GrimCoconut

With the amount of anger going on in this thread, you would think we just signed Kyle Boller and let Flacco walk in FA. Lol.

According to Aaron Wilson, Ravens asked Boldin to take a 2M pay cut. Pretty reasonable for a guy who has underperformed his contract for the majority of 3 seasons.

If that's true, that's not really that bad. It is reasonable.

I'll still hold out hope he's back. He provides a lot, not just as a football player. His bock was critical for Rice, but his WR leadership is also very nice.

But if we lose him, I will understand. We have a lot of WRs here. I have mixed feelings. I want Boldin to stay but I want to see what these young guys have.

I used exactly what you quoted in your post. Why would you post the corrected version in a post about mistakes?

My point was that the title may have been wrong in saying that the Ravens released Harrison(though it clearly only makes grammatical sense if a team other than the Ravens was the one releasing Harrison), the content is what matters and that is what's correct (with the exception of the NFC North bit.

Who cares? The title was wrong. It was funny. Relax.

We can agree to disagree if you want. I'm not about to debate something like this. I'm just saying what I have to say and if you respond, I'm leaving it at that. I'd like to not derail this thread. I personally look at titles before content, hence why my eyebrow raised when I saw "Ravens cut Harrison", and I laughed. You didn't write the article, did you? You seem defensive about it, which is why I asked.

Yahoo! has some terrible writers. I find their articles amusing because of that.

From your source

"The Pittsburgh Steelers announced Saturday that they released linebacker James Harrison, while Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Anquan Boldin might become a free agent after all."

You're trying to hard.

Excuse me? The title was quoted. I didn't make that up. Don't be a fool. Read the comments even. You're not trying hard enough.

There is a thread for this, you know.

Lol, I love Yahoo! news articles. They're the best:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl-roundup-ravens-cut-harrison-004016602--nfl.html

NFL Roundup: Ravens cut Harrison, Boldin may leave Ravens

Two of the most biggest names in the NFC North division are either gone or on their way out.

The Pittsburgh Steelers announced Saturday that they released linebacker James Harrison, while Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Anquan Boldin might become a free agent after all.

The Steelers had tried to lower Harrison's salary cap number. He was scheduled to make $6.57 million this year.

Apparently, we play in the NFC North now and the Ravens just cut Harrison & Boldin may leave our team as well.

I get what you're saying. It's obviously much easier to contribute as a FB since it usually means that there is going to be a run. A lot of Boldin's snaps resulted in him being a decoy or just not getting open. I'm just looking at Leach's high salary and finding it somewhat difficult to justify paying him that much, especially against a tight cap.

With that being said, I wouldn't be opposed to having Boldin and/or Leach on the team next year. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Boldin and/or Leach cut as well.

Here, we both agree.

Personally, I'd love for the Ravens to sign Delanie Walker if we did cut Leach and/or Boldin. He can block, is a HECK of a ST player & can catch some balls here and there (lol, I know I said this already, but I really like Delanie).

I want to keep Leacj if possible. Fullbacks are very underrated in the NFL right now. Leach is the best there is and he really helps us in our power running game. We can do 1 back sets, but its very helpful to put a true fullback in the backfield and get a power running game going. Despite what people think we are still a heavy run team. We take shots deep and Joe can run a 2 minute offense, but we are shown to be post effective when we keep defenses honest with a heavy doss of running plays.

BA can go, he's played well for us, got a ring and is as old as Ray Lewis. More importantly he didn't play well this year. Thought he was good last year, but I vividly remember his missed tackles on those kickoffs and punts that almost killed us this year.

There are a few players I'd cut before Boldin and after this season I really don't see how u let him go. Mans got 3 more years left at least. I get the logic in letting Leach go, but I'd still keep him.

Don't really see the need for BA. Love the man he's a great individual that fights for the right reasons but I think his best days are behind him

See, my issue with cutting Leach is you've invested 7.5M a year average into a RB. It's true the FB position isn't what it was, but to lose a FB for your franchise RB seems like a big risk. If we cut him, I will feel like it was the right choice. Not that the Ravens are perfect here--we've made bad choices before. What I am saying is that I'll trust in the FO to make the right choice. I really don't know. Perhaps Damien Berry or Anthony Allen have been groomed to be the FBs of this team. I'm not sure. Perhaps we make a run at Felton. Don't know.

If we did cut Leach, I would want Delanie Walker. He brings a LOT to the football team: AWESOME special teams player, a HECK of a blocker in the run game, and can catch some balls here and there--similar to Leach. The biggest thing--the worst thing--we lose with Leach is how he ran HARD. That will be missed. You could put him at RB and he would get you a yard or two. Almost guaranteed.

Leach is probably the most productive player on the team. I know he only plays 20% or whatever the number is of snaps, but in those 20% of his snaps he plays like a monster and is productive as anyone on this football team.

Yeah I mean Leach is obviously a tough decision. But, if you compare their production, or even their snaps played last year, Boldin is clearly more valuable to this team. I love Leach as a player, but I find it hard to pay him such a high salary to play 20-40% of the snaps per game. Boldin, on the other hand, probably played 90% of the snaps last year.

I think it all is coming down to getting those young guys some chances though.

See, I know exactly what you are saying but I'm not quite in agreement here. Yeah, Boldin played a lot of snaps but there is a huge difference between Leach & Boldin. Leach is the definition of quality over quantity. While Leach played whatever amount of snaps, he was definitely more productive on his snaps than Boldin. I'm not insulting Boldin here, but I'd take a productive player over an unproductive one any day, and while I get what you're saying, Leach is consistent and while Boldin makes TOUGH catches, he has his own issues. Leach's outproduces Boldin when he is on the field. I'm sure if there was some way of measuring production based on snaps, Leach would grade extremely high and Boldin would grade lower. That's obvious due to the amount of snaps Boldin has taken, I know. But that does have an impact on the game.

Yeah, either way. We could have a chance to see some of our depth receivers step up. Would people be saying "get rid of Corey Graham" if Webb wasn't injured and he wasn't forced into a starting role? What about Chykie Brown? And where would Bynes be on fans' meter if McClain, Ray, and Ellerbe never missed time? Harewood was a lost cause until he got the chance to play starting guard. And look at what McKinnie did with his shot. Sometimes that's all a guy needs.

Yeah, that's the delicate balance here. That's why I won't be upset either way. I'll be disappointed if Boldin is gone. Make no mistake. He's an awesome football player. I love everything about the way he plays. I think that's a lost point here. From my limited perspective, to me, it seems like people around here feel like there are two sides: you either want Boldin here or you do not. It's not really like that. It's more complex than that.

For me, I want Boldin here but as long as he is, it's hard to play the other guys we have. Deonte Thompson, David Reed, Tandon Doss, Laquan Williams, Tommy Streeter. We could have a beast in there. I'd hate to cut a Harrison (let's not talk character; just skill) and have it bite us in the rear end later. You know what you get with Boldin. He's awesome. I love him as a player. But Dennis Pitta's game is really similar to Boldin's at this point, and that kind of says that Boldin plays a lot like a TE than he does a WR. That's not an insult but it's not a compliment, either. It's rather in-between.

We can't keep all these players. It's not possible. We will be forced into making tough cuts, and so I can see us cut Boldin to get more out of our depth players and perhaps a guy we draft this year. It sucks. I know. But, it's not the end of the world.

I find it interesting that Boldin would be the first cut of the tough decisions, regardless of his salary. Guys like Leach, Ayanbadejo, and others are still out there that seem to have less of a spot on this team than Boldin. Cutting those 2 alone would cover almost $4 million compared to the $6 million we'd save from cutting Boldin. If this indeed does turn out to be true, I guess the Ravens are content with moving on and giving their younger players a chance to contribute.

I'm torn on Leach & BA. It makes sense to cut BA, to an extent. We would need to replace his leadership. I can see Considine take over if re-signed for that role. Or perhaps another player.

Leach is a conflict. You lose a great lead blocker for Rice & Pierce. Leach is also one of the very best if not the best at his position. He could prove a major loss to our run game. It's a tricky spot. Boldin's not the #1 player at his position or even top-5. I'm not sure about top-10 either. But I agree with you. Leach's production may be replicated. Boldin may not be easily replicated.

Lol, this is entertaining.

I suggest people take some Ativan before we have hospital admissions grow in a matter of hours in Baltimore & its surrounding counties. Boldin's not released yet. Wait and see.

But there is a point to both arguments. You can make an argument to cut Boldin to save money to extend young guys. You can also make an argument to keep Boldin due to how clutch he played in 2012 and especially when Cam was Canned.

Personally, I would be fine either way. It makes sense both ways to me. Not sure I like the idea of restructuring Boldin, personally. I think it's fine for this year, but I want to pay guys like Pitta, Jones, maybe Cody or Oher if they explode this year. Those players are young and up and coming. Boldin's great, a beast, but let's face it: he's at the end of the game. How much juice is in those tanks?

Boldin was our go-to guy. I will definitely miss him. He made several key plays this year. He played out of his mind at times. Really. He was a monster. The San Diego Miracle on 4th & 31 was it? Anquan had a major role in that play. Major role. Without him, we lose that game and a lot changes.

He made several key catches when we needed it. He went Boldin mode in the Super Bowl. Elevated his game like I never saw. I was amazed.

He played probably the best football out of our entire WR corps.

But we have Pitta, who can be the new go-to guy for Flacco--who already could be argued as his go-to guy.

We have about 10 ERFAs too.

True. We usually sign back all of our ERFAs, too. Just like RFAs & not cutting draft picks.

As for Ellerbe, I don't know about keeping him for 5-6M. I like Ellerbe, but that's a lot of dough. We might feel forced into it with the uncertainty at ILB with Lewis retired & McClain injured.

If Ellerbe will be expensive, I would rather let him, Kruger & Williams all walk and bring back Ed Reed. His leadership is really important to our defense, more than even Boldin's on the offense. We can rake in the comp picks in 2014 if we don't go crazy this year. We can use the money if we do cut Boldin to keep Reed, extend guys like Dennis Pitta (IMO, far more vital than Boldin going forward), maybe even Oher if the FO really wants to keep him and get some cheap veterans in FA to fill holes at NT, LB, even DE (pass rusher).

We are $12 Million under the cap right? How many RFAs do we have? We should be able to keep Boldin even after all the RFA signings.

Pitta, Dickson, Reed, Harewood, Jones, Cox. I think that's it. We could re-sign Cox for a cheap deal. Shouldn't be much. Reed & Harewood are guys who we might risk not tendering and re-signing cheaper. Jones, Dickon & Pitta would need tenders. I'd rather extend Pitta or Jones than tender, though.

In listening to alot of Ellerbe's player interviews over the past several weeks, it appears the closer we get to free agency Ellerbe's attitude has definately changed. He appears to be listening to the wrong ears and I think he is getting an inflated sense of his worth. Don't get me wrong, Ellerbe is a good player, but that is just it, he is good, not great. I hate to think of us losing a player of Boldin's caliber from overpaying a player with durability issues. If we had a stronger front seven, the LB position wouldn't nearly be as important.

I really think there is a good chance Ellerbe may join Kruger & Williams as FAs who do not return in 2013.

You guys don't get it. It's not just about the money. That's a big part of it.

I will make this real simple as to why the Ravens would want Boldin to take a paycut or get released:

1.) Depth of Position: Torrey Smith, Tandon Doss, Tommy Streeter, LaQuan Williams, Deonte Thompson, & David Reed are all under contract or can receive a tender (ERFA or RFA).

2.) Cost: Boldin costs us 6M in base salary. We're tight against the cap. We have quite a few needs.

3.) Depth of Draft: there are many talented WRs in this class who could upgrade or come close to Boldin's production.

4.) Future Contracts: this is last but it's not the least. A lot of us do not seem to recognize that we have Torrey Smith, Dennis Pitta, JJ, Michael Oher, Ed Dickson all coming due as FA on the offensive side of the ball. How do you we propose we pay for those players? That's not counting guys like Corey Graham, Jimmy Smith, Art Jones, Pernell McPhee, Chykie Brown, etc.

I hope we can keep Boldin like the next guy, but look at those four factors and really look at the team as a whole. If we can extend guys like Pitta, JJ, Oher, etc. we can save money in future years. Whether we want to admit it or not, Boldin is on the decline. He is not the same player despite his awesome performance to lead us to a Super Bowl. I would take extending Pitta & keeping Ed Reed over Anquan Boldin and I have a #81 Nike Super Bowl 47 jersey.

Patriots DB Alfonso Dennard found guilty of felony assault on a police officer on an incident that happened last April, days before the draft. Sentencing date set for April 11. That's according to several reports on Twitter, nothing "official" yet.

Things keep getting better and better for that New England secondary.

Wow. Bill really needs to reconsider taking these high-character concern guys. I know he thinks he can fix them all but it's not always the case. Here's one.

yea northern Ireland, we are awful at football lol.

I'm not bothered who'd win, would love Portugal to win it all.

Ahh, Ireland. My bad. I would cheer for the Irish if they were a little better at football. I'm Italian & Irish.

So glad Italy beat England.

Can't wait for the Euro match today. Italy vs. England.

Sorry, Arnie. I hope you guys get waxed today. Viva Italia.

lol awesome!

I can't take credit for that. Terrell Suggs posted it on his Facebook and I just re-posted it.