eze17

So, we criticize Flacco for not showing any emotion, and then we criticize Jernigan for showing too much emotion? I'd rather see a guy too psyched up than not at all psyched up. Ha-Ha-Ha, great response!!!

Great football player, but speaks like mushmouth from Fat Albert.

Wait...you're a true NFL (and I suppose a Raven's) fan, yet you won't watch/support a game just because it's played in a different country? Pretty strict, and strange, standards you have there my friend...

As for the DVOA system, I think Mark Twain put it best when describing lies: "there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." People will crunch numbers together to try and make their own points; add or subtract a few numbers, and you get a different result. Cybernetic geeks will change/replace their formulas every few years to make it look like they're doing something new and exciting, when really thy're simply changing different variables to achieve varying outcomes. Comparing the 2000 Ravens run defense vs. the 2016 Ravens run defense may be interesting, but anyone can change a certain set of statistics to achieve the result they desire. I think i'll stick with the smell test in this circumstance...

Good attitude...we've got the weapons, Joe just needs to figure out how to use all of them to his advantage. We've all seen the flashes, now if the offense can simply get it's act together and play more consistently...but it's all gotta go through Flacco. hopefully he can get on a hot streak, he's done it in the past so there's always the real chance this team can start being legitimate contenders.

Hopefully a complete recovery for Reuland. Stay strong and wish you the best.

Where's all the people on this web site who were screaming for the Raven's to get rid of Doom because he was injured? Still think he can't play? Sure looks like he's got some gas in the tank to me...

Where's all the commenter's who wanted to cut Doom the last couple of weeks? I know there were more than a few of ya all...

You're right. Put 'em in bubble wrap. That'll be fun to watch. The notion that the league is investing in safety is a false one. They're protecting quarterbacks (some, but not all, and not all equally as Tom Brady has been untouchable for years while Cam Newton is treated like a running back) and receivers (though again, almost directly in correlation to salary vs. jersey number). Running backs and linebackers take the brunt of the big hits, and lineman on both sides are the most physical yet it's QB's and WR's who get all the protection. Further, it's not an either/or condition. 'Either we tolerate players sitting out for muscle pulls, or we shoot them up with tranquilizers before each half and bury them at 40', are not the only two choices. Dumervil has been dealing with a sore foot all season. Can't play. Suggs tears a bicep; plays. Does one have a higher pain threshold than the other? Maybe. Does one rely on pushing off a foot to do his job more than the other his bicep? Maybe that's part of the equation too. But Dumervil has been drawing a paycheck and eating up a roster spot all year while dealing with an "undisclosed" sore "foot area" injury from last year. Suck it up and play, or go on IR. Some of this is coaching too, I'm sure. Holding guys out in an era when lawsuits are driving the NFL to play tort defense. And double the number of pages in the rule book. It's a tough man's game. You can be a part of it as it's meant to be played, or at the periphery as a marginal has been, unable to "stay healthy." When you reach that point, maybe retirement is the answer instead of cheating the fans and the integrity of the game. Regarding the straw man union argument - it doesn't play with me. Unions are the bane of corporate success. Unions promote lethargy and under-performance. The game was better before the NFLPA and will continue to decline as it seeks enrichment over entertainment. Not arguing about player toughness, I'm saying people who yearn for the nostalgic "good old days" are looking through rose colored glasses...although I can see you have no problem with getting back to the feudal system of workers just being useless trash to be gotten rid of whenever they've outlived their usefulness. Or complain about hazardous working conditions. Or are injured and thrown out in the streets with no recompense. Its not the NFLPA's fault the game's are worse - It's the owners greed at rampant expansion that has dilluted the roster of available players coming from college. Too many teams-not enough quality players. But the NFL feels the need to keep expanding and further spreading the talent pool til you get players who are ill equipt to play at this level. And playing a lot more games than in yesteryear. And shorter rest periods between games. I'm not saying unions are a cure-all solution, but better than being treated like garbage. Which the NFL treated players like back in the day wether people like to admit it or not.

I just had this same conversation....I go back to the colt days.....players played or pay was adjusted.....and those boys played for...quoting Art Donovan....$100 a game.... They lived the gamed and played so there teams could win.....fractures, high sprains, etc....."tape her up and put me in coach".... Oh for a tougher breed Yeah, those "good old days" when the owners virtually owned the players, paid them squat while they raked in the dough, and when a player was done, so long and don't let the door hit you in the butt... Fast forward a few years when these guys started feeling the aches, pain and dementia that was a result of "tape her up and put me in coach" attitude. Any health benefits? Nah. Any insurance? Nah. Any relief at all from the NFL? As little as they could give, which had to be dragged out of the owners by lawsuits, which were appealed and dragged out indefinately. And as a Colts fan, does the name John Mackey mean anything to you? For you younger fans, look it up and see what a horror story life after "the good old days" could be...and there were literally hundreds just like him. And lets not forget the blatant racism that was rampant back then, when a minority had better know his place or suffer the consequences. Yeah, those sure were the glory days... How would you like to go to work for literal change that was based solely on how you performed, have zero imput on job decisions, face being fired for any offense no matter how minor, if you complain about being injured you face immediate termination and in the end your kicked to the curb with no health insurance and a totally sub-standard retirement pension. As an added bonus, due to all the injuries you've wracked up, you can't work anywhere else and are in constant pain. Yeah, sure long for those days when "men were real men"...

Spot on with WR, but we've drafted some good CB's over the years and some nice tackles including a hall of famer...

He is about the only one we don't "have to" keep - at least not at all costs. With Jernigan and an ascending Pierce at helm Williams is expendable if he gets too expensive on the market - and he is just about guaranteed to be. The Ravens have never gone into bidding wars - even for player in positions where had no real depth. We now have at NT. Sad, but Brandon will in all likelihood, be the next star leaving us via free agency. Grubbs, Ellerbe, McPhee, Torrey Smith, KO - now him. He's gonna be way too expensive. I think we should make retaining Wagner the top priority. That's much more realistic. True. We have thrown the franchise tag on a few big name defensive players in the past ( Mcallister, Haloti and Suggs) to keep them around until we could sign them long term, but I agree that Williams is probably playing somewhere else next year. Jernnigan and Pierce have shown they can step into his spot if needed.

$60 million, I wish. BWill is going to want Malik Jackson - Fletcher Cox type money. Try $100 million+ Well, he can want all he wants, but he won't get close to that. He doesn't play the same position as those guys, nor does he pass rush, which both of those guys do. Damon Harrison money is what he will be looking for and probably get. Agree with you in principle, and he probably won't get 100 mil. contract (I used that as a lazy number in my earlier post just to express he's going to be paid mucho dollars), but with the NFL market these days it could evolve into something crazy. I expected KO to get a nice chunk of change last year, but Oakland basically threw LT money at him. There could be a team out there that's determined to "make a splash" and go hog wild on spending. He definately is one of the best run stoppers, so it's going to be interesting what he's actually going to command on the open market. Harrison is a good hallmark to set him against, but I wouldn't be surprised if he could end up topping that contract.

Seahawks are not some kind of salary cap wizards. Sure, they've signed some of their star players, but at cap friendly numbers in the earlier parts of their contracts, with the bigger money coming on the tail end. Just like Flacco's contract didn't really start crunching the Ravens for the first couple of years. Also, you need to look at their offensive line, which is nearly as piece-meal as you can get, and the fact that they have virtually no consistent running game. If you pay big for some positions, you're going to have to make do with sub-par units (or at least cheaper paid players) on other parts of the team. No team in the league can keep all it's great players..no one. It's just a matter of deciding who you really want to build around. I know everyone would love to see Williams back in purple and black next year, but will it be worth paying him 100 mil. contract? That's the big question we need to decide this off season. And with the dearth of reliable QB"s out there, Mallett is going to be paid decent coin next year, so he will not come cheaply either. Although Wright and Zuttah have definately not played up to their potential, cutting them would save us little in cap space due to the "dead" money still counting against the cap. So you either eat their contracts and lose money, or hope they can get it together and play more consistent. As for other FA's on our team, i'd expect us to re-sign Juice, Levine and maybe Guy rather easily if we want to, with Aiken probably wanting to test the market to try and land with a team that would give him more playing time than the Raven's seem to be willing to give him. As far as SSS goes, that's entirely on him. I.m positive the Raven's would pay him well if he wants to go one more year.

These undisciplined mistakes have been absolutely crushing us all year...Yeah, occasionally a referee makes a bad call, but most of the flags on us have been legitimate penalties. Why does it seem we are always in competition with the Raiders to see how many penalties we can rack up? And there should be no excuses or conspiracy theories, even when we get a bad call against us it usually works out that we get a favorable questionable call for us also. A lot of the calls are accurate, and its just so frustrating to watch professional players make unexcusable blunders, especially this late in the season.

I like how PFF gave Zuttah a high rating, yet he cost us big time with his bone-headed penalties...

No, they are real penalties. You may be able to say a couple of them are close, or even needlessly called, but most of them are simply bone-headed mistakes by professional players who should know better. And it's been happening all season long. If officials come into a game knowing that a team is playing undisciplined football, they're bound to be keeping an eye out for infractions. And the Raven's have been playing sloppy all season. So you can certainly find fault with the refereeing on some plays, but the majority are simply our fault. Can't make any excuses when your guilty.

Yet once again, too many penalties and abandoning the rush attack...and as for Dallas dominating time of possession, that is something that happens when you QUIT running the ball like we did. It would have been nice to at least try and use our rushing attack so we didn't look utterly one dimensional, but as all season has shown us, the Raven's will try to use Joe's arm to get the offense going. Which is not working. TWO called rushes in the 2nd half? And anyone wonders why we dropped this game...I've tried not too put everything on Harb's shoulders this season, but that many bone-headed penalties (especially this late in the season), and giving up on any kind of ground game, are both pointing directly at the coaching staff not being on top of things. Luckily we are playing in a weak division so we may still get to go to the dance, but we're not going to be there long unless some people get their heads out of their u-know-whats...

So, Ray can speak badly of a current player, but the fan's shouldn't voice their opinion of someone who isn't even on the team any longer and has no clue of the dynamics of this locker room...Ray Lewis is one of my all tyme favorite Raven's, but blindly (or deafly) taking everything he says as THE TRUTH, end of discussion, is just sad. Some people need to realize that Ray is RETIRED and says things on television to keep his name in the spot light. And by the way, Chic fil a chicken sandwich is just another greasy fast food sandwich in my opinion, so your analogy leaves me with a choice between two nasty tasting burgers...Hey, just like the last election!

Ha-HA, so true! Let's go knock the Cowgirls down a few pegs! Go Ravens!

Can you imagine the players we could've added for his money if we kept tyrod for nothing for a few years? Yeah, a bunch of guys way overpaid at their positions and a QB who doesn't scare anybody...

I wouldn't put to much into it...I'm sure Joe knows how Ray likes to stir up controversy and shrugs it off. I'm willing to bet you'll see a picture of them laughing it up after the season is over. Pretty much a non - issue that is getting a lot of press, which is exactly what Ray likes...

Look, Ray is just gonna be Ray. He enjoys being in the lime light, no matter if it's good publicity or bad. I agree with Steve Smith Sr. that in the end it's just one man's opinion, and that no one plays as long as Joe has, and won a championship, without having any passion for the game. As long as his current team mates got his back and don't mind his style, why worry about what a retired player who isn't in the locker room anymore thinks?

Very eloquent...Well spoken and right on target!!!

Who? Why would you just cut a pro bowl caliber player, and put, I guess, a guy from the practice squad in his place? Having Doom on the roster is not hurting us...if he's still too injured to play, he simply goes on the game day inactive list. If he can play, he's that much of an experienced veteran who can still disrupt opposing offenses...You need to face the fact that there is absolutely no one else out there that has a shred of his talent, so you can be mad about his injury (which I'm sure he's not faking it, so don't know why people are so upset - guys do get injured playing football), but it would make zero sense, and actually be detrimental to get rid of him at this point in the season.