fusuymada

I wish we could get credit for news stories. If you check my posts, I pointed out this report on the 25th of May in a comments section and I put a link to the report as is required by the forum if you are quoting another news story. However, since we have to give credit to the source of the stories we use it would be nice if the Mink gave credit to the stories he gets from commenters who find stories and lead the reporters to the stories and the sites..

"Yanda will go down as one of the best offensive linemen in Ravens history (behind Jonathan Ogden), he's showing no signs of decline at 30 years old..." Not true. He injured his shoulder in 2012 and was diminished towards the end of the season and had offseason shoulder surgery and his 2013 season was less than stellar. Pro-bowl or not, we know that is a name game not a talent game and he certainly was far less than a pro bowl that year. I love Yanda but lets not kid ourselves. He is older, has had injury 0oncerns but to say he shows no sign of decline simply disregards the 2013 season. Yanda is well loved and I know this isn't a popular position but KO is a better investment and wont be near as expensive.

Why not bring Bellicek, well, time will tell but history is a big indicator. Without Brady, Bellicek is 51-65. With Brady he is 136-39. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1560349-bill-belichick-or-tom-brady-who-deserves-more-credit-for-the-patriots-success I hate Brady, but I will be watching closely when Brady retires and let see what the hoodie does then. I think he will revert to the Browns Bellicek.

Looks like if players are willing to lose that much money, then maybe the franchise tag has run its course and is no longer an effective way to avoid a long term contract. If that is the case, then when negotiations for the next CBA rolls around, the league is going to have to look seriously at whether or not this is even a valid option anymore. Although the franchise tag ensures that players wont sign somewhere else, it is no guarantee anymore they will play for the team that tags them. I don't know the answer but I know that this is going to generate a lot of questions in the coming years.

From the Ravens standpoint, and my standpoint also, the real thing to watch is yards/dollar spent. Yes, wouldn't it be great if Perriman matched T Smith in production but we are talking about a 5 year vet and comparing him to an unproven commodity. I am sure it wasn't T Smiths production that held the Ravens back from signing him, it was the dollar figure. So tying yards to dollars is a fair comparison between Smith and Perriman or comparing Perrimans numbers to Torreys rookie year.

Urschel is a beast and will be starting for us by next year if he isn't called on this year to start again. Very valuable player and the kind of smart guy you really need at the center position. I can see with our depth on the O-Line if some of our vets don't step up and stay healthy we may see more of Urschel and Hurst (I know he is a tackle) than we anticipate at this point...

Of the last 9 games that Flacco and Rothlesberger faced off Flacco has won 6 of those 9. http://www.footballdb.com/teams/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers/teamvsteam?opp=3 Ben has better numbers and a better surrounding cast but he still cant beat Flacco consistently. You don't get to the Super Bowl on stats you get there with wins. History should not be ignored especially now that Flacco has some weapons similar to what Ben has had for years. As for those ESPN reporters, if they aren't smart enough to look at this and make a better decision, then clearly ESPN reporters are too stupid to look at the facts and make an unbiased decision. This isn't a homer speaking, this is a person who looks at the facts and can make a rational decision.

Two things... First, Ngata is probably unhappy that in the middle of negotiations he received a call saying he was traded. He even made a statement to that effect. In addition, he's not going to say that the Ravens were the best defense he played on when he has to go into the Lions locker room and meeting rooms. If the Ravens were that concerned what he would say they should have kept him. (personally, I think he has been going downhill for awhile so I supported the trade emphatically.) second... Bisciotti is talking about more rings for Flacco. I like Joe, don't get me wrong. He wins. But most polls show the Ravens have one of the best if not the best front offices, the coaches are rated in the top three in the league, we routinely have the best run defense and overall defense in the league, especially in the red zone and they just this draft stocked up the offense. In LFW today we are listed as one of the best home field advantages as well. I would say if Flacco doesn't at least get to the super bowl this year or in the next few, the fingers have to point right back at him. Other teams with this much talent in the building and out should be doing something other than just appearing in the playoffs.

Personally, I think we are not only stable on offense, but better. I think Perriman brings better ball skills even with the questions of drops. Remember, Torrey dropped everything thrown his way during his rookie training camp, preseason and first couple games. Torrey actually made his first catch all the way into the third game of the season where he broke out against St Louis. But from day 1 Torrey was never a strong, go up and get the ball type of receiver. If Pitta is healthy I would take him over Owen Daniels any day and I am not certain Maxx Williams wont be better than Daniels. I am very happy with our offense and finally am really looking forward to this season.

The Ravens started the off-season in the middle of the pack (which is typical except in Super Bowl years) and by the end of the off-season they are at the top. They don't get involved in the big free agent market and stray away from trades except where absolutely necessary (Monroe, Zuttah) yet here they are again by using the draft and waiting for quality players to be released. The model has been the same, the success has been the same and the results have been the same year after year. If other teams don't model their formulas based on the Ravens succeses, then they are not truly interested in winning. If I as a fan can figure this out, why cant the high dollar individuals in other organizations figure this out. Except for the Packers, no one else does this.

Although Hurst survived he was a long shot from being a stable left tackle. Until Hurst improves it looks like we all better hope that Monroe gets and stays healthy. He wasn't exactly JO either but he is better than Hurst and he is all we have. Monroe was one of those free agents we traded for and paid the going rate. He needs to step up and show he's worth it or from what I have seen, he is a wasted investment. We talk about Campanaro coming in and being injured all the time, missing games and people are talking about getting rid of him and he was a rookie. Monroe is a vet and didn't play in any more games than Camp did last year.

I have argued over and over that the system is what hurts Flacco's rating more than anything else. We get ahead so we run, when the game is close we run then Flacco isn't throwing for 4000 yards because he doesn't have to. We wait until the fourth quarter if we are behind and then Joe throws it. Several games last year, one in particular I remember, we were on the 3 or 4 with over a minute left and we were blowing someone out so what did we do, we kneeled down. It is the nature of Ravens football. If we had a system where the running backs produce about 400 yards for a season, then Flacco would throw more but he doesn't because he doesn't have to. If Joe went to a pass hungry team like the Lions, he'd have 5000 yards. Flacco is better than his stats show and he gets credit for but if he takes us to the big game with all the other "superstars" gone, then they have to give Joe the credit. Unfortunately, its not about winning, its about throwing for 5500 yards and being 6-10. Sorry, give me Joe and a winning season over stats any day.

One thing I think people are forgetting is that they lost Dick LeBeau. I remember when they switched offensive coordinators making Bruce Ariens retire the same way they forced LeBeau to retire. It took a good three years for the offense to adjust to Haley and his new scheme and there were some tense moments between Ben and Haley for a couple years. There are still a lot of Steelers who are sour on the idea of LeBeau being forced out including a bunch who jumped ship and went with him. Those that stayed are going to have the same adjusting pains that the offense went through and not only do they have to adjust to a bunch of new faces, they have to adjust to a new scheme and a new way to practice which makes me believe TrevorSteadman is right on the money and if they break the top 25, I personally will be shocked.

Dumervil benefits from Suggs. It will be interesting to see if teams move the tight end to Elvis's side or if they send the back over to chip him instead of Suggs. If that happens, and Suggs decides to get into shape, it may be Suggs best year ever.

Is it possible we could lose both Yanda and Osemele? It is a thought to consider. We would have to blow the bank on either to get them to sign. We can throw a franchise tag on one, probably Osemele since he is younger, but depending on how well they play, Uerschel and Robert Myers could be our starting guards next year. I know it is a thought that is hard to bear, but I definitely think it could be a possibility and a way to save cap space next year.

Suggs is as soft on Brady as he is around his mid-section. When the Ravens asked him to take a pay cut to stay, take another to get under the salary cap, they had to realize that the effort Suggs put forward is equal to the amount of money he is getting paid. Personally, the sooner they get Upshaw and Za'Darius Smith up to speed with Kapron Lewis-Moore, Brent Urban and the rest, the better the Ravens will be. Suggs came in basically saying he was in year 13, he wasn't putting anymore effort in than he had to and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't end up "injured", missed a number of games and then retires. Football is clearly no longer a priority for him.

I think unless Perriman falls on his face, the best thing for him and the Ravens is to throw him out there and let him get accustomed to being a #1.

I can see supporting the cause, and a picture or two of Tomlin, but I do agree that 5 pictures was a little more than was necessary to support the cause. I think a link to Nestor's Twitter account would be sufficient and if I wanted to see more, I would go look. Shoving a bunch of pictures of a smirking Mike Tomlin on the "Late for Work" page made me not finish reading what was after that and I went straight to the comments where I found a number of like souls who were turned off by the content.

Daryl Smith won't be here forever. And yes there is some truth to the assertion we grow them, use them for a year and they are gone. Well, if you look at the reason for that, it's not what you think. Brown can't get on the field because we have better players. Will the situation turn out like many others (I.e. Arthur Jones, Kruger, Ellerbee, McPhee) where there was a better player ahead of them until their final year, it's hard to tell. But that's a problem I will live with all day long. When you have really good players who hone their skill behind great players they are going to develop into great players too and we won't be able to afford them all. Arthur has the misfortune of being behind guys who won't be gone before his contract is up. That could be a very good thing for us and I have no doubt Arthur Brown could start on other teams. Remember we had so many good ILB we turned Rolando McLain loose and he was a pro bowler in Dallas. We haven't heard the last of Arthur Brown quite yet. Could be a nice trade piece (could be why we are talking him up).

I think with the idea of signing Mathis the mentality is that next year we will lose either KO or Yanda. I don't think anyone believes we will be able to afford to get both under contract. The missing piece is we still have Uerschel who already seems ready to start in the NFL and may become another pro bowl bookend to either Yanda or KO, depending on who we sign. Now some people say that Zuttah may be on the way out and Uerschel could be center which puts us back to being a guard short next year. However, in a salary cap league, you cant spend money this year because you may need someone next year. Works in baseball, not in football.

Hill over Elam, Vick over Schaub. Elams problem has always been his tackling. Little hard to say he is doing so good when we haven't seen what he couldn't do. Schaub is a no-brainer. His arm was suspect when he came into the league, Kubiak and Arian Foster made him better than he was. He is a pick magnet, no doubt about it. At least with Vick we would be ok until he reinjured himself.

Lewis is under contract for three years and Hill is in the final year of his contract and is an UFA next year so if either Brookes or Elam can step up and prove they belong on the field there could conceivably be a spot for one of them. If not, Elam may be gone and they may resign Hill and I look for Brookes to get one more shot and he will be done too. I would love for our homegrown guys to step up and take the role but if not, we won't be hurting unless the injury bug reaches out and grabs us by the ACL or something even worse.

We are definitely putting a franchise tag on Tucker, I don't see why we don't tag Yanda and work on keeping KO. We are allowed to tag two people for up to two years. In two years, who knows, maybe Yanda will be ready to sign by then. If not, then we have both under contract in case one goes down. Hate to think of it, but it is a reality and Yanda has been fighting injuries the last two years (and is still great).

No way in Gods green earth is Campanaro going to sit on our practice squad. If we could convince him to go on PUP or IR we can protect him, but there is no way teams who need receivers are going to forget Camp going up and as Brandon Williams said "pulled a Randy" by going up and snatching the ball in the TB game. He wont be on practice squad for one day. My call is Smith, Aiken, Brown, Camp, Perriman and Waller with Carter as a Return Specialist and Butler, Worthy and the rest go to the practice squad or somehow get on the PUP or IR lists.

When you end up putting 17 people on injured reserve the year before, you end up with a boatload of athletes chomping at the bit to prove first that they are healthy and second that they belong. If a number of our guys come in and perform as expected, then our defensive front line will be a beast.