balfan23

I don't know. The off the field stuff is starting to pile up. The latest being a failed drug test. 10 years ago, maybe not a big deal, but the league is so draconian on their punishments for missteps, that teams are going to really start questioning investing a top 10 or 15 on the guy. Honestly, since I'm bent on other players being a better fit, I won't mind seeing him come off the board ahead of us.

I've seen a significant increase in the number of mocks that have us taking him at 16. What concerns me is that the vast majority of other mocks I see where we go a different direction ... Robinson doesn't even appear in the first round. What is or is not a reach depends on how things pan out for the selected player (which we won't know for a couple years) and whether that player would have been taken next or wouldn't have been taken for another 20 picks (something we can never know). Nonetheless, based on conventional wisdom, that selection will feel like a reach.

I'm all for them expending draft capital on the O line... but I don't know about them spending the 1st rounder - not this year. If they do, it needs to be a part of a trade back, but even then, I'd find it disappointing, because it will appear that there were true playmakers that they wanted did not fall to them. Let's just put it this way ... if Davis and/or Williams are available and we pick Robinson ... I'll certainly have to give the nod to our FO and hope they made the right move, but I'll not be able to help feeling like we shied away from getting a difference making offensive weapon and went with the safer play in an area of need.

If we go O line, then I'll have the sense that the draft did not break well for us. I think there are a fair number of players at other positions that we view as being bonafide playmakers. Going O Line will be saying that they've all been taken ahead of us. Therefore, like many others on this thread have said, if that happens, I'd hope we'd be able to trade back and get an additional pick and still be able to get the guy we want.

If you don't believe any of the WRs are worthy of a pick as high as #16 (and virtually every analyst alive would disagree with that) ... that's a valid reason to not pick a WR .. but the notion that we're bad at picking WRs - that is NOT a valid reason to avoid a WR with our 1st pick. Using your logic, had OBJ fallen to 16 a couple years ago, we should have avoided him, because we're bad at picking WRs. That makes zero sense. Yes, we've picked 3 disappointing WRs in the 1st round, however the jury is still out on one (Perriman) and the other 2 were made 13 and 16 years ago. To think that draft busts from over a decade ago will shape your draft approach is mind-boggling.

Well, perhaps my "bold prediction" is nothing more than "wishful thinking".

... and by extension ... we get a stud at #16. I really hope your bold prediction comes true.

Most people's bold predictions are draft related. I'll go for something different .... Kafusi leads all Ravens D linemen with 7 sacks this season.

For the record, Jeremiah has Foster being picked ahead of us. Actually, I rarely see any mocks showing him falling to us. He could ... but the odds are definitely against it. As with almost all coveted players, the odds grow dramatically if there are QBs selected in the top 15. Really, really hoping that we see at least 2.

Yeah - I am no talent scout so I'm not sure where he should go ... but these mocks at some point appear to just start parroting each other.

I'm looking at a series of 20 mocks and only 1 has him going somewhere other than 2nd overall.

I'm not as eager to give up on the investment we've made in the draft and FA at the TE position. Whether because of health or suspension, Williams and.Boyle haven't had sufficient opportunity to prove whether they are going to be players or not and to give up on them would be premature. I think it will be interesting to see what they can do if given a full camp and season. So unless O.J. is going to become a generational player at TE, I just don't know about our taking him. As far as WR goes - are Mike WIlliams and/or Corey Davis going to be top WRs? If so - how about we take one? They both seem to be the exact kind of wide out we need - big and physical who can work the middle of the field and move the chains. This unwillingness a segment of the fan base to have Ozzie take a WR early is silly. He's done it so rarely it is sort of hard to call what he's done a failure.

I'm not sure what mocks have him falling to us. I've scanned 20 different mocks and only one has him out of the top 10 and that is at 13. The majority have him going either 3rd or 5th.

Nothing adequate can be said. This is so sad. Hoping that the Heap family finds a way to recover from this tragedy.

I agree ... I don't think there are any that are worthy of the #16 pick. I guess it could make sense to draft one of them if we traded back, but of course trading back has some level of disappointment, because the sense is that if we go that route, there were players we were hoping would fall to us that simply didn't. M. Willams, Davis and Barnett - as ALI624 said are his hopefuls - are I think a very common group of guys that fans are hoping fall to us. I'm not as certain as you as to whether one will be there - but not as pessimistic as ALI624. Honestly, I think it all comes down to the QBs. If everyone tries to act smart and say they aren't reaching for a QB in the top 15 of this draft (despite their obvious needs), I do think the odds are good that they will all be gone. If 1 team ahead of us goes QB, the chances are greatly improved and if 2 go QB, I think the odds are better than 50-50 that one of these 3 will be there. IMO, only 1 will be taken (Cleveland with pick #12), so to me it is kind of a coin toss as to who would be there for us and if I were to guess which of the 3 it would be, I'm guessing Davis. Then - the Ravens will take someone else, because they don't necessarily go with what is "conventional wisdom".

Huh ... I find Barnett to be an unexpected entry on this thread. I have to think that, if he's available, there is a strong likelihood that you will be upset by our selection.

I'm with you on this. I'd be stunned if they took Ross. I think I'd extend Cam Robinson to really any O lineman - unless we trade back (which in and of itself will be a little disappointing). I'll thrown in O.J. Howard ... cause unless he turns out to be a true generational talent at his position, it would just sicken me to see us giving up on all the TEs we've invested in unless we're talking about an astronomical upgrade.

My avatar will remain Johnny U. While 6'2" 185 doesn't sound bad ... I'm also over 55 so I'll spare everyone the horror. My son started this account and I totally hijacked it. We shared it and I posted 10x more than he did. Balfan23 is his invention. I indoctrinated him into Baltimore sports (made a Ravens and Orioles fan out of him), but his passion has always been UNC basketball (he was raised in Chapel Hill) and he is graduating UNC next month. So - Balfan is for "Baltimore Fan" and I'll leave you to guess what the 23 represents (hint: ceiling = roof). I'm often too busy to post much and I've never been the most active moderator (my peer moderators have done most of the heavy lifting) ... but I'll still miss coming out here. The negatives were always far outweighed by the positives.

As I listen to names getting called from the podium, the 3 guys I'm praying I don't hear called out are M. Williams, C. Davis and D. Barnett. No one else that would be a better fit for us has any chance of falling that far, so this is the group I'm focused on. Of course, it could be that none of these 3 are still there, I'm just hoping at least one of them is. For more than one of those to be available, it will be really interesting to see which we opt for (or if we go a completely different direction). Need matching BPA and I think any one of these guys are going to be excellent pros.

Regardless of whether Perriman breaks out, Williams is a different animal and would be a great complement to what Perriman could bring to the table. This year, it seems none of the experts have a clue of what is going on. Not that they ever really do ... it just feels like this year they are all over the map. You'll see guys going top 10 in mocks that don't even appear in another guys 1st round. And that's not just with QBs ... it is with so many different players. Williams is projected pretty widely as well. I happen to be leaning toward the mock projections that have him going before us. It will be super interesting ... if he's on the board, do we take him? I kinda hope so, but what do I know? If he's there and we pass, I'll just assume the guy they picked will serve us better and will give them the benefit of the doubt until they are proven wrong.

Count me among the bewildered.

Gotta like Timmy's attitude on the swap. No parting jabs at the Ravens ... just eyes forward, looking to help improve his new team and see what new opportunities can be there for him given the change in defensive scheme. A far cry from the noise KO was making after we insulted him by not paying LT money for an LG as the Raiders did.

Then you better be prepared to use a 1st or 2nd day pick to get him.

... but they have also acknowledged that moving him is an option.

The Raiders also got their act together by drafting in the top 10 year after year and eventually some of these "can't miss" picks actually didn't miss. They are trending up ... partly because there was nowhere else to go. They did make the playoffs, but I'm sorry, that is not a team I am convinced is on their way to being a championship contender. The separation between them and us last year was by no means massive. It is not like the Raiders man-handled us. That is still the 1 most irritating game from last year. That absolutely should have been a win for the Ravens. Look - I agree to some extent that we can't take the approach that when we hit it on the draft, then Ozzie is a wizard and when we don't, well, what can you do - it's a crap shoot. But sometimes, the teams that get touted as doing so much better than us seems to be a bit of a stretch.