fusuymada

Just to beat a dead horse as I am on record for saying there is no way in this world Flacco should have the highest cap hit in the NFL, here is a guy who has finished in the bottom third of qbs in the league for several years in a row. Bisciotti and Ozzie totally blew that contract by giving him an extension and pumping it up even more. The guy is stealing. He is robbing the ravens blind by taking that money. We are talking about almost a million dollars a touchdown that he threw last year. Ozzie needs to sit him down and let him know that he is destroying this teams ability to sign quality players by holding on to that money he doesn't deserve. He knows he isn't that guy and he knows he should be giving some of it back. The Ravens need to let him know that if he chooses not to take a salary cut that they will draft or sign a free agent qb and get him ready to take Joes spot in two years when they can finally afford to cut him. By then he won't be worth much and no one will go out of their way to sign Flacco. When I think of how Ozzie missed on Elam, Arthur Brown, Max Williams, Terrence Cody, etc... I think his biggest mistake as GM by far was the Flacco contract.

Cap space won't get better until we lose the huge contract we are overpaying our QB. We are a ton of pieces short not to take into consideration the players who will be injured as well and need replaced before the season is over. I have said it before, other great qbs have cut their salary so they can put pieces around them. Flacco has had two huge contracts now and has enough money to keep 10 generations of Flaccos in the moolah. It is time he starts being a team player from putting in the hours, to giving back some money so we can be competitive. If he doesn't then clearly he isn't interested in being a team player and in two years when we can afford to get rid of him, we need to do it. Yes, when we are winning, then he deserves the money, but we havent had a winning season in 3 years so no way should he be paid the money he is paid, especially since he ranks in the bottom third of the league. Ozzie needs to sit him down and make him understand the score.

Juszczyk has been terribly underutilized. Guy does everything and could have been put into the TE rotation as well. He will go somewhere else and be a playmaker and we will sit and wonder why we don't have playmakers.

Add Juszczyk in that list as well as he is a multidimensional weapon that I feel has been grossly underutilized. The guy is a pro bowl player and is constantly an afterthought in the game plan. This guy could be a Gronkowski, Jordan Reed type talent but we have yet to have an OC who would know a playmaker if he was smacked in the face with one. I put that on the tunnel vision head coach who I personally feel is coaching himself out of a job, When I look at what Josh McDaniels can do with two toothpicks a 6th round qb and a lacrosse player I just am amazed at how we can't develop a cheerleader much less a football player. We have become an average organization

It all comes down to salary cap. When Joe produced like an elite qb he was paid like one. Now for two years he has landed in the bottom third of qbs in the league and is still getting paid in the top 5. I know that Flacco is in the drivers seat, but I would remind him, if I was Ozzie, that he can't do it on his own, he had two years to show that and he failed. We don't have the cap space with his numbers to do the things we need to get back into the playoffs. Like many elite qbs before him, Brees, Manning, Brady (to name a few) have all taken that late career pay cut so they can get the talent to make it to the big dance. If Flacco continues to fail to cooperate, I would get a veteran qb to challenge him and pick up a rookie also. I would also let Flacco know as soon as his dead money gets to where the Ravens can stand it, they will release him. I would start using more wild cat and other qbs in game situations and I would make it obvious to Joe that he is being phased out. If he wants to be a persona non grata while all the time taking up space at the castle, then let him be miserable sitting on the bench, carrying peoples gear or whatever the Ravens can think of to get him to quit if he refuses to take a pay cut. I have always defended Flacco but he is indefensible at this point with his production and his cap number. It is long overdue that this team start playing hardball with Flacco.

Another little peek inside this "tortured" mind. My fiancée works with kids with developmental and emotional disabilities and the Ravens are very kind to support them. Brandon Williams always volunteers to work with these kids. And it's not in a fund raising capacity, he is one on one, personally working with and helping these young children. Let me tell you, this is not an easy thing from time to time. Yet Williams is there time after time, giving of himself and not just to sit and sign autographs and take selfies, he is in the trenches with these kids and their teachers working with them. Someone who is willing to give his all to a disabled child will give more than his all for his fellow players on the field and we need more guys like that and we would be a super bowl team. You can't teach smarts and you can't teach dedication and he has both.

Wallace broke 1000 yards during a season where Flacco checked down on the majority of his throws. Just think if Flacco was 100%, we had a real offense, and we actually tried to go deep with the ball. Wallace could have broken 1500 if we had an offensive line. Getting rid of Wallace, to me, is just stupid. If you would pay that much to keep Webb last year, it seems foolish not to give that to someone who was far more productive. I still say, like many other QB's who have already soaked their perspective teams, Flacco needs to take a paycut to allow for more money to be available to sign the free agents that will get Flacco back to the playoffs. Right now it is Flacco cashing a check and going to the bank or Flacco working with the Ravens and taking enough of a pay cut that gives them the flexibility to keep Wallace, Watson and still sign Marshall. Joe has to decide, does he want money, or does he want another ring. If he just wants money, its it time to pick up a good QB in the draft and start phasing him out. Big question this year will be is Joe a team player or is Joe a Joe player.

Releasing Wallace would be an unwise move until Perriman can show 1)he can stay on the field and 2) he can be a highly productive receiver. Wallace proved that without any doubt whatsoever and only became frustrated when Flacco couldn't get enough time to go through his progressions or chose to drop it off because he was scared. With Camp, Perriman and other unprovens, Wallace and Marshal would go a long way to helping Joe and keeping receivers on the field. If Flacco can keep his eyes off Pitta, we could have a good TE group as well.

Don't know how much many of you know of BW. My fiancee works with kids with developmental disabilities and every time they ask for someone to visit kids, help with fundraising etc... who has been the Ravens to show for the last few years? Brandon and Crocket Gilmore. His camaraderie in the locker room that has been shared on many tweets shows just how much he is loved. He is willing to take a reasonable discount just to keep his kid in school here. AND he is the best nose tackle in the league, which, of course, is the most important. The days of letting our quality players go because we could find gold in dog doo no longer exists. Next man up is a great strategy if you have the cap space to load your roster with next men, we don't. Accumulating a billion draft picks by letting skilled players walk is now a failed strategy (which Ozzie showed last year by going out on the first days of free agency and snatching up quality free agents.) We will get just one comp pick for KO this year and we really tried everything to keep him but you can't pay a guard left tackle money unless you have a rookie QB making just 4 mil a year. We don't have that. Anyone who thinks we will just be fine letting quality players walk, getting comp picks and hoping the next man up will be good enough needs to reread the first paragraph. That strategy worked great but is now obsolete and defunct in todays NFL.

Part of getting playmakers is the ability to draft high quality players, the other part is being able to develop those players and surround them with game plans and other players that allow them to be successful. I am not so sure the Ravens issues reside with poor draft selections as it resides with the ability to develop players, game plan and best utilize those highly skilled players. For the Steelers to hit on every skill position and we, every now and then hit on a running back, tells me that we are failing miserably at developing players and putting them in positions to be successful. As much as people lambaste Ozzie for his draft picks, who is to say those same guys, given the tutelage and instruction they would have gotten on other teams who seem to be able to make superstars out of lacrosse players, that they too may not be HOFers. BUT, on the Ravens, if you don't have it when you get here, you aren't going to get it here. The only way we have been able to get playmakers is to sign them away from other teams who know how to develop themt (except for some rare exceptions).

Love Williams but Like KO there is going to be one team that is going to have an outrageous amount of money to throw at him and he would be a fool to turn it down and we simply can't afford to compete. With a 120 million dollar QB contract that should be about 75 mil. that would allow us some flexibility. Flacco has all the money that even the worst financial managers needs to maintain 15 generations of Flacco's so it is time he gave back to the team who has so generously given him a big pay day. Is he a Ravens player or is he chasing money. I think this is what we need to determine before this season starts. This is not asking too much I just think its the facts ma'am.

Zuttah is a joke in the pro bowl and needs to be the first to be replaced.

I think that is a great idea for the skills challenge next year. A game of horse (like you play in basketball) but for kickers. I can see kicks into basketball hoops, kicks from the sidelines, off the scoreboard, etc... I think it would be a fun way to include kickers without it being boring. Whichever kicker wins gets a point for his team just like any of the other challenges. I think you have a great idea, lets hope someone acts on it.

mosley could really benefit from learning from Ray.

Ben is wearing the walking boot of retirement to get more sympathy and so he can hear the Squealers fans crying so he won't quit. Well, he has to pay back like 20 mil in money he already got in signing bonuses so I doubt very seriously if this is anything more than another childish attempt to get attention.

If we got off of two picks that amounted to nothing in the last two drafts we could have had Ha Ha Clinton-Dix AND Jalen Ramsey. Because we so valued Bronson Kafusi we couldn't get Ramsey, similar situation with Clinton-Dix). When players start mattering more than picks we will do well, as long as Ozzie continues to buy into the mentallity that a pick is more important than players, then we will keep getting 11 draft picks a year and end up cutting 7 of them and 10 or those 11 never make it to the end of their rookie contracts and resigns. I think Harbaugh is doing wonders with what the FO refuses to give him.

There is a lot of talk about Hogan and how he came from nowhere and fooled everyone but only Bellicek in his great super wisdom could see it. I could see from day 1 in training camp on hard knocks that this guy was special. Because he didn't meet the race, size, weight, height, background for what a #1 receiver should be, no one gave him a shot. All he could do is get open (known as 7-11 because he was always open), make catches, make people miss, have a great attitude and worked his butt off. Now if it is that hard for the "EXPERTS" to figure this guy out, then a lot of owners are paying pure idiots to scout their teams. I said when I saw him on Hard Knocks I knew he was going to be another Victor Cruz. Too little emphasis is put on football players and too much is put in sabermetrics, pie charts, and excel spreadsheets where all the superstars numbers line up and the losers don't. Except that is showing to be a joke. They have athletes in a combine doing things that do not directly relate to football, they put far too much time and effort into whether or not there is some small black mark against a kid in college meaning he can't play football, The NFL is hiring based on ethics and sabermetrics and at this point have zero understanding of how either effects the success of a professional player so drafts are more shots in the dark, darts thrown at a board than actual decision making that bears any sort of fruit. We always talk about those we thought would make it that were busts, and those we gave no chance that are superstars. There are way too many of both of them to put any faith in how NFL teams draft players.

With Orr now retiring, we will need a inside linebacker AGAIN. Just when we thought we had gone through some real stinkers and found a diamond in the rough, an injury takes him away. Ravens luck.

Marty will actually be busy putting in HIS system (is that 7 or 8 different systems for Joe now), working on plays, working on the details and getting the best out of everyone. Joe needs a QB coach. Zorn was a good fit with Flacco and when he worked with Zorn he not only learned to slide, but he was more effective moving in the pocket. I am not advocating for Zorn, I am just saying how Flacco has benefited with a QB coach. With Kubiak he had Periani, Zorn didn't last because cameron felt like his toes were getting stepped on so they released him and the Cameron shortly afterwards. Joe needs someone to focus JUST ON HIM. What he is doing good what he is doing bad, coming up with solutions for the bad and ways to improve on the good. Let Marty know what Joe is excelling at and have him develop plays to take advantage of those skills. Marty is OC now and needs to focus on becoming good at that, let a QB coach work on all the issues that Flacco needs to work on.

Harbaugh's lack of a great network (being a special teams coach and because he has only coached on 2 NFL teams) and the fact that he is fiercely loyal even if at the cost of improvement means he'll promote from within. I think you are failing to consider both his father who is well entrenched and his brother, who is still getting NFL coaching offers, then yes he is limited. But he has already shown he has no problem hiring people who coached for both his brother and his father which opens up a number of quality coaches in the NFL. It doesn't matter, to the naysayers, Harbaugh could have gone to the playoffs 9 years in a row and won a super bowl and some of these so-called Ravens fans would want him fired because he only won one super bowl in 9 tries. Everyone wants to win every year and if the fans had their way, only Bellicek would have a job and 31 other coaching jobs would be terminated for lack of production. Thank goodness the fans don't run things.

Wasn't the Steelers game disgusting. We could have tromped all over the Dolphins. If Weddle, Orr and Mosley could have stopped 185 lb Antonio Brown from reaching the endzone, or the defense would have stopped any of those plays during that last drive, we would be in the drivers seat to beat NE and head to the big dance. Even PFT in their final ranking rated the Ravens and said it was a shame as it was one of the few teams that had the pieces to make it to the super bowl. Just not the defensive scheme to do so.

With everything on the table, then there has to be some consideration to Flacco taking a pay cut or even more realistic from my view, can he be traded. We would lose the salary hit, as opposed to cutting him and eating the dead money, and we can follow the method of success that got us five playoff appearance in five years, get a QB on a rookie deal, have him grow with the team, build your strong defense and O-line with the cap we will now be swimming in and go back to ground and pound, hard hitting Ravens defense. The failure of this whole experiment is that hard-hitting, tough, blue collar, "Play Like A Raven" football is inconsistent with paying a high dollar QB. This is the first time we ever spent that kind of money on a QB and we learned a big lesson, the QB is no different than Ngata or McPhee or T Smith or any of the other guys we let go because they wanted more than our system supports. If you keep investing in your fat guys, your secondary and your running game, you don't need a billion dollar QB to get to the playoffs. History has proven me correct as how often did we get to the playoffs with Joe on his rookie contract and how often have we been there since. Let's get back to what we do well and to do that, Joe either needs to half his salary or he needs to be pawned to a team who thinks they can teach him to read defenses, improve his accuracy, improve his footwork, improve his study habits, teach him to read progressions, have the desire to work with his guys in the off season, stop him from just throwing to his buddy etc...

I believe had the offense under Mohrninweg not been so horrible and had Marty not been invited to return, SSS might have considered a return, but why come back to an offense that sucked all year long, no game plan to throw downfield to the receivers and then come back when there are no significant changes to make it better. I expect SSS will sign a one year deal with the Patriots so he can go out as he deserves to. I bet he is kicking himself in the butt for signing here before going and talking to Bellicek. SSS has to feel that was one of the worst decisions in his career.

This is going to be a very bad year coming up. I know Bisciotti didn't get rich in business by hiring his buddies and firing everyone else. I understand that he likes to delegate and in business that is fine because when people underperform he eventually fires them but it doesnt work that way with fans. When fans keep seeing stupidity emanating from their team, they expect that someone will step in and fix it or (and ask the Orioles) your fans disappear. I guess they dont need to ask the Orioles, they could have looked in their own stands. Not only are we a crappy team, but the fans are starting to bail out. When John went to Steve and said we are keeping Marty and Juan, Steve should have saved a year and went ahead and fired him because he's going to have to do it next year anyway. Only bad part is he is now losing the fan base. I remember when Orioles games were sold out for years when they first built Camden Yards and were winning. Then they decided to make poor decisions and now, even in a penant race, they were drawing like 15,000 fans/game. That's sad. Unfortunately, that story is repeating itself with the Ravens and it is a shame that Bisciotti doesn't realize that once you lose the fans, its not a matter of changing coaches and its all okay (once again, see the Orioles).

Mohnhinweg had several months to figure out how to get Joe to turn around and give the ball to one of those guys who stand behind him. He was unable to do it, actually, he ran less than Trestman if you can actually believe that. I have thought about it and I think that Putin is involved. You see, Marty wanted to call run plays but the Russian GRU intercepted the communications, twisted them around and sent them to Flacco as pass plays. We thought they were only out to get Hillary, but no, they went after the Joe Flacco too. No matter how many times Marty said in press conferences the game plan was to run but somewhere between his mouthpiece and Joes headset, it ended up being a pass. Clearly it is Putins fault and the Russians are involved. Seriously, the real problem is, and I don't think we can fix it, is Joe Flacco came in and never really had a top notch professional qb in front of him showing him what type of work ethic it takes to be a pro football qb, a 120 mil. dollar QB I said it yesterday... 120 mil means that you are in first and out last every single day, you work on off days and during the off season. You can't just take off of football for months and then decide a month before coming back you will start working the rust out of your arm. Maybe after a two week break, a 120 mil qb is throwing everyday, getting with his recievers and backs, is watching film, is studying defenses, is familiarizing himself with new plays and adjustments to the playbook. A 120 million dollar QB does a lot more as far as making himself and his team better than Joe Flacco does. Unfortunately, Kubiak was the only one with the nads to get in Flaccos face and FORCE him to work on footwork, force him to study defenses, forced his nose in the playbook. Everyone else just thinks Joe is a professional and will take care of it on his own. Joe has never had a professionall to show him how to take care of it on his own and what Kubiak taught him I guess he figured he didn't have to work on anymore since Kubiak left. Joe needs to be pushed, he is clearly not the brightest bulb in the pack, he had to be balled out to put any effort into getting to the line when the clock was running out. Joe needs tough love and a lot of it and if we are stuck paying him at least another 3 years, then someone needs to be assigned the responsibility of making sure Joe gets there early, stays late, works on the things he needs to work on and practice isn't goofing off until press conference time. Joe hasn't learned that yet and his big payday before he learned it convinced him he doesn't need to.