Ravenslifer

Maybe we just haven't ever had a good overall secondary?

That could be true.  The one year the secondary looked "great" since Rex left after 2008 was 2011, but some of the "notable" QBs we faced that year were Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez, Shaub, Gabbert, Alex Smith, Dan Orlovsky.  We didn't really face the kind of QB that could take advantage of a bad secondary very often, and I remember Rivers in the midst of a bad season just shredding us.

I can't really evaluate him based on this season.  I just remember that in 2012, Caldwell took over Cam's offense and did some simple things that turned it into a playoff juggernaut.  Then injuries and departures at every position lead to the travesty of 2013.  Our intended offense in 2015 was supposed to have SSS and Perriman as the starters, and Pitta/Gilmore as the top 2 tight ends.  That was supposed to be 64 games started between them, but we ended up with 17 total for the 4 of them.  Even taking out Pitta, we had limited contributions from the guys who were supposed to be our workhorses this year.  I mean, Chris Givens started 6 games for us.  Not to mention, Eugene Monroe getting hurt really messed up the o-line IMO, since we had to shift guys around midseason.  Last year, pretty much everyone on the offensive side of the ball that needed to be healthy was healthy.  This year not so much. 

Can somebody please tell us how many 4th quarter leads we have blown in the last 2 years for mr peaspologist?

We didn't lose all of them, but I counted about 9 in the last 2 years.  To be fair though, some of those "blown leads" were games in which the offense failed to put even 20 points on the board.  Yeah giving up TDs in the 4th quarter is bad, but I can't put a 17-16 loss on the defense.  The more alarming thing was that we gave up quite a few big passing plays which cost us wins.

Dean Pees seems to get a lot out of D-linemen and linebackers but struggles with the secondary.  People seem to forget this but before Pees came to town Sizzle was an every other year player - one year he was a 12 sack monster, the next 5, the next year 8, the next year 4.5, etc.  Since Pees came in 2010, Sizzle has had double digit sacks in every healthy year he's been here.  Kruger racked up a grand total of 1 sack his first 2 years here, finished the last 2 with 13.5 despite not starting, and now is struggling like mad in Cleveland in spite of being the starting DE there.  Up until this year Elvis Dumervil has played some of the best football of his career under Pees, and we continually lose the likes of McPhee and Jones while replacing them with Zadarius Smith, Timmy Jernigan, and Lawrence Guy.  The question is can a guy like Leslie Frazier help the secondary play better, or is it an overall scheme thing with Pees, because aside from not being able to cover guys I think this defense does a good job everywhere else.

Anyone been following Sterling Shepard?  The kid looks like a nice 2-3 round steal

I wouldn't necessarily call him a steal - a lot of mocks and fans on other teams' boards have a high opinion of him.  Similar to Philip Dorsett last year or Brandin Cooks in 2014, he's the kind of player that could sneak into the late first round with a good combine and pro day.  However, this year is different than the last 8 or so for us because we have such an early pick in every round - I could see us pulling the trigger in the early second if he's still there.  But Shepard is my "surprise late first round draft pick" this year.

Reminds me a lot of Danny Amendola - talented but can't stay healthy. Amendola has been pretty good about being on the field the last couple of years, so let's hope Camp can figure the same thing out.

Last time I checked Canty is going downhill. I suppose Robinson is a better prospect than Guy you think?

I'm more thinking of Davis, Jernigan, and Williams.  Buckner i get, but I just think taking Robinson is overkill when we have 3 young DTs.

Buckner or Robinson

Serious question - where would Robinson fit when we have 3 young players at his position already, and they look to be the future strength of this defense?

The writing is on the wall for the '16 Ravens.  You can ignore it all you want.  We are significantly more likely to get lumped in with the Browns than with the Bengals and Steelers.  

 

Tell this board which members of the current Ravens squad you would trade for, if you were the GM of Cincy or Pittsburgh.  Would you trade Leveon Bell for Justin Forsett?  Would you swap AJ Green for Chrs Givins?  How about this...would you trade Big Ben to get Joe Flacco?

I'm sorry we didn't have a top 10 pick in 2003 to get Roethlisberger or a top 5 pick in 2011 to nab Green for you - we were too busy winning and making the playoffs to land such high picks.

Too bad Carroo has his off-field issues - I don't think we're going to touch him; early second I'd say Doctson or Boyd, 3rd I'd want Shepard or Lawler.  I really don't like many of the other receivers in the draft.

Webb just said he expects to play safety next season.

Would be very interesting if VHIII is on the board for us.

SF and Cleveland are possible teams to take a QB. Are there even 2 QB's worth taking that high?

Maybe Lynch or Goff, but it doesn't matter if they're "worth it" - remember in recent years Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder, EJ Manuel have been taken early.

Is 7 final?...........If the 49ers win we move up to 6 right?....They beat us head to head.

 

Titans, Browns, Chargers, Cowboys, Jaguars pick before us.

 

7 is not bad.  I'd hoped for a top 5 pick though.

 

Now there is always talent in the NFL draft.  It's up to our evaluators to evaluate it and if they don't score mega large this year at this draft position. We are done for some time.

 

That Steeler win really hurt. We could be 4-12 win a chance at the #3 position.

You could also look at it this way - we're not taking a QB, and if 1 or 2 QBs go in the top 5, that means a player rated top 5 on our board could still be there for us at 7.

He was very shaky today - in reality he should have had 0 TDs since that last was the Bengals taking their foot off the gas to burn clock and 3 picks counting the one that was dropped.  It is just his second start this year though, and against the best passing defense in the NFL.  He will be a nice backup option next year, although I'd be more happy if we could move him for a pick this offseason since I expect Flacco to start all 16 next year.

The worst Ravens I ever saw on the field - Frank Walker is probably number 1.  Stony Case was pretty terrible in his spot starts - I don't think he ever completed even 50 percent of his passes in a single game.  I can't really count Dan Cody and Sergio Kindle since they never even got a chance to play; same with Leon Searcy even though the hype was pretty high on him coming in.

Sure, he was Joe's favorite target, as many tight ends are for their quarterbacks because they offer sure hands and a great security blanket, but consider Steve Smith had 18 receptions, which would have probably been about what Pitta had in those 3 games, except Steve had 7, 6, 5, which is a lot more consistent than 10, 3, 3, but Steve finished with 79 catches. You're not often going to have TE catching 80+ passes. I think we can agree Pitta is no Gronk or Graham and Gronk hit 90 once and I believe the same for Graham. They're usually about 85

I think it would be less about Pitta's ability and more about Joe looking to his TE often.  If Pitta was on the field it would not surprise me if he was Joe's first or second read on just about every play last year.  OD had 78 targets, which was 3rd behind Torrey and SSS despite not starting the first game.  Only SSS saw more than 100+ balls come his way last year, about 130.  Through the first 2.5 games games Pitta saw 22 targets - project that over the course of a season and that's around 140 balls.  Obviously that number may fluctuate, but Joe really looked for Pitta a lot last year.  It would not surprise me if, even if it's not Pitta, one of the tight ends like Williams or Gilmore may get close to 80 catches simply because Joe seems to consider his TE his number 1 or 2 option on a lot of plays.

Not sure what this question is really asking - if it's just pure velocity, then I'd say Stafford and Cutler can throw the ball harder than Joe - however, Joe is one of the best deep ball throwers in the league because he's accurate with it.  Throwing it 70 yards downfield does you no good if you miss your target by five yards.  I can't count the number of times I've watched Stafford in particular get bailed out by his receivers making ridiculously acrobatic catches.

This is why I've never bought into that lack of 4k yards business with Joe.  He's missed that number by less than 200 yards the last 3 years straight, all while not only losing a bunch of yards to drops and PI calls but while sitting out several quarters of games every one of those years.  And anyone who thinks the division he plays in doesn't make a difference needs to recheck his stats from 2010 and this past year against the so-called NFC South defenses.  I think this year is going to be very different - Joe is going to be completing a lot more passes to receivers with tremendous YAC ability, and he's got a lot of talented targets to choose from.

It really is unfortunate - LeBron is almost averaging a triple-double in these finals - he had a poor game in game 4 but otherwise has been statistically better than Michael Jordan's career finals averages.  Since he often gets compared to Jordan, Jordan averaged about 34 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists in his finals career.  LeBron, this year, with his bad game 4 included, is averaging 36 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists.  Take out the last game and his numbers are pretty ridiculous - 41 points, 10 rebounds, 12 assists.  And still he finds himself in a 2-2 tie. 

I think the yards and TDs stats in favor of Ryan are misleading. He plays in an easier division in better weather conditions. Flacco has played 8 games in 2 seasons 4 years apart against the NFC South, something Ryan gets 6 games of every season. In those 8 games he has around 2200 yards with 15 TDs and 4 INTs.

lol Chiefs fan talking trash. How have the playoffs been for them lately? Flacco wouldn't have allowed that debacle against the Colts happen.

Probably still salty about that 2010 playoff beatdown he put on them at Arrowhead.

You're both geniuses that publish math articles with names hardly anyone understands in highly prestigious journals?

I'm in my last year of medical school - so we both have a thirst for knowledge in common.  We both like to challenge ourselves physically and mentally - me by competing in marathons (someday a triathalon I hope), him by playing football.  I just think we'd have a lot of similar things to talk about.  Although I will fully admit that math was not one of my stronger subjects in college.

John Urschel - he seems like a guy that I'd have a lot of interests in common with.

What about their run game? Sure they got Gore, but I'm not so sure about their offensive line either. As legitimate Super Bowl contenders, I stand by the Colts being overrated.

True - I love Gore, but when you have to go out and get a 31-year old RB who's already been in the league 10 years and has the mileage Gore has, doesn't bode well for their chances to have a balanced offense.

I said this earlier, but I can't get behind the Colts because their poor run defense was exposed by the Patriots and they did basically nothing in the offseason to really shore that up.  Unless they play all their playoff games in the dome at Indy, I have a hard time seeing them win January football games built like they are.