ken_j

I can't see Bosa, a straight up 4-3 DE who would be asked to rush from the "Rush" OLB position on most of his snaps. If they don't trade out of the 6th pick, I wouldn't be surprised if the Ravens take an OT like Ronnie Stanley from Notre Dame. He is big, athletic and has excellent feet. He can play both LT and RT. He is excellent in both pass protection and run support. Unlike Tunsil and ex-Raven Michael Oher, Stanley is not penalty prone. It is unlikely the Ravens go DE in the first round.

I also would not be surprised if the Ravens go after Cody Whitehair or (more likely) Vidal Alexander in the second round it they are still on the board.

Great idea. Conditioning has to be an issue. The Ravens have had the worst injury record over the past two years of any team in the NFL. Why? Just this year, they have paid out almost $12 million to players on IR and that number is rising. The Bengals, Cardinals and Seahawks play a physical brand of football, yet their combined injury list isn't as high as the Ravens. Something is radically wrong!

Schaub does not seem to have the arm strength to drive the ball outside the hash marks or down field with accuracy. He appears to quickly be approaching retirement day. Clausen is okay and did a couple of good things last week: (1) he was able to execute the no-huddle with decent results and he did a reasonably good job at changing protections (and plays at times) at the line. Because he was rusty and new to this offense (this is not the same offense he ran in Chicago under Tresman), his miscues were understandable. The inaccuracy (high) has to improve and his recognition at the line has to be sharpened. I would like to see Clausen start against KC and possibly get Mallet (if he's ready) in there against the Steelers.

Oz made a huge mistake by letting Tyrod go. I think Tyrod stays for a guarantueed $1m/season. Now we're dealing with Clausen and Mallet? For real? Come on man!

I think you are right on the money for Tyrod but I believe he wanted the opportunity to start. His two possibles were the Bills and the Jets and I believe he would have taken either before staying with the Ravens.

Lardarius Webb, in my opinion, has always played Corner like a Safety. He has consistently played off (with a greater cushion than the high quality Corners in the league), cannot jam or reroute receivers, gets beat on double moves and has trouble when he's in a 'trail" position. He's a good tackler if the play is in front of him but lately he has shown that he is vulnerable in space: he misses tackles on shifty receivers like Antonio Brown and strong receivers like A. J. Green. Unlike some, I don't believe Webb can play the slot because he lacks the quickness to cover shifty receivers like Edleman. Webb doesn't "travel" (play both side of the field) well and he has trouble covering 1/4 of the field where the slot Corner is responsible for 1/2 of the field; shallow to intermediate and hash to hash.

Bottom line: Webb might need to move to Safety or he might be wearing different colors in 2016.

Could coaching (and lack of coaching experienc) be at the root of some of these problems? Bobby Ingram (an excellent wide receiver for a lot of years) is in his second year as the Wide Receivers coach. Other than Steve Smith Sr and Torrey Smith (11 TDs), Ravens Wide Receivers (other than those two) were mediocre and they have taken a step backward this year. Chris Hewitt, the rookie Defensive Backs Coach spent most of his previous three years with the Ravens as an assistant for Special Teams. Do the Ravens need to bring in more experienced consultants for DBs and WRs?

Also, it has been widely discussed that Joe Flacco is working with his 4th OC in 4 years but has anyone noticed that his QB coach is constantly changing as well. I give Joe credit for dealing with such massive turnover as well as he has?

Wanted to put out something though that you overlooked...

 

I put in bold the actual selection number of those players, as it matters significantly, since obviously historically, the better your draft pick is the better the player is likely to be.

 

If you'll notice, of the 15 players taken in the first round from 96-08, 8 of those players were taken with draft picks in the top 12 of the draft, with 7 of them coming in the top 10. Generally, speaking the most common method of obtaining a draft pick in the top 10 or even in the top half of the draft is by losing more football games than you win the previous season.

 

If I go ahead and lump 2008 in with the latter half of the group to separate the "Harbaugh era" from the other group, you'll see that the average draft position of the former group was roughly 16th, while the average draft position of the latter group is 25th, with only one first round pick inside the top 20 in the last 7 years.

 

If you'll notice, with the exceptions of legendary players like Ed and Reed (who don't really exist in football anymore and were drafted in some cases almost 20 years ago), the "elite" group of players drafted on that almost exclusively come from the top half of the draft.

 

Your Suggs, Ngata's, Boulware's, Jamal Lewis', etc. aren't that easily found in the back half of the first round in most cases.

 

So what does this all mean? Well, frankly, in my opinion, its a trade off. If you want stud first rounders every year, you either better trade up to get them (borderline impossible from the 20s) or you better start losing a lot of games. 

 

Win you win more, your draft picks generally get worse, and vice versa. There's a direct correlation that still exists today for this.

Good points. I just wonder how the Patriots and several other teams (like the Seahawks and Steelers) seem to get good players, not only in the bottom half of the first round but from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds as well as from the Undrafted Free Agent pool?  I think the point about the apparent decline in the Ravens' talent evaluation (i.e., scouting) is a valid one.

Is there an issue with fitting the offensive scheme to the players skills? Our receivers seem tentative at times; looking lost down field and are sometimes out of position or late getting to their spot. The confusion in route running seems to also affect Flacco: he seems less confident that his receivers will remain on schedule and that appears to make him more tentative and less likely to throw with anticipation. Right now, Flacco seems to trust Steve Smith Sr and the Tight Ends and no one else.

The Defense is a mess. One guy goes down and the pass rush goes south. The outside LBs periodically fail to set the edge and have issues tackling in space. The secondary has problems with press, off man and zone coverages. Double moves confuse them and they are slow in pursuit. Tackling in space has been (and is) an issue and their assignment discipline is getting worse. Finally, the Defense telegraphs their blitzes which allows the opposing QB to change protections and/or the play.

The solution is probably not to fire coaches right now, but John Harbaugh needs to make them more accountable. Bringing in players off the street and off practice the practice squad might seem like a good idea but it just creates more problems with coordination and communication.

The short term answer is probably on the coaching side. First, they need to put a stop to opposing WR getting free releases off the line. Coaches need to re-emphasize the fundamentals like tackling (including wrapping up), punching and rerouting receivers at the line, positioning in coverage and taking the right angles in pursuit.

Finally, the coaches need to make sure their players know the playbook. Corners and safeties have been out of position on numerous occasions this season. In my opinion, the coaching has been awful and the coaches did not seem to have this team ready to play going into last week's game against the 49ers. If they don't get their coaching act together, the Ravens just might be looking up at the Browns the rest of the year in the standings.

My biggest beef is the defensive backfield situation. This problem started after the 2012 SB season. The team knew that although Webb had enough speed at the time, he lacked enough quickness to prevent separation on a receiver's inside cut, he was highly susceptible to double moves, he had difficulty rerouting receivers (especially quick receivers like A.J Greene, Antonio Brown and T.Y. Hilton) and was sub-par in press. They also knew the back-ups were lacking some needed coverage and tackling ability. When Reid left, they had no play making Safety and with Pollard's departure, some of the toughness left. Ihedibo helped but they let him walk. Cary was OK but, he wasn't a top notch "cover corner". Then, to add "insult to injury", the Ravens signed several DB's that spent more time on IR than they did on the field.

With cornerback jimmy Smith, guards Marshal Yanda and Kelechi Osemele; kicker Justin Tucker; punter Sam Koch; safety Will Hill; and linebacker Courtney Upshaw going into Free Agency and little free cap space at this time, Ozzie has some challenges.

Would never happen. Flacco commands too much respect from his teammates to allow that to happen and he respects himself (and others) too much to allow any situation that would cause a teammate to want to punch him.

I think Brian Billick should go into the Raven's Ring of Honor. He had an 80-64-0 win-loss record, an AFC Championship, a Super Bowl Championship with no true franchise QB and an average (at best) offense. Seven of his assistants became Head Coaches and 4 are still in Head Coaching positions. If you listen to Billick's comments on TV, it is clear that Brian Billick is a Baltimore Raven through and through.

Mighty Maxx

"Zrebiec dubbed pass rusher as the second thinnest position group," I said in the last post that the defense will have problems with the run with Ngata gone and now this comes out. There will be a lot of confusion as new players try to get comfortable playing with each other over the long season on defense. The offense will not have this problem but offense's don't win championships.

Good point Crusader; Ngata was immovable but I worry as much about stopping the short passes in the middle of the field. Teams like the Patriots, Chiefs, Broncos and others use those short passes to slot receivers, Tight Ends and backs as an extension of their running game. Brandon Williams, who is probably expected to take Ngata's role is 3" shorter and about 10-15 lbs lighter. Ngata could get the push to limit the QB's ability to step up in the pocket and long enough arms to knock passes down or intercept them. Williams might have some problems doing either of those things.

Marshal Yanda is will be 31 in September and carries an $8.4 Million cap hit this year; Osemele will be 26 in June with a $1.06 Million cap hit this year. According to some reports, Yanda wants as much or more than he is making now and will probably not be disposed to giving a "home town discount." Despite the sentiment expressed in this article, I look to the case of Haloti Ngata (which is similar to Yanda's situation) and would not be surprized if the Ravens let Yanda go in free agency and retain the younger (and equally versatile) Kelechi Osemele.

Arrington is a good corner but had some inconsistent play last season. NE used him in the slot quite a bit so, if the Ravens use him in a similar way, Webb should be unaffected. Asa Jackson is probably on the bubble. The main threats to Webb are Rashaan Melvin and Tray Walker. Both are big corners but Melvin is faster. Melvin can man up but he is best in zone and off man coverage. Walker is strongest in man coverage. Both tackle well and are good in run support however, Melvin is the more experienced and polished of the two. Either way, it appears Webb's days as a starter are coming to an end.

The question is... if Kubiak, Shanahan and Dennison are all coming to Baltimore (speculation), is there any possibility that Castillo stays? When I read reports earlier this morning that the Ravens were talking to Dennison, it was reported it was potentially for an OL coaching gig coupled with Shanahan as OC (they worked together previously). Somehow, though, I don't see all three of these guys coming. What role would Shanahan have? QB coach? I suppose it makes sense, given that Kubiak could be OC for only one season before getting HC offers again next season.

It sure sounds like that's the plan (Kubiak as OC, Shanahan as QB Coach and Dennison as OL Coach. The question though is "are they positioning Castillo to take Wilbert Montgomery's place as RB Coach?

I guess with Kubiak and/or Dennison, zone blocking is here to stay which means the Ravens will have some tough O-Line personnel decisions to make. They might also have to decide if the combination of Rice and Pierce are the best RB combo for that scheme.