that this year the way the contract is. So suck it up and cheer for your team.

nobody calls him that.

Unfortunately.... our FO and HC stated after the season that they thought Joe's injury hurt him this year. I think that survival does (just as you mentioned) to people. They don't make the decisions that are best for the team but the best for survival. Get the ball out of your hand ASAP and hope for the best. That is what Joes season looked like. I guess that I get that from Joe's end... the problem that I have with it... is that if the FO and HC knew that he was unable to perform at the necessary level and that he was simply making survival decisions... why was it allowed to continue. Why not play Mallet a few games and give us a chance? That is in no way suggesting that Mallet is better then Joe -just say that Mallet is better then a 50% Joe- who cannot go through his progressions bc of the injury that he has or bc of the fear of exacerbating his injury. because where do you draw the line? was he 50%? Was he 65%? I don't think they knew, I think the HC and FO were speaking in hindsight. I don't know what % - I just know he wasn't 100% and couldn't go through his progressions. Wouldn't stand in the pocket and give plays the necessary time to develop and refused to manipulate the pocket enough to give a less then perfect play the chance to work. Not sure how any OC of offense for that matter can be successful when the QB is holding the offense hostage. Like I stated before. I am a Joe Flacco fan and when confident and healthy.... I think we have a guys who has and can win us super bowls. But when he is not healthy... why not give us a chance to win and at the same time allow him to get healthy and re-gain his confidence... not set him back! Again, my opinion is that because there was no reinjury, they didn't really know he was still not healthy until they watched him play for an extended period (hindsight). And even Joe said he wouldn't really know how he would feel until he went out there. If his problem was confidence, I STRONGLY disagree that BENCHING him would be beneficial for his confidence. If they had started Mallett week 1 and waited for Joe to feel better that would be a different story. But as soon as Joe decided he was ready for week 1, that option goes out the window.

Sounds like a good 'fantasy football' stat How so? I think it would be absolutely useless in fantasy, and actually has real world applications.

Unfortunately.... our FO and HC stated after the season that they thought Joe's injury hurt him this year. I think that survival does (just as you mentioned) to people. They don't make the decisions that are best for the team but the best for survival. Get the ball out of your hand ASAP and hope for the best. That is what Joes season looked like. I guess that I get that from Joe's end... the problem that I have with it... is that if the FO and HC knew that he was unable to perform at the necessary level and that he was simply making survival decisions... why was it allowed to continue. Why not play Mallet a few games and give us a chance? That is in no way suggesting that Mallet is better then Joe -just say that Mallet is better then a 50% Joe- who cannot go through his progressions bc of the injury that he has or bc of the fear of exacerbating his injury. because where do you draw the line? was he 50%? Was he 65%? I don't think they knew, I think the HC and FO were speaking in hindsight.

This "failed completion" is exactly the type of stat I have been looking for. For a QB, sure just completions will do. But you could do the same type of stat for the offense and for the defense. Just apply the same percentages for rushing. Then it's a measure of "effectiveness per yards needed." 1st down: Offensively, did you gain 45% or more of the yards needed for a first down. Defensively, did you allow less than 45% of the yards needed? Same calculation all the way down the chart. You could have subsets of data and it would give you information of who is really good on 1st down, how well those plays set you up for the next downs, how often do you even get to third down or do you convert early, do you suck on third down but kick butt on 3rd, measure of how effective the bend but don't break method is, etc. There is so much valuable data there.

Joe's first deal was a mistake by the FO in terms of STRUCTURE, not in terms of total compensation. This I agree with. I think the FO didn't know how to handle a contract that size, and the way they spread out the cap impact and backloaded in tremendously definitely didn't help the franchise in the long run. However, the new restructured contract is what I think you see is the new norm for NFL teams. In the past teams would try to backload these deals, but teams are figuring out that flatter cap structures for the larger contracts are the better long term approach, even if it means sacrificing winning in the short term. You're probably right about the structure being wrong. They tried to compete the following year by making his cap number low, but didn't make it. Then the money starts coming and we hit injuries and dead money. It could have worked, just didn't. Now they're back to a little bit of a longer term rebuild, which I think should hit it's stride this year or next. By then, Flacco either rights the ship or regresses. Keep in mind, with the different practice rules, getting rookies up and running is different than say back in 07-08. I think some of our draft picks that have been marked as misses will come into their own this year and next. It just takes a little longer to develop these days.

Flacco blows leads?? So now he plays defense or gets blamed for the defensive faltering giving up leads? Has he ever added to a lead we had in the 4TH? hes MR 3-out at the end of games.. that's what I meant except for that time when he had two different 14pt leads in the 4th qtr vs the pats. I'm sure there were other times. Stop speaking in generalities.

The team is already really young. Young guys need reps. Cut Dum.

This was true before Engram, before the previous coach Hostler, before Harbaugh. Sure, maybe a great coach could fix it, but I don't think coaching is necessarily the problem.

" we will essentially have the same offense we did last year which was ok at best and was very inconsistent from week to week" This is inherently not true, since it was Trestman's offense.

Giving Ray too much credit. He didn't even play the whole year. Missed games due to injury. Don't remember him playing offense either. I love the guy but no way does he get ALL the credit. If anyone's it was Joe's.

You're right about WR coach, but I will say that Coach Engram has been much better than Hostler.

Is there any scenario where Flacco and the Ravens have a good year? Just wondering. Asking this question is pointless snark. Yes. There is a scenario. We've already won a superbowl with this QB. It's not impossible.

If Wagner is so good, why was he mentioned more last season? Why didn't he win the RT job outright? He has not distinguish himself as a starter. We have all these potential player that don't pan out. I'd put my money on Brandon Williams, we know what he can do. "Why didn't he win the RT job outright?" He did. What are you talking about? "He has not distinguish himself as a starter." He has. What are you talking about? "why was he mentioned more last season" Nobody is perfect. Also, at a certain point Yanda moved to the right side and he had Ducasse next to him. That can cause some issues with assignments and chemistry.

Yeah you're right.... Myles Jack who had a whole 24 tackles his rookie season... Noah Spence who only had 5.5 sacks while Matt Judon the team's 5th round selection got 4 sacks almost as many behind Suggs and Dumervil most the season.... And Sterling Shephard a #3 receiver. Think of the selections the team got while trading back... Kamalei Correa may not be an immediate impact but look at the 4th rounders the team got in return that DID have a huge impact. They wouldn't be in Baltimore if not for the trades. Matt Judon was a 5th round pic obtained by trading back and not picking Mack. Just saying.

There has been too many second round busts. Max Williams, Correa, Arthur Brown. Not to say Williams and Correa don't have potential but very concerning they have seen barely any playing time, luckily we do pretty well in the mid rounds and un drafted. It would be nice to see our fist two picks in the secondary and the two third round picks go towards our O Line. We always do well with line backers and D line men, so I am not too concerned, but the secondary and O line has been trash for years. I really hope Correa steps up next year, and for Williams I am just not sure if I see him beating out Watson/Pitta (one will be cut) or Crockett if healthy, there is also a reason we still have Boyle, I thought he looked really good his first year. This team still has a ton of holes, which won't be filled in one year unfortunately. Feels like we are in the same position as last year unfortunately, except with more cap room. Maxx Willaims was hardly a second round bust. He broke most of the rookie records for tight ends and weve had some good tight ends. How can you say our O-line has been trash? We have drafted some excellent talent like Stanley and Alex Lewis this year and Rick Wagner not so long ago. Maybe so, but Zutta has proven to be a weakness, and Alex lewis is hardly a run mauler like a lot of good tackles. We did seem to get hits in Lewis and Stanely which are great, but when those guys are injured we have serious problems, we lack depth big time. Jenson and Urschel must not be as good as we thought? Ducasse played in front of both of them right? Uschel is more of a left guard. Jensen is not that great.

Ravens writers don't speak for management or front office. Translated. This is a speculation piece. Translated. Suggs and Dumervil are old. Translated. Correa is probably actually going to play inside linebacker and this article is talking about an edge defender, so they have little to do with one another. Translated. You have a preconceived notion that Correa is a bust, and for some reason, despite being a fan of the team, want him to fail to prove yourself right.

I'm 100% sure they were 4-0 against our division this year.... AND we lost to the Jets.

The NFL is becoming more and more like WWE- it's more about entertaining and less about playing the freakin' game. With all the billions that are tied up in the league, each week and especially the Super Bowl- there's no way I'll believe that a lot of what we're seeing ain't scripted. Heck, we're probably just a few years away from entire seasons being choreographed. If you think the NFL is rigged FOR the Pats AFTER deflate gate, well, idk what to tell you. That literally makes no sense. IF the NFL is rigged, and I wonder this often, it's rigged for entertainment. They don't want blowouts (parity). That's why the officiating changed after Pats scored. Let them back in it, because ratings. Outcome doesn't matter. You either get Falcons winning finally, going into their new stadium, or you get the Brady and Belichick being the best ever. They want specific team matchups for specific weeks. They want storylines. And the Pats always winning is not good for business. Why would they let them win? It's all about ratings.

Well, that's the problem when you're averaging money that he will likely never make. And at the end of the day, when you say he's making "too much", you're really saying he makes about $2-3M too much, because there's really not much argument that he's less than a $19-20M QB. Pretty much any metric you can come up with puts him in that range. So its cute to argue about him being "overpaid" by $2-3M, but not really sure how you think you are going to take $2-3M and turn that into multiple quality players that will make this team a contender. In short, you really can't. So what exactly is the argument over? It was also "cute" losing KO to a couple extra mil a year eh? Weenies. Just admit his contract blows They were never going to pay him that money, regardless of Flacco. They gave him top 10 tackle money to play guard, and didn't even kick him out to tackle when Penn went down.

He looks like he could play reciever, tbh.

because he gets hurt. You're right though. He should be our Welker or Hogan. In the game where Joe threw 5 touchdowns in the first quarter against the Bucs (remember that game, haters?), I think camp had 2 TDs.

"How bout".... even if you don't like Flacco we can't dump him for 3 years, so instead of wasting EVEN MORE cap on another QB why not get weapons to develop both for the present and for the next guy?

Williams is gone in the Top 10. I think Fournette goes to the Panthers and Cook goes to the Colts or the Eagles right before us. That basically leaves Davis, Howard or John Ross for us in the 1st Round. I don't know if you pass up a top notch CB or Pass Rusher for either (Davis maybe but not Howard). I like Ross but we don't need another speed guy. I think this is the perfect draft to trade back in the 1st Round and still get a shutdown corner. Trading back into the 20s could get us another 3rd Round pick that could net us CB Tre'Davious or RT Taylor Morton. JuJu will be gone at the top of Round 2 (49ers or Bears). No way Stevie B drafts Dede after 2 domestic violence arrests. Darboh is more a 3rd or 4th Round guy. I think the Ravens wait until those rounds on a WR like Darboh, Kupp, Zay or Courtland Sutton. Personally, I would love to see the Ravens get Zay or Sutton - that's the type of WR we need. Many are forgetting the Ravens philosophy toward the draft; they pick the best player available on the board. Picking a CB, pass rusher, running back, offensive lineman, etc. first, will be dictated by who is the best on the board ....not by which one the Ravens need the most. We have needed CBs every year since I can remember. We were in dire need of a tackle with the loss of Osemele; however, had he been available, we would have drafted Elliott before Stanley (in my opinion)...Not taking anything away from Stanley, but the Ravens would have asked themselves, is Elliott a better running back than Stanley is a tackle? That is the Ravens logic. In the end, we will all be in wonderment at what the Ravens do with their early draft picks. Also, the Ravens feel (and are correct) that the offense is the weakest part of our game. So I expect it to get the most attention early on. But the Ravens have incorrectly equated Flacco's poor play to his knee, his weapons and consistency in offensive coaching. Two of the three will have been rendered academic by 2017. However, line management has failed to entertain the idea that Flacco has peaked and become a middle of the road QB. Weapons will not change that. JMHO "we would have drafted Elliott before Stanley (in my opinion)" I suppose I can't say your wrong, but it's a situation we knew never would happen. Facts: We knew Dallas wanted Elliot. We wanted Ramsey. We liked Ramsey more than both Elliot and Stanley. I suppose we never will know if we liked Elliot more than Stanley, but we knew Elliot would be gone so it never was a serious thought.