beasy2487

I think Jimmy and Yanda are safe and, of the young defensive guys, I think Williams is the safest bet closely followed by Mosley. I think Timmy's going to do great things for us...and subsequently price himself out. I would also consider a Dumervil jersey because his story with this team is great.

The jokes on you. I've heard from very valid sources from inside that the Ravens are considering a name change just so they can sign Mathis and spite you (and sanity). I hear the plan from there is to jettison Flacco and his me-first ways/contract, install Mathis at RG and move Yanda to QB. Seems legit.

We probably got jobbed by the schedulers on that one too.

lol what? please explain. how exactly could our schedule be different?

Harbaugh motto: Who's got it better than us? Ravens fan motto: Who's got it worse than us?

Maybe it feels better to win when they tell themselves everyone wants us to lose? Or maybe it hurts less to lose if you think you're being cheated? I dunno.

we're facing the NFC and AFC west(as dictated by the same divisional rotation every single team contends with)... we have to play 8 road games, there are 16 games in the season, and we cannot play home games on the same days as the O's. so no, this schedule is not a screw job, it just is what it is, my friend. if anything screws us it's that we play in a tough division...but would you really want it any other way?

The schedule rotates...

Love this schedule. Lots of huge games. We're in for a dramatic season.

I understand the argument that if a (legally and totally for fun) betting man looks at Osemele and Yanda on paper, age is a factor. But as someone who watches both of these men play, I'm not sure how you can say it is either a sure thing that Yanda is going to have this mysterious and rapid decline in two years, or that Osemele is a sure thing to step in and consistently produce over the next 4+. I'm on the side of keeping the line in tact. The links we need to worry about mid-long term are Monroe and Zuttah...in that order. The scenario I envision over the remainder of this offseason and the next: Extend Yanda Extend Tucker Extend Flacco Extend Wagner Pay Jimmy Pay Hill Sign Osemele to a Top 10 contract or let him walk for more Let Upshaw walk Cut or extend Webb based on production

or, perhaps the coaches, players, and personnel all deserve some blame for the 2013 debacle and some credit for the 2014 turnaround? no one on this forum knows the nuances of responsibilities on this team so why not just accept that 2013 was bad, 2014 was good, and Castillo had a role to play in all of it?

Yea Brown can stand to add some weight for sure. 5-7 pounds and even if he drops a little in speed what he'll make up in strength will make him a much more effective NFL linebacker.

I think people also underrate Daryl Smith. Daryl Smith is keeping Brown on the bench because he's playing at an insanely high level late in his career, but is still underrated league-wide enough to not demand a crazy salary. Once he breaks down, Brown will step right in. Honestly I think it'll workout for everyone because Brown was too small coming in anyway.

There's a diminutive free agent running back that's had success in the AFC North we might consider as well...

We need a dual threat running back like fish need water

Huge fan of John's strategy in choosing staff as well. You see the older guys going for younger guys to keep them innovative, but John takes the opposite approach. Since he's (relatively) young he leans on wisdom and solves for innovation with his vision. I think having two more former head coaches on our offensive staff is nothing but a positive. It also gives us a little edge, as our offensive will be similar but different at the same time. Gotta bring in dual threat RB talent though.

Really like the post from the Canadian Steelers fan. Excited to see what Trestman does.

Yea it's understandable. A fan base starved for offensive innovation finally gets it, just to see the architect walk away in heartbreaking fashion. I'm taking a wait-and-see approach. I'm optimistic that Trestman can get the job done but I'm also confident that Joe is at the point in his career where he can demand satisfaction from his offensive system instead of the other way around. January Joe proved that it's less about the playbook and more about Joe and the weapons around him. Let's get him a gamechanger at a pass-catching position and watch him work. What I like most about Trestman is his QB pedigree. If we can keep Joe focused on his mechanics to cut down on overthrows between 5 and 15 yards from the line of scrimmage I think we'll see more consistency and an even better offense.

I'm excited to see what Trestman will do for the Ravens. I think the balance of personalities will work really well. We desperately need dual threat talent at the RB position now though...I wouldn't expect Justin Forsett back on the squad for that reason.

Yea. I'm still not ready to give up on him. For some reason it seems like he came to the league and had to totally re-learn how to play football, but given that fact he really is improving. He needs to improve his coverage but now that we don't need him to start, I think he has time to develop into the guy that will take over for Stewart/Miles when they inevitably move on.

To be fair...it's only #64565 when you adjust for delusion.

If we don't win it all I still believe in our strategy, as I said in my revised post, it is always unlikely that you win it all. All you can do is stack the deck in your favor by adhering to an approach you believe in. I am not arguing with you about what we did or did not do for our offense. My point is that our strategy is to build an elite defense, let players grow into their roles on offense, and let the rest take care of itself based on our coaching and a little bit of luck. To that end, our draft makes total sense to me. I haven't made any normative judgements about the actual picks themselves because there is no evidence regarding what they will or will not do for this team. However, because I have faith in our strategy, I am confident we headed in the right direction. To put it another way, I am not qualified to judge our picks. All I can do is look at history, look at trends, and look at what works statistically. Given those varaibles, our strategy makes sense to me and thus I have faith in it. If that's homerism, I'll wear that mantle proudly.

Negativity as realism and positivity as homerism, such a tired point. Uncertainty is constant. Maybe our strategy won't play out, maybe it will. I trust our strategy. You don't. It's an impasse, not sure why we're still arguing. The only difference is I will continue to be happy and support the strategy I think is right, you will continue to be disappointed and upset. If we win it all I get validation, you get "Oh well that was lucky."Can't be a good feeling. Although, the odds are always against us, that's the nature of competition, I just like to live on the upside. If I see something I don't like, I critique it once I have evidence that allows me to do so. I'm just not one to stomp my feet and clench my fists when things don't go my way.

Such a great point. It's shameful really. Especially when you've got guys like Matt Millen out there with a storied track record of failure just waiting for an opportunity. I mean, when you're the worst team in the league like we were last year and clearly will continue to be this year given our focus on "defense", whatever that means, there's nowhere to go but up, right? Right?! Bisciotti, I know you follow my posts avidly, so on behalf of the genius' here in Ravens talk stop the charade and hire Matt Millen.

Understand where you're coming from, but I still stand by the point that SB-winning teams over the past 10 years have not prioritized offense in the draft. And if they have, the defense has already been set. It's not like we had 30 picks and just chose to ignore offense, we decided that in a year where elite defensive talent is falling dramatically we wanted to get the highest possible value out of early picks and then focus on upside in the later rounds. I guess what I'm wondering is who cares if the offensive talent is deep of that's not what gets you to the dance? I would argue that even with last year's team, we get one of those 4th quarter defensive stops and we're in the playoffs. Our offensive unit is virtually the same with infinitely better coaching and our defense, after this draft, has the potential to be exponentially better. That is a recipe for success. The crux of your argument now seems to be that it is easier to draft defense so we should spend riskier picks on offense to hedge our bets. Offense is harder in general than defense, that's why they get paid more. So if I'm a savvy GM I want vets on offense and youth on defense. Through that lens our draft strategy makes total sense.