Ravenslifer

I know he was IR'ed pretty much his whole rookie season - IDK how he was doing his rookie offseason prior to his injury.

Honestly I hope that Kenny Bell makes this team - I really, really liked him coming out of the draft 2 years ago. He made a ton of plays at Nebraska. Hopefully he spent the last 2 seasons improving and breaks out this year with us similar to how Aiken did.

"The Ravens endeavored to surround Joe Flacco with all the tools and weapons he needed to carry them. Their priority became giving him the best possible chance to succeed." What a crock - they traded away Boldin the first month after winning the Superbowl, spent ZERO picks in the draft on offense, said Torrey and Jacoby were starters, and we relied on undrafted rookie Marlon Brown and a 36 year old tight end the entire 2013 season - Flacco proceeds to have his worst season as a pro. Then the front office admitted their mistake by signing SSS and Owen Daniels - surprise surprise, Flacco has his best season as a pro. This team has never invested long term in weapons on a consistent basis - there has been a steady revolving door at wide receiver and tight end since 2008 - in the mean time, a player like Andy Dalton, who came in to the league 4 years after Flacco, has had more continuity at the receiver position.

Kenny Bell and Vince Mayle were two guys I looked at when they were coming out - neither were drafted by us but they're with us now. I want them to get a lot of looks in TC - Kenny Bell I especially thought highly of when he was coming out of Nebraska. He's got size and speed, and played very well in college in a pro style offense, I believe, so he knows routes. But if they're serious that they have enough wideouts, then I expect six or seven of them to MAKE this roster, and actually play. It will be extremely telling about the confidence they have in these young guys if the front office signs a veteran free agent receiver at some point.

So last year we were the 22nd ranked offense and 6th ranked defense in terms of PPG, and we spend all the picks on the defense - makes sense.

Malachi Dupree is someone I've watched pretty closely. LSU quarterback play did him no favors. Josh Reynolds out of A&M I think is still out there, I think he's a very underrated player. Damonte Kazee is an interesting guy, small but quick, good instincts, and I liked what I saw from him at the Senior Bowl.

Well those three players you named started a combined 35 out 80 games the last 2 seasons - kind of hard to help when you're, you know, not on the field

Well, Joe did say he didn't think we needed receivers. The front office apparently heard him loud and clear.

I don't see o-line in the first unless we trade back. I just don't see the value there. We've done it plenty of times before finding later round guys that become o-line starters - Lewis, Urschel, Wagner, Yanda - heck even Chris Chester is still starting in this league. Guys like Pashos and Rabach also started for a long time in the league. In order I'd say OLB - CB - WR would be the positions I'd prefer we draft in the first round.

A right tackle in the first round? When we have a young stud left tackle? That's about as bad as Al Davis taking Ray Guy in the first round - who cares how talented the guy is, you can get him or another good player at his position in the mid rounds.

Aiken is actually what I'm thinking. I'd love to have a flat out playmaker, but Aiken over the course of his career with us has caught right around 60% of his passes. Obviously Perriman was injured last year and this year was really about getting his feet wet, but over the course of his career Joe has had several receivers - Perriman, Torrey Smith, Mark Clayton, Jacoby Jones - who caught 50% of the passes thrown their way or fewer - some of these guys made spectacular plays, but they weren't ever consistent threats. Now we can talk pass depth all we want, but the thing that stands out to me is Joe, when he's at his best, has 2 things going - 1 is a great year from his tight end i.e. Heap, Pitta, Owen Daniels, and the other is a wide receiver that can be a go to guy when he's in trouble like Mase, Q, or SSS. I think we're going to have the tight end spot taken care of, but with SSS retiring, I don't know if I trust Wallace or Perriman to be that receiver I was talking about. If Aiken or someone else can fill that void, I'd take that in a heartbeat. An elite receiver like a Sammy Watkins or Julio Jones type would be great, but Joe has proven he doesn't need that type of receiver to play well and win playoff games.

We have several speedster/playmaker type receivers. What we need is someone to replace SSS - I'm thinking in the mold of a Jordan Matthews, a guy who catches 2/3 of the passes thrown his way and can be a safety net of sorts.

Vincent Jackson - 34, coming off injury, has been the complementary guy for the last 2 seasons now that mike Evans is in Tampa Bay. Kendall Wright, Brian Quick, Pierre Garcon are also guys that may be worth a look at, but none I think would be more than an number 3 at best.

I would like to point this out: the Steelers have been touted as a model franchise for 2+ decades running. Everyone always talks about the late round draft gems they find and the smart decisions ownership makes regarding coaching and roster changes. Since 2008, the Steelers have 1 Superbowl win, 1 other appearance, and 3 other playoff appearances during which they went 1-3, their only win coming against the playoff-inept Cincinnati Bengals. Since 2008, we've made the playoffs 7 of 10 seasons, have won at least 1 playoff game in every playoff season, have won 1 Superbowl, and have finished with a losing record exactly 1 time. We also made 2 other AFCCG appearances and had the second one a dropped pass away from being ours. Unless you're the Patriots of the last 15 seasons, AFCCG trips are not so automatic. Aaron Rodgers has only led his team to the NFCCG twice, and was pretty bad against Seattle in the loss. The Giants seem to win a Superbowl when they make the playoffs but then miss the playoffs in every other year. Of all the teams that have made the playoffs for longer consecutive streaks then our 5 in a row, only the Packers, Colts and Patriots did so after the year 2000, and unsurprisingly they all feature three of the top 10 quarterbacks to ever play the game.

Because we've only spent 2 top 100 picks in 9 seasons on wideouts, and instead have tried signing/trading for veteran "bargains". The good in that approach is that Flacco seems to develop a quick rapport with those vets - Mason, Kelley Washington, Boldin, Lee Evans for the 2 games he played, Heap, SSS, Owen Daniels, and now Mike Wallace. The bad is those guys get hurt and/or don't last longer than 3 seasons with us, it seems.

My dream matchup would be Cubs-Indians. Between the 2 teams its been I think 176 years since their last world series titles.

In 2010 and 2011 we went 12 and 4 and made it no further than the AFCCG. In 2012 we stumbled into the playoffs after losing 4 of our last 5 games. How many articles were written during the divisional playoff week crowing Peyton Manning and saying the Broncos would blow us out of the water? There was that "Manning is the Computer" article by Ashley what's her name. We weren't supposed to even be competitive in the WC round much less win the Superbowl - and yet, we went on an offensive run that maybe 2 or 3 other teams in Superbowl history can say they managed. We held two of the greatest quarterbacks of all time at bay, and we would have destroyed Denver on the scoreboard if it wasn't for 2 kickoff return touchdowns. All that matters now is that we probably need 11 wins to guarantee a playoff spot, and the playoffs are where anything can happen. So who cares if we win the easy games? We just need to be the best team in January, and there's a long way to go to decide that. We need to make it to January first, and we'll see then what the Ravens look like.

I should add - Pitta hasn't missed a beat in his return. He just needs to start finding the endzone a bit.

The good - we came back from a huge hole to win - last year if we were down by 3 at the half it was pretty much over. The bad - the way we've been starting games. Last week the defense was outstanding while the offense needed to wake up. This week both were dead asleep in the first quarter plus some. This kind of comeback won't happen against better teams. Again, with the offense especially I'm chalking it up to the fact that half the starters were either on IR or not on the team last year, but by week 5 or 6 I'm hoping things are ironed out.

The Good: All of our injury question marks and new player question marks came out relatively unscathed. Flacco looked good, Pitta good, SSS good, Forsett good, Suggs good, Jimmy Smith good, the rookies on defense played well. As mentioned, our first opener win since 2012. The bad: offensive line needs some work - hopefully the rookies have a fast learning curve. Too many stalling drives in the second half when we had some momentum built up from the first. I'll take the win and I do understand there are a lot of new, young faces on both sides of the ball, but the Bills haven't been a major playoff contender in a long time.

My main concern is just getting out of this game healthy. I believe everything else will come together as the season goes on.

True, but I could just as easily point out that it took Tyrod 5 years and a team switch to get his chance. Just saying that of all the teams to play for, New York is one of the teams Johnson is least likely to see any significant playing time for. Denver, Cleveland, San Fran, even Dallas, I think, have more long-term questions at quarterback, and give Johnson a better chance, in my opinion, of earning his way to a starting job. Same thing with Tyrod - EJ Manuel was a train-wreck in Buffalo, and the position was ripe for opening. At best, Johnson can hope Eli goes down, he gets some games, does well, and finds a secure gig next year. But Eli is the quarterback who is least likely to give him that chance, is all I'm saying.

May also have something to do with the fact that they have pro bowl secondary players - in 2014 Carolina was 22nd in points allowed, Denver was 16th in the league - not exactly lighting the world on fire. All of a sudden in 2015 Josh Norman has an insane year and Carolina moves to 6th in points allowed. Denver to 4th with Chris Harris and Aquib Talib making Pro Bowl appearances and TJ Ward not sucking. I'm not saying Pees doesn't shoulder a significant chunk of the blame, but you're comparing the Ravens to teams that got elite play out of their secondary, something we haven't had for a good while. Us - Webb has not been the same player post-2012 that he was his first 4 years here - maybe the change of position will help. Jimmy Smith was poor last year coming of Lisfranc surgery - hopefully he bounces back. Elam is Elam. Kendrick Lewis was bad. We had no pass rush after Suggs went down, which certainly doesn't help the secondary. Pees is responsible for not putting players in the best position to succeed, but certainly he's not responsible for players just whiffing on assignments. I think the lack of quality play in the secondary is at least as much the players' responsibility as Pees' schemes, and as I've pointed out, since Jimmy in 2011 we haven't drafted an impact secondary player (we whiffed on Elam).

I'm curious as to how you can classify a rookie who has taken exactly 0 regular season snaps as anything at this point.

Regarding this, it's not like we've gone out and squandered a ton of assets on the position recently. The last top 100 pick we spent on a CB was Jimmy in 2011, although Young was 104 this year, and I'm pretty sure the only guy of note we've signed recently was Arrington. I could find fault with the FO for not taking another corner early recently, but I can't fault the FO for late round draft picks not becoming impact players - after all, there is a reason they were late round draft picks in the first place.