Ravensfan23

Why does it seem the Ravens can always get outside FAs to come here for less money, while guys the Ravens develop in house seem to bolt for the money as soon as they get? Guess that's just the nature of the NFL today.

I hardly think the Ravens are sitting back thinking that Woodhead will solve all their problems in terms of getting a chain moving WR. Woodhead is just a piece to the puzzle and if healthy he'll give the Ravens a Ray Rice type of weapon out of the backfield in the passing game. That they've been greatly missing. I fully expect the Ravens to address the WR position at some point this offseason. It might not be a big named WR like Pryor or Jeffery but I think they'll attack the position.

That's exactly what it is imo. Juice is going to SF where Shanny will make him a household name and the Ravens just needed a 3rd back who could create mismatches for no where near the price.

Don't think that's what this signing means. Woodhead is more of a change of pace back that will bring speed to Dixon's thump. The Ravens just checked off another box they don't have to address in the draft.

agreed. He's actually a pretty good backup QB.

Not big news, but Ryan Mallett is expected to return. I'm sure he's wondering what a huge preseason could mean for him with some of this lesser QBs getting paid.

Take them and play them. They don't have to start. The better safeties in this drat class are bigger guys who can potentially cover big and fast TEs. Using a 3 safety set isn't hard on defense.

That's just foul lol

If that offered the same type deal as Mitchell Schwartz it was competitive and aggressive imo because I don't view Wagner as the top RT in the NFL and to pay him as such is a stretch, but I could see the value at 7 or 7.5M but at 9+ no way. This team has been in trouble or signing bad deals over the last five years. I have no issue with either Wagner nor Juice walking for the price tags they have. Congrats to those guys and on to the next for the Ravens.

i stand corrected about Wagner. Did not see 9+ Million for him. Any word on what the Ravens offered?

thx

If someone signs him the Ravens get a 3rd round pick. I wouldn't mind that. I think they definitely like him but Dixon will be the guy moving forward imo and if the Ravens can find that fast homerun hitting change of pace RB, that'll probably be the 1-2 punch.

So what does that put the cap total at now. I'd imagine that 5Mil freed up was eaten up by the RFA guys.

I've wrapped my mind around the Ravens not signing him for some time. In fact I think like signing Marshall and selecting a guy like Copper Kupp in the draft or if the rumors of Pryor being on the Ravens radar is true i'd love that. But i'm still interested to see what Britt gets. I don't think he gets close to the 10M that some have said, but wouldn't be surprised at all. Also think it's a really good fit for him, he'll finally get to show his talent with a good QB.

Jamison Hensley ✔@jamisonhensley D.J. Fluker, Riley Reiff among #Ravens' right tackle options if Rick Wagner leaves http://es.pn/2mxNlHo 1:29 PM - 7 Mar 2017 D.J. Fluker, Riley Reiff among Ravens' RT options if Rick Wagner leaves Neither D.J. Fluker nor Riley Reiff is at the level of Rick Wagner, but they could be better values. espn.com

The Ravens now have 4 picks in the top 100 and compensatory picks are allowed to be traded this year. http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/Ravens-Awarded-A-Third-Round-Compensatory-Pick/cb79b9ab-a6f6-4388-ac3c-3c6e1b9aa90f Now that compensatory picks are allowed to be traded I wonder if it changes anything with the Ravens process of letting certain guys walk?

They didn't post anything but what the situation has always been. If the players hit the open market the Ravens run the risk of not re-signing them. That's been the case since day 1 lol.

I think there are some case where you shouldn't, but for the most part I agree. In guys like Eric Berry's case, if your team is willing to make you the highest paid DB in the history of the NFL, that's probably as good as you'll get. Or if you're really tied to a place and they offer you a really strong offer like the Ravens did to guys like Jimmy and Rice, I think you just take the money and keep the continuity in your life. But for the most part I'm always testing the market. Especially now with teams throwing around Monopoly money.

I think that's exactly what it is. The Ravens can only do so much with their offer because hey aren't gonna outbid themselves. Of course you run the risk of losing the players if they hit the open market but you just can't overpay for a RT only and a NT regardless of how important those players are, they just aren't big enough difference makers. Truth is, you can find adequate replacements for those positions without much effort. Of course you want to keep them but you're only going to give them a fair offer and if another team wants to overpay then you allow them to watch. I think both Juice and Wagner return but someone may get crazy with BWill and the Ravens won't hesitate to use Peirce/Davis and probably address the position in the draft as well. That's not true, If reports are accurate, the Ravens offered KO 8.5M per year that would have made him the highest paid Guard in the NFL at the time. These 10M per contracts for Decastro and Long weren't signed to after KO's deal. What the Ravens weren't willing to and certainly couldn't afford to do was pay KO left tackle money to stay. So much like the guys this year, KO's people heard it was much more money to be had on the open market and they went for it. KO's people were right in betting on the open market because he plays a position of great value and also seen as an option for arguably the most important position on the Oline in LT. I personally don't think the same will hold true for Wagner. I wouldn't be shocked to hear Williams signing with another team tomorrow. But in Wagner's case, I think there will be more negotiations between he and the Ravens because even if someone offers more than the Ravens, it won't be a huge gap between the 2 offers and the Ravens will probably be willing to match is my guess.

I disagree. I think it's a classic case of funny money vs real money. Funny money is the money that you think might be available vs what you know is guaranteed. I'd be shocked if the Ravens didn't offer Wagner 7M or so which would make him the highest paid RT outside of Johnson easily. However if Wagner's people think they could get even more on the open market, why sign the contract now? There have been reports of possibly 10M per for Wagner so even if that's slightly true if you were his agent getting 8% or whatever, would you let him sign now or test the Market?

How much is that worth though is the question. It's great to have those guys but if you have to paid an extra 7-12M to keep him is it worth it?

These reports by Zrebiec which i assume everyone is basing their opinions on, don't suggest that the Ravens are losing any of the 3 UFAs. I only shows what everybody already knew, those guys will test their value on the market and they're smart to do so. The Ravens will never be foolish enough to negotiate against themselves. The agents for Williams, Wagners and Juice have all the leverage right now. The common thought is that there is so much more money on the market and agents would be foolish not to use that against the Ravens. I'll continue to use Wagner as example. If the Ravens are offering to make him the highest paid RT outside of Johnson at 7M per but Wagner's people think there's a real shot at getting 10M on the open market, why would they sign now? It's just not smart. At the very least you know the Ravens are willing to go to 7M and they really want to keep you so if you were wrong about the open market and no teams are willing to go much higher than the 7M, the agent knows the Ravens offer is likely to still be on the table. On the flip side The Ravens would be foolish to raise their offer just because the agent thinks his client will be a huge hit on the open market. You're only 1-2 days away from seeing what your market value really is, so why wouldn't you test it unless the Ravens do what the Cheifs did with Berry and overpay just to keep him off the market. Which was smart by KC because Berry is a game changer, either Williams or Wagner are. Those Zrebiec tweet just indicate that the Ravens won't be able to keep those players off the open market, which Harbs basically said himself. We've offered competitive offers and those guys will do their due diligence to test their market is what Harbs said. These tweets are written in opinion. They just know that other teams are interested. Again I go back to the Schwartz situation this time last year. At the combine 8-10 teams were reported to be interested, so Schwartz turned down a 7M offer from the Browns because surely he'd get more on the market being such a hot commodity right? No, because no team was willing to make the 7M the Browns offered and when he tried to go back and accept the Browns offer they pulled it off the table so he had to settle for less. So when we see Zrebiec tweet that the ship has sailed on Wagner what does that mean? Nothing more than he won't sign before the market opens but he still has to be offered more than the Ravens did which unless Zrebiec knows contract details or have spoken to other teams or the agent, he's just giving his opinion.

I think he definitely becomes the highest paid RT, i have no doubt he will honestly. I just don't think it'll be higher than 7.5M. But even at 8M I think the Ravens are still in play for him. Anything higher and they'll probably move on. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the Ravens standing offer is something like 5yrs 35 20M guaranteed, but Wagner's people declined because they want to see what the open market will offer which they absolutely should.

I just look at it the same way I do when I sit with my clients and set up investment accounts for them. Even though the stock market has been booming over the last 3 months, I can't promise you it will continue. However what I can do is look at the trends of the market over the last 20-40 years and we can have a good indication of how the market will perform. That's exactly how I look at the NFL FA Market. So with that said, let's look at the RT Market over the last 3 years. Since 2014 there have been 6 different RTs who have signed deals that placed them among the top 3 highest paid at their position. It started with Austin Howard in 14' with 6M per. Than in 15' Bryan Bulaga got 6.7M per and last year Schwartz got 6.6M per, also remember in each year the salary cap has increased. So in the last 3 years with a rising cap, the RT market has reset itself at a steady pace totaling of $700,000. So now all of a sudden Wagner is supposed to reset the market by 1.5-3M per year, even though it's pretty much the same RT needy teams as it was last year? Even if Wagner reset the market by that total of $700k per year, that's still only 7.4M per which is not blowing the lid off the market. At the end of the day teams have to be willing to pay the RT position and I just haven't seen evidence of it. I just don't see this perfect storm for Wagner coming together. Being the top OT available doesn't matter much if you are a RT only imo. If a team was willing to play him at LT they'd be better off signing Whitworth, Beachum or Kalil, to below market deals and have an experienced LT rather than pay big money for an experiment. So I guess this will have to be one of our wait and sees lol. I believe i'm up 1 after nailing Marty being retained.

I agree with you, the demand just hasn't been proven to be there. Honestly I could see a guy like Riley Reiff blowing the lid off the RT market but that would be another KO like situation where a team is willing to pay him as a future LT in the next year or 2. I think Wagner is a really good player and if not for the foot injury might be the best RT right now, I just think the position he plays doesn't bring great value league wide which sucks for him. There's a reason why you never really hear the term Franchise Right Tackle and i don't really see that position getting that much more important to teams right now. I wouldn't be surprised to see teams putting a emphasis on attacking the Guard position in FA with guys like Zeitler, Lang and Leary to strengthen their interior and just make adjustments at the RT position. But with that said, it only takes one team to feel that RT is a huge need for him and have the cap space to say we'll commit 10M to this position of need.