fusuymada

I look for six receivers and Carter listed as a return guy to make the team. Therefore we are looking at Smith, Aiken, Brown, Campanaro, Perriman and Waller. If Aldrick Robinson and Jeremy Butler make it, it will be on the practice squad. With our tight ends, our wide receivers and with Mark Trestman, if Flacco doesn't hit 4000 yards passing, then I don't think he ever will. He has the best targets he has ever had and a system that is Kubiaks in a zone rushing scheme, but Trestman still calls the plays and Trestman likes to throw the ball.

"One very, very, very bad pass?" Really? Didn't have anything to do with the defense losing two 14 point leads? Had nothing to do with a practice squad secondary? Had nothing to do with not knowing who to cover during a NE trick play and not being smart enough to call a time out? This is why it is hard for Flacco to get respect with other players and teams in the league when Ravens fans are throwing him under the bus every time the team doesn't win every game. Granted Flacco is inconsistent and can be frustrating, but saying that loss was due to one play, one pass from scrimmage, when he blew up the NE defense is just wrong.

In going back and looking at the season on GameRewind, it really wasn't until week 4 against the Panthers that Forsett really locked down the starting role. Then about week 12 or so he was running out of gas and put up some pretty pedestrian numbers. So there REALLY is some meat left on the bone in this instance as far as Forsett being able to improve on his numbers. Actually, if you look what Trestman did with Forte in the backfield in Chicago, Forsett better get ready to at least double if not triple his receiving yards on top of the extra yards he will get on the ground. With Forsett locking down the starting role, the return of our offensive starters and Trestmans history of throwing to the back out of the backfield, it is not outrageous to think Forsett could have 2000 yards from scrimmage this year if he holds up.

Don't worry about how people label you. If you produce the label will change. They labeled Forsett nothing but a scat back last year and his production made them change their minds. Frankly, I was unimpressed with Taliaferro's short yardage runs last year and from what I saw, he had issues getting those tough couple yards. If you build it they will come, if you produce, they will change the label. I don't know what all that means but it sounded good.

Based on Peter Kings preliminary power rankings, he agrees with you. King has Ravens #1. Granted this is all premature, but the Ravens have got the experts thinking this year.

What more can you ask for. Here is a player who screwed up big time and could have developed an attitude and fought the establishment. Instead he chose to become part of it. To become a fixture in Owings Mills, to bring along the younger players and develop relationships with all of them. To work out when others rested, to study while others vacationed and when he vacationed he vacationed with other members of the secondary. He didn't choose to stroll in with the coaches here so they could see him, he chose to beat them into the building. Kudos to the front office for taking a chance on a guy they felt could turn it around and because they did, he will be not only a better player for it, but a better person and member of the community as well. Kudos to Will Hill for being a good person, a role model and a man who is living and playing like a Raven.

I am surprised everyone is bashing Peter King here except for the fact that people just like to bash everyone. If he said we were much lower there would be a group who would complain about that. Based on people returning from injuries in conjunction with those we lost and who we got in the draft, if everybody plays up to expectations, King is not that far off. Listen, we are months away from the first game, there has only been one OTA that media could watch, so with all the variables considered, we have as good a shot being up there as anyone else. I put as much faith in power rankings 3 months early as I do mock drafts that are 3 months early. So much depends on injuries, players adjusting to their new schemes, etc... so no one really is going to bet the farm on what King says, but with the work our FO has put into the off season, we deserve to be rated at number 1 or close to it.

I think this fits in perfect to the "Flacco is a superstar" argument. Flacco is a superstar in Baltimore and I don't mean that geographically, I mean it as exactly the person, personality and persona for the blue collar Ravens fans (wherever they may be) and what the Ravens team needs. Where people in NE who have Brady or the people in Denver who have Manning scoff at the mention of Flacco being elite, no QB has had the success in their system than Flacco has had and the playoff record and the amount of times he has been in the playoffs hasn't been matched by those twos or any other since Otto Graham. Clearly Manning and Brady are at the ends of their career but at the rate Flacco is going, he will be in and win more playoff games than any QB in history. All he has done is break record after record for wins in his first however many years, for playoff appearances in how many years and playoff wins in how many games. Laugh at me now, but if winning games, if getting your team to the playoffs, winning playoff games and winning super bowls (Joe's not done yet), gets you into the HOF, then Joe has a great shot if he mirrors the early part of his career.

The NFL is a game of countering your opponent to put yourself in position to be successful. In particular, I have been saying how the defensees have been moving towards bigger cornerbacks who may not be as mobile as the smaller CBs but are better to handle the bigger WR's like Calvin Johnson, Brandon Marshall and our new WR Perriman. However, who was the leagues leading receiver, 5'-10" Antonio Brown. Why, because now that the CBs are bigger they find it harder to cover the shifty, quick smaller slot WRs. Now teams are switching over to the smaller WRs who they know can exploit those bigger CBs that all the other teams have moved to. Next big thing in the NFL wont be those big receivers as defenses have changed to accommodate them, the next big thing will be the smaller WRs who can be successful. Anyway, Carter may have a place in the NFL as long as teams keep running tall, slow corners out there.

People focus too much on that 4000 passing yards per year mark. If your winning in the 4th quarter by more than a TD, you run the ball to burn up the clock. Therefore winning is not conducive to adding passing yards. When you have a strong defense and you play a ball control, clock control offense your not going to rack up passing yards. I think the funniest thing I saw last year was the game Flacco threw 5 TD's in the first 16 minutes. Ended up that Glennon threw for more yards, why, because the Ravens turned to running the ball and all Glennon did was throw, throw, throw. Flacco had 306 yds, Glennon had 314 yds. Because Glennon threw for more yards does that mean he is elite. I think given the nature of the team, even having Trestman wont make that big of a difference in Joes yardage because of the strength of our running game and because it is only in an attempt to protect the ball that the Ravens will continue to run when leading, which tends to happen when you win 9, 10 and 11 games a season.

Camp is injured AGAIN. This time it is a quad. The beating that returners take there is no way Camp will survive doing that so we already have cut down the possible returners. Some guys just cant seem to get into their heads they need to be working in the offseason so they don't come up lame in the first real practice. I mean, it is a dead giveaway who has been working on their physical shape. Having been a lowly 7th round pick and having already had issues with injuries, if it had been me, I would have made sure that I was in peak condition ready to get a spot on the team. This is like getting injured doing your conditioning test. Anyway, I was tickled we have 8 or 9 NFL quality Wide Receivers on the roster with only 6 spots because now we are down to 7 or 8. He will be back but I think he probably hurt himself more in the eyes of the coaches than he actually did physical damage. Yes injury is part of the game, but if your game is always being injured, then you wont make it here.

I remember Ellerbe making comments about not wanting to stay in Baltimore. He referenced the pressure on being the guy to take Rays spot and he didn't want that. He moved on to Miami chasing the money saying how great it was to go to Miami and not have to deal with the stuff in Baltimore. Remember, Ellerbe was a Harbaugh doghouse guy after his preseason interception return for a TD and showboating and taunting a Rams player. Harbaugh grabbed his facemask and chewed him out when he hit the sideline. After that, until his last year, he was just a practice squad guy due to his problems with Harbaugh. Now we hear Miami sucked and he is happy to go to a new team. Ellerbe is living off of playing beside Lewis when he was here causing teams to focus less on him and more on the best player on the field. Now he is the man in the middle, he cant be productive and I think we will hear about Ellerbe one more time when he gets cut from this team and then I am sure they will suck too. Too many Ravens players leave and are really nobodies and that shows when they leave the Ravens scheme.

Whats wrong with Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaxxxxxxxx?

Great, must read article on Jets SB Nation website about the Ravens. http://www.ganggreennation.com/2015/5/24/8618643/anatomy-of-a-winner-baltimore-ravens

Sometimes, like with Ngata and others, you just can't afford to keep everyone you want. Heck, Unitas, Montana and Emmitt Smith didn't finish their careers in the same uniform they started in. In a salary cap league, that is just reality. We have KO who also needs a contract, but will be less expensive than Yanda. We have Urschel and we just picked up Myers in the draft. I love Yanda but if like Ngata and others stick their heels in the ground and wants more than we can pay, then I guess Yanda will be playing somewhere else next year. These last 4 or 5 years with the Ravens, especially after they cut Heap and Reed I realized that we need to get used to the business side of football.

I hate to be captain obvious but don't we expect our QB to be more accurate in a clean pocket than under pressure, actually, only the Squealers QB has a better percentage under pressure than when clean. Think about that and consider the best strategy for [him] is to blitz rarely and drop 8 in coverage. Finally, who gives a crap what Uni Watch thinks. The Ravens fans love the Ravens uniforms and does anybody else even matter. In my mind they don't.

It almost seems like Flacco is finally getting comfortable in his role. Lets not forget that for years he was under a very strict Cameron and remember the conversations about whether Flacco could or could not call audibles at the line. So much so when Mason left he put it out that Joe had no say in the offense. That really stifled Joes development, I believe, and has had him approach the position with a little apprehension. Trestman is cerebral and isn't threatened by input from others the way Cam was and I think you can tell in the way Flacco is expressing himself he feels really good about the situation. I feel the Ravens have set him up for a very good year, surrounded him with some highly regarded talent and Joe needs to step up as another commenter said "MAKE the NFL respect him."

What was the point of the Schefter comment saying Kraft was going along with the punishment "reluctantly"? No one in this fan base believes he went along with anything, his team was caught cheating, they were punished, at the owners meeting the other 31 owners undoubtedly spoke up about this being the second time they were caught and either sit down and shut up or we, the owners, have the right, as a collective unit, to force you to sell the team. The precedence for this was the NBA running out Sterling due to him being racist. The NFL can run Kraft out for being a cheater. The commissioner can forbid him from being involved in the team for a year for his website, the other owners can oust him. I like Sarah and her work but I don't think this is the appropriate place for placing a comment from a Kraft apologist.

most people thought a decrepit old Tony Gonzales at 70% couldn't compete with the young guys at 100%. Actually, that is almost exactly what was said about Steve Smith when he first came here too. I wouldn't be too willing to label Pitta 70% or assume that his 70 - 80%, with his experience and knowledge, isn't enough to beat out the young pups. In case you didn't notice but medicine has advanced quite considerably since Bo Jackson had the same injury just like the ACL that ended Gale Sayers career didn't end Adrian Petersons career because he had the same injury. Being older I tend to think that a little more savvy and experience beats out youthful exuberance every time. (I think that is the basis for the turtle and the hare story as well. Aesop was no dummy.)

I know people will think I'm a jerk for saying this but follow my logic and if you disagree then let me know (like I have to tell u that). If Upshaw is being used to increase his skills so he can get a big contract somewhere, then why play him over Za'Darius Smith who will be here five more years. Increase the skill of the players who are here. I never understood that, from Cary Williams, to Kruger, even McPhee. They spent all that time on the practice squad to spend one year on the team to move on. Maybe when Williams was here he should have been playing over Chris Carr, or why wasn't McPhee playing over Kruger, or Upshaw over McPhee. Why keep allowing players to sit until their final year and then give them one year to play when we would benefit by playing the newer guys and then the other guys would still be here because they wouldn't be on the last year of their rookie contract shining making money for someone else. Just seems like we do that over and over. Clearly Ozzie has the talent to find the guys, let's find a way to get them on the field and productive before the final year of their contract.

Cundiff only played for three years also. Are you saying that dumping Cundiff was a mistake based on the years he played just because he is third on the list. I don't buy it and I don't buy that losing Tucker is the end of the world based on being second on the list after three years. And he is not that far ahead of Cundiff. Poor logic based on the reasoning.

If Tucker and Yanda need to go because their contracts restrict the ability of Ozzie to do what he does best, draft new talent, then we don't need them. We have Urschel who stepped up when players were down and did a very good job and we will find Tuckers replacement just like we found Tucker. The worst thing the team can do is handcuff Ozzie because of a player or two and we have gone through three years of housecleaning and every year we seem to find the talent we need to be successful. Sad part of football as a team sport is no one wants to be a member of a team, they want to be a member of players with outrageous contracts. Ask the Dophins how that worked with Ellerbe (he is gone). Ask Cundiff who is unemployed, Ask the Browns about Kruger who they overpaid for. In Ozzie we trust and if Ozzie says we cant afford Yanda and Tucker, then we cant afford them.

I think the secondary played far beyond its expectations last year. Didn't we have like 5 or 6 DBs injured last year and we ended up playing the Patriots in the divisional round with guys we picked up from practice squads. If Pees can do that with what we had, we absolutely should be a shut down secondary this year. I think the two most critical issues that sunk this secondary in the playoffs was the loss of Jimmy Smith who was an unquestioned shut down corner and the play of Matt Elam. All the other corners were replaceable in Pees system, even Webb, but when we lost Jimmy, that was painful. With the addition of Kendrick Lewis, that should solve the other major problem from last year.

I think Flacco continues to grow as does his confidence. Although somehow he was rated in the 90s of the NFLs top 100, thanks to the wonders of technology with rewind and pause, when they showed copies of lists players filled out for a brief second I cued them up and Flacco was at 25 or 14 or even on one list he was #4. Anyway, Joe's ongoing maturation plays into getting better as much as the weapons we have added. Joe knows there are only 32 teams, less than half of them have franchise QBs and out of those only about 6 have won the big one. If you consider in the last 4 years Joe has had as many OCs and once out from under the thumb of Cameron, Joe has really developed. Hopefully, Trestman is as advertised.