beasy2487

I will take a major wait and see approach. It seems like every offseason on here, people are proclaiming that we are stacked at WR. Only to have, by the end of the year, everyone demanding that we need more weapons at WR.

So your theory is that people on fan forums speculate and then are proven or disproven by hindsight? Interesting. 

Dark horse in this discussion is Steven Means. If Means shows enough to make the 53, I can't see how we keep 7 receivers unless we give up a corner. Given recent memory, I don't see us prioritizing a 7th receiver over a corner or a pass rusher.

Given that and disregarding IR, I think it's Brown vs. Campanaro vs. Butler for 4 and 5. Perriman(2) and Waller(6) are protected by draft status, Smith Sr(1) is self-evident, and I think Aiken(3) has proven himself to our coaching staff. I could also see us bringing in a vet to push for the  3 spot, meaning only one of Brown/Camp/Butler makes the team. I think the skillset of said veteran would help determine which of the three we keep.

I spy, with my little eye, something that rhymes with sphinx.

Franklin

Delano

Walkervelt

edit: I am also legitimately shocked that only one person has mentioned the dreaded Oneil Cousins.

I JUST GOT DESTROYED lmao

Haha you lobbed it up, Gabe and I had to spike it.

No.

No.

Post of the year candidate

Amputated finger for JPP?? Whoa.

It was heart breaking, the Ravens of old never would have blown 2 14 point leads.....

 

It is what it is, Joe did all he could and so did our defense as limited as it was.

 

This year Jimmy Smith and Webb are back....................

Don't be silly, the Ravens of old couldn't score 14 points .

not putting words in your mouth, your attitude about the situation says "press coverage eliminates short completions", which is wrong.

need proof as to why press coverage is almost ALWAYS a bad idea with db's of this caliber? check the rare occasion where we did press cover in this game in the 2nd half, 25ish yard touchdown to lafell to give them the lead.

we had db's that are incapable of getting a good jam on the receiver, allows clean release, the db is stuck playing catch up, very very bad when youre facing brady, he will spot it every time, and dont take away from brady's arm, get real, he may not have the arm strength of flacco, but the touch he puts on the ball is still 2nd to none and as long as that pass is under 40 yards he is gonna put it RIGHT on the money 99% of the time, if the db is too inexperienced to know how to get his head turned to play the ball, then brady will exploit it, which he did.

And you know what makes up for those ducks up the seam? Gronk. The funny thing is, in the end it was the trick plays that were the difference. I think it's funny that people want to point to other things. We got beat with a WR TD pass and a rule so obscure it is now obsolete. That's football at its highest level. Our guys played and coached their tails off and lost a game by a small margin that they were supposed to get blown out in.

The Pats pulled out all the stops and got their swan song SB...which was supposed to solidify Brady's legacy...if it weren't for that pesky cheating issue. Their time is over if our guys do what they're capable of over the next 3-5 seasons. I'm excited to see it play out.

the way i look at it, our players couldnt tackle or cover, cant blame em, they dont really belong on an NFL field for the most part, but brady and bellichick are nothing short of evil geniuses, bellichick coached the game of his life, and with a little bending of the rules he was able to get brady and his receivers some momentum. i just personally would rather give up long drives and hope for a dropped ball or an errant throw or some quick pressure reaching the qb, rather than pressing with practice squad corners and giving up big plays left and right

Yea the Pats had to pull out every trick in their bag to beat us at home in the playoffs with no secondary. Hell, they had to change the rulebook to get that win. People seem to forget that we weren't even supposed to be in that game so much as pushing the entire Pats team to its proverbial limit. I'm so proud of what we were able to accomplish last season.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if there's anything you can knock Pees for in the second half of that game, it's not selling out on the interior pass rush. I think that's where Pees got out coached by Belichick and Co. In my opinion, we should've sat B. Will and gone all out with Suggs, Ngata, Jernigan, and Doom, rotating in McPhee at all 4 positions. Interior pressure was our only hope and Belichick accurately guessed that we would still hedge against the run, so by abandoning it he put us at a disadvantage once our secondary wore down.

It's called fantasy football. Because Brown's numbers last year didn't at least match his rookie season, the fantasy football, espn highlight crowd assume he regressed. However as a football player in the real world Marlon Brown actually improve on his route running, timing and other nuances of his game. That's what coaches and guys like Steve Smith see about Brown that have excited.

What i don't get is the group that believe Brown was so bad last year while Aiken and Camp showed so much more. I thought it was the TDs those guys scored but even that doesn't make much sense to me because neither guy had an significant amount of TDs.

From where I'm sitting the opposite is true. I look at Brown's TD numbers his rookie year and I see a guy that made plays when nothing was expected of him (either from the fans or from the opposing defense). Then last year, when the #3 WR spot was all but up for grabs, he disappeared. We can talk about "taking advantage of opportunities" as much as we want, but at some point you make your own opportunities. Torrey Smith struggled mightily last year, Smith Sr. disappeared for long stretches toward the back end of the season, Jacoby's confidence was completely broken by mid-season, and Campanaro was oft-injured. Given those circumstances, Marlon had nothing but opportunity to establish himself as the #3 WR on this team and he just couldn't do it. 24 receptions for 255 yards and no scores?! When you're 6' 5" and have the inside track for WR3???? Extremely disappointing.

I think Marlon Brown is a solid WR4 or WR5. The thing is, we have other guys that can play WR4/5 that have the potential to do more (i.e. Butler, Campanaro and Waller). With Aiken primed to solidify himself as WR3 and Waller, more than likely, locking up the last WR spot, I think it's Brown vs. Butler vs. Campanaro for WR4 or 5. Any two of those three could make it but I'd prefer Camp and Butler, simply because I think we've seen what we're going to get from Brown--mediocrity.

yeah im actually really excited about that- a lot of ppl don't really like the screens and check downs but I don't think we did enough of them last year. I think that Forsett will really be able to bust some of them open - and this also plays into buck Allen's strength as well. Plus I'm all for anything that adds to joes passing yards.

Yea I also think Perriman is going to be sneaky good on screens. He explodes off the line and with his size/speed it should be nothing to make the first defender miss. Then with the athleticism we have at G/T and the size we have at WR/TE, getting blockers out in front and into the second and third levels should something we are very good at. If it plays out that way we'll be giving teams nightmares with the quick passing game.

Hi all - to anyone who saw any of the OTAs. Last year, under Kubiak, Flacco was under center most of the time. I looked at Bears highlights from last year and their QBs were in shotgun a lot. Any idea what we're going to do in 2015? I actually like Joe in the shotgun. Thanks.

I think you're going to see more of Joe in the shotgun, coupled with quick passes to Juice and the RBs to replace some of our more traditional early down running plays. I also think you're going to see more screens. Should be interesting.

You're hoping Brown gets cut?

I'm not high on Brown. He had his opportunity to separate last year and fell short. I don't think he uses his size well and even in these OTAs he was getting boxed out by smaller DBs (that aren't allowed to hit). Our offense needs guys that can win one-on-one and I'd like to see some others given the opportunity.

Hoping our WR corps shapes up something like Sr. > Aiken > Perriman > Campanaro > Butler > Waller.

Nice mix of size, speed and technique.

With all the injuries in the secondary id say even being in a position to play the Patriots in that game was a success.

And considering all the turnover and injuries on that side of the ball we've had to deal with in Pees tenure, id contend that consistently ranking as a well above average defense while having almost no consistency in personnel is a solid achievement.

I don't always agree with Pees philosophy and I don't think he's one of the best coordinators in the league. But he's the best available to us and id prefer the consistency he's brought to the team over the carousel we've had on the other side of the ball.

While you can argue that maybe the conservative approach against the patriots led to the loss - you can also argue that with a lesser coordinator we never even make it to that game.

I didn't think we had a Super Bowl caliber roster heading into the season at full health. Yet we ended up nearly in the Super Bowl with arguably the worst secondary in football. That deserves some credit. With a healthy Jimmy Smith and Ladarius Webb we win that game with that philosophy.

I'd argue that if you take away the trick play, now illegal eligibility, and missed tackles we do win that game. The plays were there to be made to keep us on top. We didn't execute. Maybe being more aggressive ices the game - or maybe it exposes us and we get burned worse. We don't know.

But we do know that if just a couple plays turned out differently we would've won that game even with the conservative play calling - so I can't blame that. It's all about doing enough to win. The coaching was just adequate enough to win it, player execution wasn't.

And I'll take the guy that's just adequate enough to beat the eventual Super Bowl champions - meaning adequate enough to win a Super Bowl - over guys that don't even get you to the dance.

Yea I think from a scheme perspective Pees called the game exactly as he had to and did a great job. My only knock on him for the Pats game is that he left Ngata in for the lion's share of the snaps in the 2nd half after the Pats abandoned the run. With the way our secondary was playing, our only hope was interior pressure on Brady. For that reason I would've had Jernigan out there much more. Otherwise though, totally happy with Pees and look forward to the product we put on this field this coming season.

Jimmy's number 2. He's a better CB than Flacco is a QB.

Meh, Flacco stays on the field. Doesn't matter how talented you are if you can't stay healthy. Agree with you that Jimmy is better if health isn't a factor, but given Joe's durability (not for lack of hits taken) I think he's easily the second best on the team behind Yanda. I would only give Yanda the edge because of his ability to play RT. It's crazy that he can play above average at RT while also being the best Guard in the league.

That said, Jimmy is definitely a top 5 player on this team.

You acting like those are good numbers? Lmao

Nope, I just like to give the lords of the forum an opportunity to feel superior every once in a while. It's all the rage this summer.

The Upshaw situation reminds me of Suggs in the SB. Bayless got on him for not getting to Kaep and Suggs' response was that's why Skip has never and will never win anything meaningful—because he doesn't understand playing in a scheme. Suggs was hindered at that point and QB mobility was a factor, so they put him on contain to keep Kaep in the pocket. In my opinion they do a lot of that with Courtney because of his lack of burst. Instead of risking the outside lane I think Upshaw has historically been schemed to contain (even on passing downs). The times I've seen him get pressures and hits have been green dog and broken plays.

I think Upshaw is going to have to prove in practice that he can benefit us more as a rusher than we lose by taking him off contain. I'll be interested to see if he can make it happen.

Yep, that's exactly the quote I meant:

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/Ravens-Have-Utmost-Confidence-In-Jimmy-Smith/d01b0008-4cd1-4637-add7-6a0cd7e89f45

Pees is quoted as "got" so maybe that implies he dictates it? I don't really know, though.

yea sounds like he's given Jimmy a few techniques he can choose from but the press technique is where he has the upper hand. glad Smith figured that out.

I know Jimmy was in press and that's something Pees encouraged him to do. So is it that Pees dictates how they should play or do they have flexibility to line up how they wish?

I definitely think the CBs have some say in how they line up. I remember in 2013 right before Jimmy really came on Pees was on record saying that Jimmy "has a technique he can use, we just need to get him comfortable." I took that as referring to him getting over his early struggles with the double move and having the confidence to press. Shortly thereafter we saw Jimmy on receivers like glue.

the key point in that statement is 'he can,' which says that there is some choice to me.

2014 3 hits, 1 sack, 8 hurries

2013 2 sacks, 3 hits 11 hurries

2012 2 sacks, 7 hits, 13 hurries

nuh uh. according to this thread, Upshaw couldn't find a potato sack in Boise, so much as dream of coming anywhere near an NFL quarterback. facts have no place in this discussion.

I think you nailed it on Sizzles' feelings of nostalgia. He and Haloti were the last of an era gone by, now the last familiar face he sees from the Billick-days is in the mirror.

 

Not that it's a bad thing, his best memories (IMO) have been since 2008, he's DPOY, won a SB, and made incredible plays. As he said in his presser, "it's weird" but I think he meant 'it's different'.

 

I think he's got a couple more years in him but, of course, it's up to him. Like he said, his '32' is different than someone elses. He's been in the league twice as long as Webb despite being only 3 years older. He's got 12 years of experience to Chris Canty's 10 - they're both 32. Daryl Smith is older than him but Suggs beats him in experience. That's incredible if you think about it.

Suggs has really had a perfect career. Would love to see him pad those stats over the next two years, get another ring, and waltz into the hall like his big brothers.

Couldn't NOT notice Lawerence Guy towards the end of last year

i couldn't disagree less

Well from the complete lack of coverage Davis is getting I think it's safe to say he'll be a complete known factor this season...

Probably goes for Za'darius too.

I dunno it seems like you might be putting a little too much stock in the media. We're not even in training camp yet. I'm not sure we have any idea what we're going to get out of any of the rookies at this point.