We will see how successful Juszczyk and Wagner will be when they leave. I have seen it before, guys are happy where they are and the system and people around them are what make them successful (Wagner can thank Yanda and Juszczyk can thank Flacco and Mohningweg for all the check down passes). Chasing the dollars, like Torrey Smith did when he went to SF, didn't buy him happiness (in his own words) and neither will chasing the dollars to Philadelphia (who just signed Alshon Jeffries so Torrey's value there has already decreased.) Another two years like he had in SF and he won't get another contract and if he does it will be a vet minimum.
I am glad we re-signed Williams. As I have said before, he and Crocket Gilmore know my fiancee through doing so much work at Kennedy Kreiger with children with disabilities. He is not only good for the team, he is good for the city and community and he is a really good person. This is the type of person we need as a leader in the locker room and he is getting there. His success on the front line helped make Moseley a pro-bowler and helpd Zach Orr be successful.
The defense is starting to stack up like a Ravens defense should look. Add a CB in the second or third round and with the depth of this draft, he will still be a starter and grab another inside LB and we are set. I don't think we are as bad off with pass rushers as others speculate. We still have our young guys especially Judon and Kaufusi will be back and we can see what we have there as well.
Pierce may be the biggest beneficiary of this deal as he learns from one of the best in the game and a great person and teammate.
I would love for the team to lock down L. Guy. He really is not just another guy. He was crucial on ST, was solid on the D Line, is already ingrained in the system and he isn't expensive.
Woodhead guarantees the dump off pass will be alive and well in Baltimore.
Why is Webb still on the roster? Signing Jefferson makes him redundant and his cap hit is too high for a backup safety and sometime return guy. Regaining Webbs cap space goes a long way to offsetting Jeffersons salary.
As for Dumervil, he will go somewhere now that he is healthy and sack Flacco a couple times and the message boards will blow up, or they would have if they weren't shutting them down. But Ravens had no choice at his cap hit.
No news about Williams making visits that have been offered to him shows that as long as Ozzie is serious about negotiating, then he wants to wait and sign with the Ravens. He knows he is valuable and knows that if he can't work it out with the Ravens there will be plenty of teams waiting to sign him so he is in no hurry to make that decision like so many other players who couldn't wait to grab one of the first couple offers that come in. They fear the money will dry up and they won't get their cut but players as good as Williams knows he can wait and still get his fair share.
Rumors are we are trying to get Morris Claibourne from the Cowboys. If we secure him and sign Nick Mangold and cut Zuttah, we have filled numerous holes and allows us to really focus on specific players during the draft. Or move Mangold to guard beside Stanley and look at another center.
The pressure on these kids to perform to be able to even stay on an NFL roster causes some of them to try and cheat to be better without putting in the work. Once upon a time these young guys came in with outrageous contracts so they didn't care whether they performed, they were set for life but now with the CBA assigned salaries for rookies, they are,only one phone call away from working at McDonalds, and most didn't finish college, they left early for the.........money.
If the Ravens sign Claibourne on top of Jefferson, our secondary become immediately one of the better in the league. If they end up inking Williams to a deal then the defense is doing quite well and it changes where we can go in the draft. DeCosta tried to bluff everyone by saying the Ravens will be hot on defensive players in the draft, trying to throw people off because with the Free agent acquisitions, it looks like offensive playmakers may be in the offing come the draft. BUT, adding more defensive players certainly won't hurt knowing how quickly they can become injured during the season.
Connor Barwin please!!!!!!!
perfect fit! He does it all! Please Ozzie please pull the trigger! Our D would be so unpredictable with him and Jefferson blitzing from anywhere!
Agreed. His production slacked off when he went from a 3-4 to a 4-3 and he had to put his hand in the dirt. Barwin has been a beast playing the Ravens and has made Flaccos life miserable. I think until we can lock down some young outside rushing talent or our exisating young talent develops, Barwin is a good investment.
No news about Williams visiting other teams is good news. I think this signals that he will stay here in Baltimore, especially since he is refusing visits and he and his agents are trying as hard as they can to work a deal with Baltimore. With the effort Williams has put in to stay in Baltimore, Ozzie should be fired if they can't work it out. Hardly ever do we see a player not chase the dollars and Williams has shown, athletically, he is worth whatever we give him.
Torrey Smith has said he is signing with the Eagles. 3 years 15 mil. Overpaid after two lackluster years.
Best WR free agents are off the market. Torrey Smith is a duplicate of the speed guys Wallace and Perriman so I look for Ravens to cut Wallace if they re-sign Torrey Smith. I then look for them to grab combine phenom John Ross as I have seen him in many mock drafts going to the Ravens. That would give them 3 burners but no possession receiver unless they surprise us all and resign Aiken who may be the best WR on the free agent market right now since the big name possession receivers are gone.
Hurst was offered a 4th round tender. This is positive proof there are major issues either in the front office or the coaching staff. This guy is horrible and if we put him at right tackle next year then it is time to clean house. Not the players but the coaches and the front office. I don't know what they are smoking or what they see in Hurst but all I see is a horrible football player that caused our franchise qb to be injured and is personally responsible for Flacco last year as he was still recovering from his Hurst induced injury. Can't get better without people who don't have the ability to gauge talent and I can't see anymore proof that this is happening by this transaction alone. Cant win by offering high round tenders on crappy players.
hahaha ummmm so If Im reading this correctly and I'd like to think I am It sounds as if the Ravens will not be retaining any of their top soon to be free agents while also cutting some of their better players in order to create cap space and void bad deals. Soooooooo the good news is coming in the afternoon right ???
Depends what you call better plays. Webb got tore up bad last year, I'm sick of hearing about how great Pitta was for catching 80 balls last year - we threw it like 600 times and he has become a safety blanket for joe in a bad way. Instead of reading his progressions downfield he's way to quick to dump it to dennis for 5 yards. Doom's salary cap number is too high and he needs to go to a contender, this team needs a lot of work. The fact Zuttah went to the pro bowl as however much of an alternate is a joke. The only player on that list that needs to come back is Wallace
Agreed. And the Ravens need to realize they are not a competitor, they are not a player or two away from the playoffs, they need a complete refit. Keep Wallace to balance Perriman and go young every where else.
Cant wait until tomorrow when speculation on cuts and free agency pickups will certainly start to clear up. The Ravens tend to wait in free agency and not make immediate decisions as they wait and see what the dollar figures are saying.
Marshall is a perfect fit if the Ravens change their tune on domestic violence and their stance that players need to be at the castle to play and Marshall leaves every Tuesday and returns late on Wednesday as he does his showtime NFL show. So its a perfect fit that is imperfect for the Ravens in numerous ways.
Problem is, the Ravens are no longer that consistent playoff team that players want to be a part of. Players want to play for a contender and when our offense looks like a dog, and our QB can't hit the broad side of a barn, how are we going to lure free agent receivers here. The only way is if an organization that has fared worse than the Ravens over the past two years is who we are competing with. 5-11 and 8-8 doesn't get excitement from the fans much less players who have to decide where they are going to play. Also, I believe we were stuck with our OC as a result of the fact that Harbaugh may be in his last year and who wants a job that could possibly end in a year so the Ravens locked down what they had before he moved on and they couldn't find anyone to sign.
This is another side of the same argument.
The NFL is experiencing a decline in fan attendance and people watching the games on whatever day they are played. I personally don't believe, like others, that as a result of changes to the game, saturation, Kaepernick kneeling for the flag or any other reason, that people come up with, is just an excuse people use whenever they want to complain that NFL interest is waning. What the teams and the NFL fail to realize is there is no allegiance to players and teams because players are now just rented as opposed to being actual team members that fans grow accustomed to and grow to like. Then when they leave they cause one of two reactions; either fans leave to go with their favorite player to another team (which I have seen quite often), or they hate the player and boo him when he comes to town. The feelings that develop between fans and players are not just wham bam thank you fan affairs, fans get to know players, players families, their children, or like Torrey Smith, a local boy, who attracted attention at Maryland, then signed with the Ravens and he seemed like a family member not just a player on the team I support. I can't tell you the number of jerseys we have in our family of players that no longer play for the Ravens. At $100 a pop, it is very frustrating and personally, I don't even buy NFL gear anymore. This is a direct result of the johnny come lately system the NFL and NFLPA have evolved into.
If the NFL doesnt want to continue to go down the road of losing fans, year after year, as they did the last two years, they really need to look at a way to address the facts that fans have no connection to players anymore and therefore have no connection to the game. Seeing their favorite player play isn't a big deal because they have no favorite player as a result of the revolving door policy. The NFL and NFLPA need to look at giving a "home town subsidy" to the team that players are presently playing with by subsidizing the contract of the player if he chooses to stay with his team, keeping the fan base of the team, thus keeping the fans of NFL football, making buying a player jersey something more than just a three year investment.
To me its not all the peripheral stuff that goes on with the NFL that is affecting the fan base. Its not the saturation of the game since we are playing three days a week now. Its not because of the legal issue of players and its not any of the other things that pundits point out. It is the fact that there is no desire to support a faceless team and when players come and go like they change their underwear, why watch. And when you win a super bowl and just three years later only have 4 people left on the team from that super bowl team, then what is the motivation to continue to support a faceless team that changes its roster every 4 years.
Amoukamora is another J Smith and we can't afford to have two CBs who can't stay on the field.
We might sign Wagner but my guess is we lose all our free agents but we will get 3 comp picks for them next year. My guess is two third rounders and a fourth for Juszczyk.
We should understand what we have in Perriman with all the hype about Ross running 4.22. Perriman did the same carrying almost 30 more pounds. Perriman can be a dominant receiver if we can just keep him on the field and improve his hands.
In my opinion the time to find Flaccos successor was last year. This year there is no doubt we need to grab a qb in the draft and sooner not later. I know it sounds like jumping the gun, but second or third round we need to grab someone who can compete with Flacco. If you look at Flacco since 2012, he isn't even a good starter much less a franchise QB. He needs competition to motivate him to spend the time to get better. What we have is not going to motivate him to do anything.
I have to worry about what Smith actually said to Marshall. He didn't say that he told them the Ravens were a great organization or that he thought it would be a good career move for Marshal. He said he thought it might be a good fit. S
Smith was really irritated by the checkdown offense the Ravens ran last year, he didn't get the catches and yards he anticipated, I am sure he told Marshall that with Flacco at QB, he is not getting a top flight QB who is going to help Marshall put up another 1000 yard season, that is unless he lines up in the backfield.
I think Ozzie has realized that piecing a team together is not working for the Ravens. I think Wagner will be resigned, but honestly, I look for a complete wipe out of the rest of our free agents. I also think that they only keep Mike Wallace and release Pitta and Webb along with the other list; Dumervil, Wright, Lewis, Arrington and Zuttah. Puts them at about 21 mil cap space. I look for them to chase Mangold and sign him and along with Stanley, Wagner, Lewis and Yanda will come close to the best line in the league. I look for them to draft a RB and with that line will make it so the Ravens can run again, no seriously, really actually call run plays. With the extra cap space they can grab either Jeffries or Marshall and fill the CB and safety spots with the deepest draft for the secondary in years and years. We need to continue to build a younger, faster team and all those people we are getting rid of that aren't free agents are old and slow (or just suck).
I believe Flaccos development was better early on with Cam Cameron and a very experienced Marc Bulger as backup. If you look at Flacco from his rookie year through 2012 there was a clear progression of skills. However, since then, along with the half dozen or so OC's he has had, his knee injury and having Taylor who really had nothing to offer to Flacco, he has regressed. Flacco needs a vet he can look up to which is certainly not Ryan Mallett. And as far as Mohrningweg is concerned, regardless of the reason for keeping him, I think Flacco will progress by having the same OC and the same system for two years in a row. I think they are doing Flacco a disservice by not getting a qb coach and having Mohrningweg do two jobs.
The Steelers can pay Ben, Brown and Bell. What do we have? we have the 2nd highest cap hit Qb, a division II running back and another who has been cut loose by a number of teams, a lame WR corps, and a TE group that has more holes than Swiss cheese; two broken hips, a PED suspension, two guys who can't stay healthy not counting the Achilles tear that didn't take a snap last year.
Plain poor cap management. Too much dead money, a horribly overpaid qb, and virtually any moves we make just generate more dead money. It will take a decade of austerity and 6-10 or 5-11 seasons to climb out of this hole so we can afford players like that. It will take that much time to get out from under Flacco's contract. You can't run a team with poor drafts and chasing old free agents. Bite the bullet, get straight, draft early several years and rebuild this hodge podge pieced together, mish mash of a team. Not to mention that here recently our coaches can't develop a instant Polaroid picture.
After being a bust and getting busted, I guess he can start his shoe store chain now however, tying his name to any venture at this point would be bad business. He didn't show very much but being a first round pick, someone will pick him up but with this, the list is thinning, though I think a coach's ego will make him think he's the one to turn him around. I can see Bellichek make a HOFer out of him. I hate "The Hoodie".
The 2nd highest cap hit in the NFL in Joe Flacco is the heart of our team. For 3 years now we have proven that the appropriate players in the appropriate scheme allows Flacco the time he needs to make the reads he needs to be successful. Early in his career he could move enough to extend some plays. Those days are long gone. Flacco with an offensive line that can give him a full, unimpeded, throwing motion for a full 3 seconds is like gold, man gold or Mangold. Zuttah was manhandled by the big nose tackles and frankly, these days, every team has a big nose tackle. He was effective, not good, in a zone scheme and play action which required more athleticism but with the straight up, pulling guard style run game and no play action, he was overpowered and a weak point. If we get Mangold, put Lewis out at right tackle, where he played before, and grab a scrappy guard in the draft, we could have a top rated running game and Flacco would have time to throw to receivers and not check down on every play. Ozzie needs to have another draft like he did last year and Correa and Kaufusi, who we could have traded and got Jalen Ramsey, had better produce this year.
"Flacco's ability to handle the greater speed of the NFL is the determining factor of his final draft status." Personally, I don't believe he has made this adaptation to the NFL game. He is still slow in reads forcing the quick check down. Early in his career he could extend plays like Big Ben to gain more time but later in his career and definitely after his knee injury, without the mobility, the game is still too fast for him. He needs better than average front line to give him that time so he can make the reads that he presently can not because of the game speed.
"Made proper check-downs in second year in the Delaware offense" That he has become a master at.
"Has shown the ability to handle two different offensive schemes in making a successful transition from Pittsburgh to Delaware" after 6 offensive coordinators, he surely has shown he can handle more than one offense, however handling them does not constitute mastering them and swapping OCs as often as the Ravens have, I believe constitutes a lot of his problems including becoming comfortable enough in an offense that the game can slow down for him and he doesn't have to rely on the check down. Therefore, his faults listed above can be blamed on the Ravens as much as being blamed on Flacco himself. The only gripe about Flacco is putting in the extra work with his receivers and running backs so he becomes more comfortable in the offense but once again, if he doesn't know what the offense is because we are changing coordinators, its hard to get on the same page with his players.
All in all I believe the scouting information on Flacco was accurate and the Ravens have done him a huge disservice by changing offenses more than Harbaugh says we are a run offense.
Three things, if some moron GM wants to make a right tackle who only had one good year in the last 3 the second highest paid tackle in the league, more power to them. We wont make that mistake when another just as talented right tackle could be gotten in a later round in the draft just like Wagner was picked up.
Cut Pitta with an after June designation. No team in their right mind will pay that money for a guy who had two hip injuries, the last coming without any contact at all. Yes he got through this year but one wrong turn, one bad hit, one twisting catch and he is done for good. We will be able to pick him up for another minimal contract with incentives like last year. If not, then he can retire.
For years we have been saying what Qadry is saying, this is old news. Since our failed high round wr draft picks and when we picked up Derrick Mason we knew that thats why we kept following the method that worked. Why we can't develop them is anyone's guess. Is it because Ozzie can't pick receivers (no receiver we picked that failed caught on anywhere else), is it development (no high round draft pick has amounted to anything), or is it just bad luck, (we have had multiple wide receiver coaches so we can't blame just one guy).
I would think that since 1996 when the Ravens moved here and started failing at WR picks, that an extensive amount of time and money would be utilized to figure this out, but apparently it is not. Just like a newly drafted QB, they are cheap and so are newly drafted WR's. You need these guys to balance your cap space but when you have to pay for a high dollar QB and can't draft WRs you have to spend extra money on really good ones in Free Agency. Fortunately, we have found some older lower priced guys, but we need a killer WR, not just one that will make do. We could develop a killer defense if we didn't have to spend all our money on a QB and a high dollar Wide receiver (because we cant develop one)
Our QB needs to take a voluntary pay cut to clear cap space so we can get a really good WR.
I think we need to consider that the majority of Aikens success came at the end of Ryan Mallett's passing arm, not Joe Flacco's. Seems to me that Mallett seemed to be able to build chemistry pretty easily with Jeremy Butler and Kamar Aiken, something that Flacco never had success at.
I will use this opportunity to reiterate my flip flop on Flacco. Where I used to be a staunch defender, after last year I refused to allow the facts to cloud my judgement any longer. I realize that Flacco is truly a bottom third in the league QB and is getting paid as the top Cap hit in the league as soon as Romo is traded. No way in any world should Flacco have the top cap hit in the league based on his production since the super bowl. Flacco needs to give back money and reduce his cap hit and take compensation equivalent to what those who produce like him are making. He can't do it on his own and his cap hit prohibits the team from surrounding him with the talent he needs to be successful. I hate to beat a dead horse, but for me, these should be the last two years Flacco plays in a Ravens uniform if he doesn't take a pay cut and start working with the team to get cheaper and put in the effort to get better. He can be compensated with performance related incentives so if he is as great as he was in 2012 then he will make his money back but there is no way Flacco, with his numbers the last couple years, should be the 15th highest cap hit in the league much less at th the very top of the ladder.
Wagner is set to be one of those free agents who excels in Baltimore but goes out and does not do very well with other teams. In adiition, he is just a right tackle, no one will pay him to play left tackle and if they do they are making a huge mistake. In 2015 Wagner was a dumpster fire and now he is the second rated tackle. I guess they are looking at just one year because Wagner was less than impressive quite consistently before last year. Same with Juszczyk. Where I feel we underutilized his talents here in Baltimore, blocking fullbacks can be a dime a dozen and since we failed to use him to his best abilities, we are only loosing a blocking back with a sometime catch. Williams is the only one worth fighting for but with PIerce, his loss is minimized somewhat.
Let me add my opinion on cuts as well. I would hold onto everyone we have except for Webb, Arrington and Lewis. Dumervil, Pitta and Wallace need to stay.
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If we don't sign Claibourne or Amukamoura (I will learn the spelling if they sign like I did Juszczyk) we will draft a rookie corner to start opposite J Smith and even if we do sign one of them, they all, including Smith, have injury issues and so one or both won't even finish the year so we may have two rookie cb and a first year guy (in Young) as corners.