balfan23

Wagner is a tough case. Our O line wasn't very good, so if we lose him, we have to consider the cost of replacement. We could possibly shift Lewis over there, as it is perhaps cheaper to fill in with a good option at guard over tackle. All that said, I don't who is going to be available - and ... we've said we want to upgrade at O line. That move is basically just status quo. That would mean 2 moves ... either in FA or draft, to both replace Wagner and upgrade.

"The Ravens haven’t drafted a cornerback in the first three rounds since they made Jimmy Smith their top pick in 2011." ... that fact alone begs us to pick a CB high. I originally felt that we needed to make that our #1 but the more I think about it, it really doesn't have to be. Bottom line is we need an absolute difference making player and .. other than TE, ILB and QB ... I really don't know that I care what position that is. If there is an early run on CBs and a jaw-dropping talent like either Williams or Cooks are there ... then take them. O line ... yes, we have needs but the draft doesn't look to be stellar at this position at the top. I prefer that we keep Wagner, if at all possible, and bring in an upgrade for Zuttah in FA and draft mid-round depth.

Yeah - there is no need to add an interior D lineman to the mix, if Williams stays. But if he doesn't ... I wouldn't worry about anyone taking snaps away from Pierce. He's simply not the kind of player who is going to be on the field for a huge number of snaps anyway. He'll be on the field as much as he can reasonably be out there without wearing down. So you still you need some rotational players and that's all that Ngata could possibly be. Really, it comes down to whether or not we think Carl Davis has anything to offer. If we think he can be that rotational player, then we may have all we'd need to fill the void - I'm just not sure he's shown us much of anything at this point.

Definitely some interesting names there. I like Mangold. I'm looking for the next Matt Birk ... some guy who moves along from his former team but still had a lot in the tank and provides much needed leadership from the center position. Of course, I don't really know where he is at the moment and not all players age as gracefully as others. He's still worth a check out. If we lose Williams and if Ngata came relatively cheap, he'd be a welcome rotational player in the middle.

I hadn't watched your video yet ... was operating off memory. I read that story almost 50 years ago!

I remember reading about this when I was a kid ... some book about the oddest events in football history. What stuck in my mind was with time running out, a GT player was running free to the end zone and he downed the ball at the 1. I mean ... what's the point? Would 229-0 really have really been that much worse?

When it comes to who rises and falls, I get a sense that it has as much to do with the writers, bloggers, etc gleaning better information from teams than it has to do with a player going up or down the boards in the individual team's war rooms. Sure, players wow or disappoint at the combine/pro-days which can cause them to move on the team's boards (which are the only boards that matter) but I doubt that movement is as dramatic as what we see in the mocks. I still think as much of it comes from the writers getting improved intel over time from the "little birds" that they have around the league. This year, the mocks are as disjointed as I've seen them in mid-Feb. The disparity from one mock to the next is significant. It will settle down over time, but I really think this year there are going to be a lot of players going off the board much sooner or later than anticipated - more so than in previous years.

Those are some bold words, coming from IMO one of the bigger disappointments for the Ravens in the 2016 campaign. Gilmore COULD be all those things he says he IS ... but he hasn't shown the team that yet and to me, it isn't all about injury. He's was able to play through much of the season last year and did very little. I feel like we need to save the money and move on from both Pitta and Watson, so one of these young TEs needs to step up and look like the player we drafted them to be. I really think we have little choice but to thrown them all into the fire and see who, if anyone, comes out. So if Gilmore wants to be that guy, please, but all means Crockett, show us ... don't just tell us.

The stat on not picking CB in the 1st 3 rounds since 2011 is crazy. That trend has to be broken. As it always is for us (despite those who want to see us dump Joe) ... we really want to see as many QBs as possible go in the top 15. Hoping for 3 and that doesn't seem far fetched. I think you throw in Garret, Barnett, Allen, Williams, Cook and Fournette and that's 9 picks. Thrown in Solomon Thomas and Reuben Foster as likely picks and that makes 11. Now - I don't know if it has to be a CB ... a rock solid safety would work as well. But if you take away 4 of the top secondary players, then I think you have a great player still waiting for us.

Really - we've invested heavily in TE over the past few years. We need to make do with what we have there. I feel like there are going to be more highly rated players at positions of need available at 16.

No lie. We've got speed. Need a solid route runner with sure hands who is tough.

Ben is all about the drama ... and that's all this is.

I agree. Outside of taking a clear upgrade RB like Fournette or Cook, I don't see much point in going RB in the later rounds of the draft. We don't need to draft another Allen or Lorenzo in the 4th this year.

I've said it before ... look around the NFL and in all sports and list out the hall of fame players who are good coaches. It is a pretty short list. Could Ray become one? We can look back to when he was the guy that everyone on this defense had to answer to for effort and no one wanted to ever let him down. From that perspective - as a motivator of men - that is a proven trait that would likely translate to a coaching position, but there is more to coaching that being a motivator. Time will tell, but I'm not holding my breath.

I agree that we're going to keep one and only one. The price on Wagner may go up more than expected, not only because building an O line is a new trend, but that the O line draft and FA class is relatively weak. The catch 22 there is - if we let him walk, we have to go to the same weak draft and FA class to get another starter on the line - but also to get better depth. That upgrade at center that so many are hoping for will be very hard to Our O line was spotty even when healthy - and staying healthy all year on the O line is a pipe dream. Bottom line is, if we let Wagner walk, we're going to need to focus a lot of resources on the O line or suffer with another year of seeing Flacco panicking in the pocket and watching the run game go nowhere.

You fired back to my post in opposition and basically proved my point ... because we have no idea what they can do, it is kind of hard to trust them to take the reins. . It could be that we ultimately do put the trust in them and just cross our fingers that they can do the job .. without any idea of how effective they will be. The reason is we've got to make cuts across the board to free cap space to sign players to fill other holes. If that is the case and we part ways with both Watson and Pitta, then I certainly hope they come through for us, cause we're gonna need them to.

Yeah - it seems to me that Watson is a very likely cut candidate and definitely a more likely candidate than Pitta. Honestly, Pitta should under consideration for a cut as well given the investments we've made in drafting TEs over the last couple years. Unfortunately, none of them have developed into players we can trust.

I have no knowledge or understanding of the grading system. It seems like Zuttah has had some really good game - but then has had some pretty bad ones. And by bad, I mean they involved the kinds of plays it doesn't require being an expert in analysis to see. Just getting shoved into the backfield and plays getting blown up. Those kinds of dramatic failures are what fans see and it doesn't take many of them to paint an ugly picture. Thrown in some very untimely penalties and that leaves fans feeling like he's a disaster.

Perhaps we can use it to our advantage and convince other teams that they could use a pro-bowl center so we'll be able to trade him rather than cutting him.

Yeah - you're probably right. That doesn't change the fact that we need to draft a future game changing CB. In the 5 drafts since we selected Jimmy, we've taken a total of 4 CBs ... 2 4th rounders, a 5th rounder and a 7th rounder. That's beyond absurd.

I was asking for teams at the top of the league and you give me Tennessee? Dallas in the 1990s? The Walker trade has gone down as the worst trade in the history of the NFL. I don't think there is anyone else who is interested in seeing if they can top the worst trade in history. I've no idea what we could get pick wise for Joe, but I'm not so sure they'd be juicy juicy. We won't ever know, since we're not shopping him and I doubt anyone is pounding on our door offering the family farm. I'm pretty much done responding to this line of thinking. My advice to you is, settle in for the ride for the next couple years and wish Joe all the best.

I'm with you 100%. That inches away from the postseason sentiment dismisses a lot. Foremost, it makes the assumption we just waltz into CIN and beat the Bengals ... something we've not exactly been making a habit of. Using that kind of logic, one could also say that we were inches from being 6-10 ... and in games we had no business turning into such close affairs. I believe if the Eagles staff had not been so cavalier to go for two and took us to OT, that would have ended in a loss and the PIT game would have been meaningless. I'd like to hear the post-season narrative if that had happened, because I think it is a lot closer to what it should be than the one I hear when we start talking about only being inches away. To realistically expect to be a playoff team in 2017 we have to figure out how to stop the offense from going into a coma for such long periods and stop the defense from having complete end of game collapses. Are we an inch or two away from fixing those problems? Since these issues have been around for a few years now, it really doesn't feel like it.

No - I would love elite talent all around Joe and at every position on this team. We've gone on the cheap on drafting CB for years and we better get someone that can come in and help NOW. If we can get that in the 2nd, great, but if a game changing CB is available in the 1st, I want us to take him. I'm not a talent evaluator, so perhaps such a CB doesn't exist and perhaps BPA will end up being one of these RBs should they drop. If that is the case, then God help him if we don't improve our O line this offseason (no matter how elite he is) and God help the team if that RB gets us a 4th quarter lead with the opposition having a minute left on the clock and a couple TOs.

Why burn a 4th rounder when you can wait until the 6th round and pick the next Tom Brady?

Those saying yes have visions of Elliot dancing in their head and believe we should draft the next one. I'm not convinced that there is such an RB in this draft and also have to remind people that Elliot, while clearly super talented, performed based on the O line in front of him. Think of this - had we drafted Elliot ... what would he have looked like in 2016? I suppose it is possible that we'll feel the BPA is going to be an RB, I don't think that will be the case. And if we even use need as a tie-breaker for tier 1 talent, an RB will not be taken 16th overall in this draft.